Weslake Cup ~ 9/10 April 2022
Unfortunately I was not able to be at Goodwood in person for this event which in
cluded the Weslake Cup for BMC ‘A’ Series-engined sportscars. However I was able to view the practice session on the Goodwood Livestream on Saturday and the race itself, which took place on Sunday, later on Youtube. I am grateful to those of you who did attend and kindly supplied me with the stories and photos below.
25 cars were entered for this 20 minute long scratch race: click to enlarge. Strangely the WSM cars were only invited 5 days before the race which meant that 46 BXN could not be there.
These 10 photos kindly supplied by James Thacker
Ben Colburn’s Lenham GT
Ian Hulett’s WSM Sprite
Dominic Mooney’s ashley GT
David Stubbings Lenham GT
James Thacker’s race report is below:
Gordon Elwell’s Sprite (MEG)
Ellis Bardsley’s Sebring Sprite
The race gets underway.
“This was the first Weslake Cup I had attended and I found it very interesting as being a one off occasional event it ran to its own specific rules including a sliding scale of minimum weights depending on engine capacity which is a good idea even if one person i spoke to had to add a massive 100kg. ballast in the passenger footwell. I saw a few ex fellow Midget/Sprite racers including Lawrence and Julian Culter, Richard Perry, Shuan Rainford and Hugh Colman [who was racing his Chevron B 8 in the Surtees cup] and those people I knew taking part in the Weslake cup including Gordon Elwell, Dominic Mooney and Ian Hulett who was there having been invited just 72 hours previously!.
There were several people changing their A series engines after practice on Saturday which I would say is quite unusual.
On paper it looked as if Charles Rainford and Ben Colburn were in a different league to the rest, being 3 seconds clear of third place man, Dominic Mooney driving i think, for the first time in this event, and very impressively too. He runs Midland Classic Restorations at Ombersley, Worcs, and he took over Peter May Engineering Ltd, building engines and selling parts, etc when Peter retired a few years ago in adjacent premises.
However the dark horse was outright Goodwood circuit record holder [in an F1 car] and professional driver, Nick Padmore, who was 4th fastest completing only two flying laps before an early engine failure in his Rochdale Olympic. The engine builder was ex-BMC Longbridge engineer and Special Saloon Mini racer and Champion from the 1970’s, Charles Bernstein, who thought that the engine failure could have been due to an installation problem.
Darren Turner was another well known professional driver [in a 950cc supercharged Turner Mk 1 ] and Rainford and Colburn high on the list of very experienced racers and also driving other cars at this Members Meeting.
THE RACE: The first couple of laps were very close with a three way battle for first between Rainford, Padmore and Colburn until Colburn overdid things a bit at Lavant and was subsequently stuck in the gravel. Then a duel between Rainford and Padmore with Rainford maybe having a slight advantage on braking. It was good, clean, hard and very close racing by two people who knew the circuit and could clearly drive their cars absolutely on the limit. There were a couple of incidents down the field that brought out the Pace car and for whatever reason, maybe a repeat of the Saturday engine problems, Padmore seemed to lose a bit of his earlier pace and dropped back to eventually finish 6th.
Mike Haigh was a good 2nd in a Lenham GT to Rainford’s similar but distinctive ex- John Britten [replica of SS1800] car. Mike Burnett of S.U Carburettors, Burlen Fuel Services fame, but running a Weber on his Swiftune engine in his attractive Mini based Fletcher Ogle GT, just pipped Dominic Mooney for 3rd who was followed closely by Thomas Grindall [Williams and Pritchard GT MG Midget] and Padmore and Jonathan Kent,[Fletcher Ogle GT]. Gordon Elwell, [Sebring Sprite MEG 199] arguably the most senior driver in this event, was a very creditable 8th [out of a field of 28] despite finding afterwards he had a bit of extra drag due to a handbrake very slightly on. This maybe explained why his speed through the two speed traps on the straights were 12 and 7mph slower than his 2017 figures ! Probably the most rare [and valuable] car on the grid was the relatively newly acquired ex-works Le Mans Prototype Sprite HNX 455D driven by Julian Ellison; finishing last but I understand that it only had a mildly modified road engine fitted”.
& Here we have Pete Shepherd’s round-up of (some of) the cars in the paddock:
Charles Rainford’s Lenham GT
Julian Ellison’s ex-works Austin-Healey Le Mans Sprite
Mike Haigh’s Lenham Le Mans
Bruno Verstraete’s action shots from the race
Worthy winner was Charles Rainford in his father Shaun’s replica of John Britten’s Lenham GT
Full results are shown on the left
THE RACE: The cars lined up with Ben Colburn on pole in the family’s Lenham GT, with Charles Rainford’s similar car SS1800 alongside and Dominic Mooney (Ashley GT) in 3rd spot. Behind them were Nick Padmore in his Rochdale Olympic and Mike Haigh, Lenham Le Mans making up the 2nd row. As the flag fell the two Lenham GTs got away well but Nick Padmore was right up behind Colburn as they went into Madgwick so Charles had to give way through the corner. Charles then did an amazing overtake on the outside of Padmore at St. Marys into second place. The Rochdale was back in front of him as they completed Lap 1. Colburn was pulling away a bit while Charles and Nick scrapped for second. Mike Haigh was in 4th with Dominic fifth. Charles again passed Nick on the outside at St Marys just as Colburn over-did things losing it into the gravel where he got bogged down. So Charles led at the end of lap 2 with Nick right behind him. There was then a close battle between the two leading cars through Lap 3 at which point the safety car was deployed to not only recover the Colburn Lenham but also the Ashley of Jon MacDonald who went off on his own oil after an engine failure. He managed to biff both the tail and a front corner in the process. So the cars proceeded round in the order: Rainford, Padmore, Haigh, Mooney, Grindall, Cater, Burnett, Elwell, Kent, Bardsley, Buggy and Clegg, etc. This went on for some 5 minutes before the safety car lights went off and racing resumed. Charles took off again into the chicane closely followed by all the others. Ben Cater, perhaps on cold tyres, ran wide out of the chicane on to the grass, the car suddenly turning sharp left and across the track into the bank opposite the pit area. Nick Padmore got past Charles Rainford before Charles re-passed him at Lavant just before another safety car session began. With only 5 of the 20 minutes remaining, Cater’s car was pushed aside, the race then extended by 5 minutes and off they went once more. At this point Padmore began to drop back, presumably with a mechanical problem and came under attack from Haigh, Mooney, and the Ogle of Burnett, and Grindall. These four soon overtook the ailing Nick Padmore. The Ogle made it into 3rd spot between Haigh and Mooney, the latter retaking the place into St.Marys, with Tom Grindall tailing them both. Charles Clegg run out on to the grass and after a twitch got it back on the tarmac. By the final (11th) lap Charles Rainford had pulled out a lead of 4.5 seconds, with Haigh in 2nd, Burnett 3rd, Mooney 4th, Grindall 5th, Padmore 6th, Kent 7th, Elwell 8th, Ellis Bardsley 9th, Buggy 10th, Ding Boston’s OUMF car in 11th and Clegg 12th – and this was how they finished. The Lumbertubs Sprite had to pull into the pits and didn’t finish. Charles’ race time was 23m 22.345, an average speed of 89.88 mph.