Link to Gallery Our Pre-War Sports Car season opened with two ferociously fought races at Donington Park, over the weekend of the Top Hat Festival. In the first race, Gareth Burnett seemed set to romp home to certain victory in John Ruston’s Talbot 105 Alpine, only to withdraw with an electrical problem on the ninth lap. This left the Bentley 3 / 4½ of Joe Singer and Stuart Fearnside to fight it out with the pale blue Talbot T 150C of Toby Heelis and Peter Swete, not to mention the Frazer Nash TT Replica of Robert Beebee – the latter frequently broadside through the corners in his efforts to keep up with the larger cars.
David Brock-Jest’s Lagonda Le Mans V12 also put in a stunningly quick first few laps, until a spray of oil into the cockpit caused problems, and relegated Brock-Jest to a fourth place finish.
Monday’s race started with cars on the grid in the order that they finished the race on Sunday, which put Gareth Burnett’s Talbot at the back of the field. By the first corner, Burnett had overtaken eight cars, and it wasn’t long before he was up at the front, fighting for first place with the Singer/Fearnside Bentley. For several laps the lead switched rapidly between Talbot and Bentley, until the mid-race pitstop saw Burnett take a convincing lead on the Bentley, and pull ahead to win the race by more than a minute.
There was a strong Bentley contingent throughout the field, with the 3-Litre of Duncan Wiltshire and Tony Dron facing a formidable battle to get ahead of the 4½ Litre of Paul Carter. In the closing stages of the race, Dron repeatedly overtook Carter, only to be re-taken on the straights. On the final lap, Dron got past on the inside at the Old Hairpin, and managed to make it stick till the chequered flag – which he passed less than half a second ahead of Carter.
When the results of the two races were combined, the Singer/Fearnside Bentley took first place overall and a Class 2 win, ahead of the Heelis/Swete Talbot which came second overall and won Class 4. Third place went to the MG K2 of John Dutton and James Brice, who also took Class 3 honours. Not content with simply coming third, John Dutton also took fourth place in the MG K1/K3 he shared with owner Peter Fenichel. Meanwhile, Class 1 victory went to the 3-Litre Bentley of Duncan Wiltshire and Tony Dron.
Many of the cars competing at Donington will be heading out to Le Mans next month, to take part in the ACO Centenary Race for pre-War cars on the Saturday morning before the start of the modern Le Mans 24 Hours.
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