Just over a week ago the CSCC's 2025 season kicked off in fabulous, unseasonal weather, on the International layout. Some short sleeves were seen in the paddock sunshine, in early March! Whether you have just a moment to view the short videos, or 20 minutes with a cuppa and biscuit for the race reports, we have you covered.
CSCC Videographer, Marc Peters, continues to find new, stylishly-creative ways of capturing each day in just minutes of 4k video.
Saturday 8th March saw our classic formulae in action.
Sunday 9th was the turn of our modern series and championships.
Full results can be seen for your series of championship of choice, by clicking 'view pdf book'
Starting his 16th consecutive CSCC race season, official photographer David Stallard was there to take photos from every session and every vantage point. You can view and buy his photos, that are laid out in time order, from his website here:
Every race was live streamed, you can relive them here:
Onto the race reports, with thanks to Marcus Pye:
CSCC SILVERSTONE SEASON STARTER
Brown and Marson saved by the flags
Some scintillating Sunday racing on Silverstone’s International Circuit highlighted a CSCC season-opener which the sun reigned relentlessly over The Wing’s half of the Grand Prix layout. Although barely a cloud interrupted the blue sky all weekend, ambient temperatures fell rapidly from double digits as the yellow orb dipped towards the horizon each afternoon, reminding everybody that it was March 8-9, not mid-summer as members emerged from garages, workshops or hibernation.
First out on Saturday, to get the season under way, were the Midland Classic Restorations-backed Classic K brigade. Although the FIA-compliant GTS and Touring Cars field was unusually slim, there was no shortage of ability or ambition among the contenders. Former Caterham champion Luke Stevens thrust Ian Thompson’s Team Leos-prepared Lotus Cortina between almost stationary front row qualifiers Ben Snee (Elan 26R, making only his second standing start) and Rick Willmott (AC Cobra, expecting another green flag lap) at the start, only for Jack Smith to round them at Abbey in ex-Historic Formula Junior and 1000cc F3 racer dad Steve’s TVR Grantura and John McGurk (Cortina) to bustle up the inside to lead briefly.
Languishing in midfield before he recovered his momentum, Snee had snaked through to fourth by Stowe, and Stevens - with lightly-loaded wheel locked - boldly outbraked Willmott’s blue Cobra to regain second into Vale. The natural order soon shook out with Snee the runaway pacesetter, although he took the chequered flag twice. Despite incurring a 31 second penalty for being one inside the 90-second pit in to out time at the mandatory stops, Willmott kept P2 from TC standouts Stevens/Thompson and McGurk, both on the lead lap. Elan drivers Graham Brown and Billy Nairn completed the top six, a lap apart.
The well-supported Verum Builders Open Series sprint race was another won by the polesitter, although, like Snee, Dylan Popovic took a while to find his seven-litre Chevrolet V8-engined Ginetta G50’s sweet spot. “The Ginetta is not the easiest car to get off the line, but once it grips it’s great fun,” said the Bosnian-born London-domiciled IT specialist. Getting practice for the Ramair BMW races, Colin Turkington-coached Adrian Bradley (M3 E46) leapt ahead at the start and finished a solid second, but had Richard Carter’s 2.5-litre Caterham R300 buzzing round him like an angry mosquito for most of the 11 laps. “That was a huge amount of fun,” beamed Carter.
More M3 tamers ganged up to dispute the minor places, Matty Evans (E46) pipping Bryan Bransom (E36) for fifth, with Ronan Bradley (E46) in pursuit. Nathaniel Gollin and Richard Green also went the distance in two-litre Caterhams. An innocuous opening lap scrape between the BMW M3s of Nathan Wells (E46 GTR) and Oliver Smith (E36 Evo) on the exit of Stowe broke Wells’ right rear wheel and tweaked Smith’s suspension, sending both pitward. Wells resumed two laps down, then split Popovic and Carter’s closely-matched fastest laps. Another casualty was Dave Avis, who beached his smartly liveried M3 E46 into the gravel exiting the Link onto the Hangar Straight. Yellow flags for this incident brought Bradley back to Popovic, then a slightly early chequer.
Representatives of six marques headed qualifying for the first of two Adams & Page Swinging Sixties races. Snee was again on pole, with Ray Barrow (Chevrolet Camaro) a second adrift of the Elan, Dean Halsey’s Brock Racing Enterprises tribute Datsun 240Z, Stephen Collins (MGB), ’70s interlopers Ben Walker/David Bye’s West Riding Jaguar XJ Coupe and the Laranca Engineering BMW 2002ti of father and daughter Charles Tippet/Claire Norman were on their heels.
Outdragged by Barrow at the start, Snee was back ahead of the ‘Yank Tank’ by lap three. Barrow retired after 10 laps and the quick Jag also fell by the wayside, leaving Halsey’s pristine Z-car and Collins to head the pursuit. Top tourer was the family BMW which finished fourth, having covered the same distance as Snee, who again missed the chequer which resulted in a Motorsport UK licence endorsement. Walker and Bye outran them initially, wagging the grey Jag’s tail spectacularly on a slippery surface, so its smoky demise a couple of laps from the chequer was ill-deserved. MGB stalwart Babak Farsian, Ian Staines (Midget), welcome returnee Tim Cairns in his faithful Frogeye Sprite and dad and lad Kevin Bird/Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird in the Lotus Cortina they debuted at Spa last autumn were a lap down.
Julian Howe’s MGB GT, the bilberry yogurt flavoured Austin A40 of Mark Cloutman/Carl Kilbey - penalised a minute for speeding in the pits - and the Sprite of Johns Mackie and Faux all went 27. Further down the field, the immaculate white and gold Broadspeed/Anita Taylor liveried 1600cc Ford Anglia 105E of Martin and Greg Rumble caught the eye in 15th place. Colin Claxton’s blue Triumph Dolomite Sprint did not last long, while Ian Burgin’s ’new’ MG Midget’s rear axle broke, stranding it in the track at Village minus its left rear wheel.
Alex Taylor planted his ex-Troy Dunlop 400bhp TVR Tuscan Challenge car - shared with Rassler Racing technician James Affleck for the first time - on pole for the 40-minute SuperPro Modern Classics/Advantage Motorsport Future Classics series stanza, with a 1m12.241s (92.23mph) late shot. Michael Russell (M3 E36) ran them closest, pursued by Futures leader Liam and Michael Wright (Porsche 944 Turbo), Roger Hamilton (Ginetta G20), Aston and Tony Blake’s Porsche 911 RSR and husband and wife Jason and Louise Kennedy’s Nissan Skyline turbocar.
Sadly, the 38-strong field lost David Sharp’s yellow Lotus Elise S1 in qualifying, when its engine bay alarmingly erupted into flames on the Hangar Straight, bringing out red flags. “The cockpit suddenly filled with smoke and I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face,” said David, relieved to have alighted safely having improved upon his previous best lap time to put the Rover K Series-powered car 12th on 1m18.596s. Hopefully the engine and gearbox will go again, but the shell and bonded chassis were badly charred.
Russell made the running in the yellow BMW, chased by sometime Mini racer Affleck once he’d blasted past the determined Hamilton’s red Ginetta. Having started well down the grid, Martin Reynolds’ Ford Mustang Mach 1 was the first casualty, before a spate of retirements decimated the Jaguar challenge claws, blunting the claws of three of the five. Most dramatic demise was that of Guy Connew’s ‘Group 44’ XJS, which arrived in the pit lane ablaze. Marshals extinguished the flames after a battle. As this incident was being addressed, a safety car was deployed to retrieve Lawrence Coppock’s XJS, in the kitty litter on the exit of Village.
The pit window had just opened - and was extended per the regulations - but a mass exodus from the track saw the pitlane jammed as most, including the leaders, arrived on lap nine. Taylor leapt into his blue TVR and lay sixth, in sight of leader Russell, when the circuit went green. “James had done a great job and I was looking forward to reeling the BMW in,” said Alex. “After five laps in the queue I was a good boy and waited until the timing line before going for it with a lot of traffic ahead. I clipped the rev limiter in third gear, put it into fourth and seconds later kerboom! A catastrophic engine failure left a big hole. Indeed it was Tow Vehicle Required [as the old adage goes].”
The battle for supremacy was far from over though. Hamilton cheekily squeezed his 1800cc Ginetta past Russell for a couple of laps before Michael growled clear to claim a 2.264s victory. Aston Blake repassed Clinton Ewen’s BMW 328 on the final lap for third, with Richard Hayes’ unusual Toyota Celica GT4 turbocar, built in the road outside his house - which had sizzled from ninth to fourth at the start, but was slowed by fuel starvation towards the end - on their heels. Cov Cats’ Chris Boon was sixth in his supercharged XK8.
Seventh overall, Nick Rinylo claimed Futures gold in his Porsche 911, a lap ahead of the Kennedys and the Wrights, with Jack Stewart (Mazda MX5 Mk1) a plucky fourth in tough company. Steve Thompson (944 Turbo) had ranked third, but the imposition of a 35.4s penalty for a short pit stop dropped him to fifth. The Nardone brothers’ black BMW looked to have beaten Rinylo, but peeled into the pits on the last lap, with fuel troubles. A penalty for gaining an advantage after the caution may have otherwise finished them off.
Snee, maximising his day with a potential three hours on track in his Lotus Elan 26R, prepared by Ollie Angeloni and father Martin - the veteran Richard Dutton Racing mechanic who engineered F1-bound Mark Blundell’s F3000 Lola in 1987 - started the second Adams & Page Swinging Sixties race with hat-trick aspirations. A 20 second imposition for winning the first stanza hampered his chances, not that it deterred him.
Young Connor Kay’s rorty TVR Tuscan V6 and the effusive Neil Armstrong’s nimble Ginetta G4R - a well-balanced chassis carrying a 1650cc Lotus twin-cam engine in its snout - out-qualified Snee, and finished a lap clear of the pack, albeit almost 40 seconds apart. Recovering from a spin at Chapel, Snee shadowed fast-finishing Jonathan Crayston’s third placed Elan S4 for third on the road, but was docked another 30 seconds for contact. That promoted the energetically-conducted Team Surtees-esque liveried Triumph TR6 of Bailey Frost and Dean Halsey’s Datsun 240Z to fourth and fifth.
Behind Snee, Stephen Collins (MGB) and Tim Cairns (Sprite) won their classes, with the Lotus Cortina of modern Porsche 911 Carrera converts Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird and 2023 Castle Combe GT champion dad Kevin Bird in pursuit. The sole-surviving Mini, Rob and Francesca Roodhouse’s pristine green machine was 10th, ahead of a pair of rare British GTs, John Leslie’s Ford-engined Reliant Sabre Six and the Fairthorpe Electron Minor of Simon and the excitable Thomas Tunnard. Among the retirements, David Claxton had no better fortune than Colin having wheeled out their red ‘Dolly’ Sprint.
Inaugurated in 1977, the Lackford Engineering Midget & Sprite championship made its debut on the 1.85-mile layout with a 26-strong field. Paul Sibley set the qualifying standard. His 1m15.950s (87.73mph) pole shot was 2.290s swifter than class E leader Pippa Cow whose blue-nosed silver Austin-Healey joined him on the front row having outpaced the other slick-shod A Midgets of William Sharpe and Steve Collier in just 10 laps. Connor Kay jumped out of his Swinging Sixties-winning TVR and clambered into his class C Midget to take up P5, ahead of E chasers James Hughes and Paul Campfield.
D pacemakers Hugh Simpson and Dean Stanton shared row four, but reigning champion Ian Burgin was missing from their mirrors, the deranged rear end that stopped the white Midget [successor to his familiar black Frogeye Sprite for 2025] in the first SS race unfortunately too extensive to repair in situ. The Historic class was led by Dominic Mooney (Midget Ashley GT) and Mark Turner (Frogeye Sprite) four tenths apart on row eight. With three women in the field, Amelia Storer and Nicola Burnside chased Pippa Cow in the ‘Coupe des Dames’ order.
Cow made a drag racer’s hole-shot start to beat Sibley to Abbey in Saturday’s opening round, ‘safety carred’ late on the opening lap after Mike Henney’s Sebring Sprite stalled on the grid and was pushed through the gate into the pit lane. The hiatus barely reprieved Sharpe who was swallowed at the start. Twelfth onto the Hangar Straight, he had gained only one more place before the yellows signalled a queue to form over the timing line. The racers were freed after another lap.
Collier passed Cow pronto, but Sibley was into his stride and had opened a 17.488s advantage over Collier’s misfiring machine when the chequered flag flew. Paul’s best lap of 1:16.107 (87.55mph) eclipsed Collier’s earlier best by half a second. Cow was a solid third, lapping half a second quicker than her practice best to leave the record at 1:17.784s (85.66mph). The expected challenge from Hughes did not materialise, for James was bunkered by a misfire, traced to a broken ignition kill switch. He pitted and resumed to finish a lapped 10th, third in class behind sixth-placed Campfield.
Kay had C all his own way, finishing fourth ahead of the recovering Sharpe, with a best lap of 1:20.069 (83.21mph). Stanton and Simpson slugged it out for D supremacy, Dean prevailing by 0.498s after numerous order changes and a bold last lap switch in a mesmeric tussle . Simpson’s 1.21.612s (81.64mph) lap set the target. Thirteenth overall, Mooney aced H as Turner made amends for a sluggish first lap which left him seven places behind. Mark finished two spots adrift, his 1:25.748s (77.70mph) record some consolation as everybody looked forward to Sunday’s sequel.
With Collier an early faller - a worsening misfire and “lights flashing on the dash” sending the former Classic F3 champion pitward after two laps - it was left to Cow to chase Sibley’s Auto Technique car in the Ted Reeve Memorial race. A change of starter motor overnight, fiddly without a hydraulic ramp, left Pippa in confident mood. She duly outran class rival Hughes by 4.650s for second overall, reducing the E record to 1:17.568s (85.90mph). Kay also doubled-up in fourth, clear of spinner Sharpe, paring the C mark back to 1:19.618s (83.68mph) as he did so.
Further down, things became a little too hairy at Stowe on the first lap, where Simpson “misjudged my braking point on cold tyres, and unfortunately tagged Chris Winchester.” Hugh charged back from 16th to finish sixth, a surprised class winner after Stanton expired. Winchester also picked himself up, taking the flag seventh and runner-up in C.
Dominic Mooney won another feisty Historic duel with Mark Turner, who forged ahead on lap two only to spin - “twice!” Mooney pegged his record back to 1:24.867 (78.51mph) to complete another perfect score. Among the retirements, Campfield’s smoky engine failure at Abbey looked spoiled the F5000 Chevron pilot’s weekend.
Sunday’s programme opened with the first leg of the Ramair BMW championship double-header, for which qualifying took place the previous afternoon. A very impressive and colourful set of big M3s - plus a quintet of Mini Cooper Ss, made in nearby Oxford - was headed by seven E46s. Irishman Niall Bradley’s black example sat on pole with a 1:08.127s (97.90mph) best, with James Card, Adrian Bradley, Nathan Wells, Jason West, Graham Crowhurst and Ollie Neaves giving chase and E36 standout Luke Yeomans seventh, within 1.7s.
Despite being passed at the start by his namesake, Niall Bradley aced the race, improving his best lap to 1:08.103 and repelling West and Card in the sonorous slugfest. Crowhurst finished a class-winning fourth, ahead of Wells, Neaves and Yeomans who had memorably screamed three abreast down the Hangar Straight to Stowe. Adrian Bradley clipped a Mini, spun and retired after mid-distance. Ross Alexander in his turbocharged R56 kept the supercharged R53s of Matthew Hibberd, Charles Heatley, Charlie Newton-Darby and Sean Wortley at bay for class honours.
The second round was an action replay up front, with Niall Bradley outrunning Wells by the greater margin of 8.815s, finding advantage in short-shifting to use his engine’s torque. Class winners Wells - “who “fluffed the start, for the third time this weekend” and West both lapped fractionally quicker than the double victor, setting record laps of 1:08.135 and 1:08.157 respectively. West’s brilliant recovery from a dreadful start - “the trick is not to have it in third” - saw him gallop from 10th at the end of the opening lap to rob Card on the final lap. Class B winner Neaves hung on to fifth with Yeomans, Bryan Bransom and Crowhurst in his slipstream. Alexander topped the Minis again, a lap clear of Newton-Darby in a reversed grid encounter.
Pro driver Jamie Stanley planted John Seale’s MTECH-run Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo GT4 on pole for the Liqui Moly Slicks Series showcase, his 1:02.548 (106.52mph) effort a whopping 2.700s better than his nearest challenger. Novice Steven Gambrell, in only his second race, drove his Porsche 991.2 Cup neatly to shade Sam Howarth in a similar car for second, with vastly experienced Prancing Horseman Andrew Christopher fourth in his turbocharged Ferrari 488 Challenge.
The BMW M3s of Graham Crowhurst, Luke Yeomans and Oliver Smith led the concurrent WOSP New Millennum set, with Sam Allpass - an occasional Slicks contender in his monstrous Chevrolet V8-engined Solution F tubeframe BMW - fourth on his first outing in his Geoff Steel Racing-tended M3 GTR for five years.
Once UK racing returnee John Seale had installed Stanley into the 5.2-litre V10 Lambo, which has more power but less grip than in last year’s European GT3 spec - nobody saw Jamie for dust. Only the ecstatic Gambrell was on the same lap at the finish, with Christopher, Dylan Popovic’s purple Ginetta-Chevvy and Wells next home in the breathless dash from which Howarth, fourth past the post, was regrettably disqualified for serial track limit violations and failing to heed yellow flags. Yeomans’ E36 won WOSP New Millennium by 12 seconds from Graham Crowhurst, recovering well from a gentle kiss at Stowe which unbalanced the stripy E46.
Sunday’s racing proved the most exciting of the programme, none more so than in the Fox Transport Turbo Tin Tops and the later Co-ordSport Tin Tops with Puma Cup season-openers, the victors of which were both decided by last-minute dramas. Andrew Marson (Fiat Abarth) and Adam Brown (Ford Fiesta RS) will never forget the day, for they had Nigel Tongue - flying in the VW Scirocco R started by father-in-law John Hammersley - and London East End hotshoe Danny Cassar, finishing Nigel Ainge’s Honda Civic Type R, breathing down their respective necks.
Andrew Marson, leading an enlarged squadron of four family Abarth 595s, scuttled clear of the Fox Transport Turbo Tin Tops pack as Hammersley, starting his 48th racing season, used his experience to manage rising oil temperature by backing off in the rakish VW qualified on pole by Tongue. Carl Chambers (Pugsport Peugeot 306) passed Hammersley for second, but Carl’s early pitstop strategy backfired as the rest filed in under a three-lap caution called when Bob Hosier’s SEAT Leon’s bonnet flew open on the Hangar Straight. Fortunately he brought it to a safe halt.
Tongue’s right foot was nailed to the bulkhead of the Airconstruct car from the green. He powered past the leader’s cousin David Marson and closed rapidly to within a few lengths of David when the race was stopped four minutes early with 16-year-old Will Oatley a long way off at Stowe in father Tom’s late model Renault Clio. Andrew took the chequer 0.374s before Tongue, whose best lap of 1:14.712 (89.18mph), the penultimate one, was the race’s quickest by 1.4s.
David Marson finished third - another cousin Richard was eighth and team newbie James Manning 10th incidentally - ahead of class winners Richard Clarke (Clio Cup) and Sean Wortley (Mini Cooper S R53). A lap down, Chambers was classified a peeved seventh, pursued by the Ford Fiesta ST180 of Lisa Selby/Toby Harris, patched up after it shed a front wheel and clonked a barrier while going well in qualifying.
Co-ordSport Tin Tops/Puma Cup
Adam Brown feared his entry would have to be withdrawn when his Fives Garage Ford Fiesta ST150 lost fifth gear on the rolling road less than a fortnight before the meeting. Despite couriers ‘losing’ the gearbox for three days - two en route and one on the return to the team’s Hednesford workshop, Satchell Engineering in Holsworthy, North Devon, rebuilt it in record time. Fitted on Friday, Adam duly seized pole with a determined 1:15.273 (88.52mph) charge.
Arch rivals Ainge/Cassar’s problems emerged at Silverstone with their turquoise Hillwood Motors Honda, a wiring glitch triggering its engine’s VTEC system at low revs rather than the top end. Concerned that it had run lean, risking piston damage, Ainge started cautiously from P14. Unable to race their hotter red 2.4-litre Integra in the New Millennium/Slicks event after its fire extinguisher was discharged in the garages, their weekend boiled down to these 40 minutes.
While Brown took two laps to overtake Joe Hathaway’s Renault Clio 172, destined for a smoky retirement, Ainge picked his way through to sixth before relaying Cassar. Danny’s devastating string of fastest laps saw the car rise from 22nd to third behind Brown and James Wilson, debuting a new Peugeot 306. As TSL’s clock ticked down Cassar, the quickest driver on track and digging ever deeper, would surely head the field if everything went to plan?
Second on lap 23, Danny reeled Brown in relentlessly. Suddenly they were together and as they traversed Abbey abreast, the weekend’s only race red intervened. Wilson had skated backwards into the gravel at Vale on his own oil, a rod having heartbrakingly ventilated his new Pug’s block without warning. “The red saved me,” said Brown, his ‘reward’ a 30 second winner’s penalty for the season. Cassar’s fastest lap of 1:13.990 (90.05mph) was almost 2.3 seconds quicker than Brown’s, which Wilson had circulated within half a second of.
Steve Reynolds/John Ridgeon (Civic Type R) gratefully grabbed third, clear of a brace of Integras, Jon and Tom Dee’s black DC2 shadowed by Gary Barlow’s purple and white DC5. Julian Fisher’s Fiesta ST150 and Peter Parkin’s Peugeot 206 were the others to cover the full distance. The Puma Cup element saw Neil Jackson/Nick Fulljames come out on top after Mark Jackson’s 31.5s short stop penalty reversed their order. Matthew Everatt was third after top qualifier Jon Glover retired from the lead.
The Gold Arts Magnificent Sevens competition has new intrigue this year. Introducing slick and wet tyre class options for the first time has enticed several runners back, but such is the difference in the profiles of various brands that teams are having to evolve new chassis set-ups and revise gearing to enable their drivers to make the most of them. On pole by 3.954s, Stephen Nuttall blitzed the opener, from back row starters Jonny Pittard (supercharged CSR) and Tim Davis’ C400, and Ian Payne’s two-litre version.
From the winner’s 10-place grid drop for the finale, Nuttall was third by Stowe and led next time round! Alas an oil leak, from the catch tank he suspected, presaged retirement. Pittard and Davis thus landed a BOSS Racing 1-2, emotionally dedicated to stalwart team member Bernie Bearman, wife of mechanic Terry, who died suddenly just before Christmas. “She was looking down on us today,” said Jonny.
Richard Carter and Stephen Collins each savoured grooved tyre wins over the other, Carter clawing his way back to within 0.317s after a tank-slapper out of Club onto the Lewis Hamilton Straight in full view of the pits. Simon Lanyon narrowly defeated Martin Leadbeater for SC victory first time out, then Mark took the car over to beat Richard Jones and Pascal Green and land a family double.
Josh Gollin snagged a front wing in the opening race, leaving Carl Nairn to beat CSCC newcomer James Fradley by four seconds in TC. Nathaniel Gollin had better luck come his turn, with Fradley a strong runner-up again. Novice Fradley had out-qualified Josh Gollin for Saturday’s Open Series debut, but was out after a lap. Son of the late Rob Fradley - who won the 1992 Midland Hillclimb Championship in a 1700cc Caterham 7 and finished 11th in the 1994 British championship sharing Jim Robinson’s Pilbeam-Hart MP43 sportscar - Staffordshire timber merchant James, 32, thoroughly enjoyed his first race weekend.
MARCUS PYE
