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Historic racing at Brands Hatch with the HRDC

A two day weekend for us at Brands Hatch with HRDC Allstars on Saturday 6th July and HRDC Touring Greats on Sunday 7th. Aston Martin owners club were celebrating the centenary of the marque with a host of races featuring a range of Astons from across the decades along with other marques. Ian Burford was first out in Lumbertubs in the Allstars race on the Indy circuit with the Grand Prix circuit being reserved for Sundays Touring Greats race. Sunday was a busy day. We had the usual suspect Dave Griffiths and James Turner with the Standard Vanguard and Ford Zodiac along with Victoria Beever in her Rover 105S, Guy Harman in is Fiat 1500 and John Paige who hired our MG1100. With qualifying at midday and the race at 6pm we managed to catch a bit of Andy Murray’s Wimbledon final in between. The race went well with James Turner right up the front in a constant battle for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th with 1st place Niel Brown 23 seconds ahead in his A35. James finished 5th overall. Dave was having a cracking race up to 11th from 18th with a great start until a broken stub axle brought it to an end. Guy, Victoria and John all finished well and all enjoyed a rare opportunity to use the full Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. Next stop Donington for HRDC Allstars on September 1st and Snetterton for HRDC Touring Greats on September 28th.

HRDC Brands Hatch 2 HRDC Brands Hatch MG1100 HRDC Brands Hatch Victoria Beever Rover 105 HRDC Brands Hatch

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HRDC Mallory Park finale.

The last race of the HRDC 2012 season was held last Sunday at Mallory Park. We were there with Dave Griffiths in the Standard Vanguard, James Turner in the Ford Zodiac, Ian Burford in the Sebring Sprite “Lumbertubs” and sharing the drive in “Bumble” the MG Magnette was Julius Thurgood and Rupert Keegan. Dry conditions and some sunshine made for a very pleasant close to the season. Racing was top class as usual with some strong results from all of our drivers. In the Touring Greats race Dave Griffiths moved further up, qualifying 11th, finishing 8th overall and 2nd in class B. First in class B and 4th overall was James Turner in the Zodiac. Julius Thurgood managed to weave his way from 19th up to 14th in the MG Magnette. In Grand Touring Greats Ian Burford made a big jump up the grid qualifying 7th and finishing 6th. Rupert Keegan drove “Bumble” in the Allcomers race finishing 7th. We have had a great year and have thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the competition that Julius Thurgood and the HRDC has provided. We are looking forward to 2013 and another great HRDC season.

photos courtesy of Kelvin Fagan

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Preparation for HRDC Castle Combe

The 2012 season for Historic Racing Drivers Club is about to begin. The first race at Castle Combe is Easter Monday. We have 4 cars running in this race and are busy getting them prepped now. Racing this weekend is Ian Burford in his Austin-Healey Sprite “Lumbertubs” in Grand Touring Greats, David Griffiths in his Standard Vanguard in Touring Greats, James Turner and Darren Turner in their Ford Zodiac also in Touring Greats and lastly James Turner has hired the MG1100 for a drive in the TC63. Best of luck to all drivers this weekend.

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Darren Turner and James Turner bring Ford Zodiac to CCK

Ford Zodiac

Racing driver Darren Turner and his good friend James Turner have brought their 1959 Ford Zodiac to CCK. This classic Ford is believed to have been a race car since the 1970’s and although it has been well prepared their are few things we will address in order to provide Darren and James with a competitive and reliable car for the up coming HRDC “Touring Greats” race series. Darren is most well known for his two class wins for Aston Martin at Le Mans, he says he enjoys historic saloon car racing as a relaxing weekend. We will be looking after the Zodiac and supporting James and Darren for the 2012 season.

James Turner said,

“Darren and I have known each other since we worked together at Aston Martin Racing in 2005 – he was one of the team drivers and I was commercial director.  Since then we have had a lot of fun together and I guess that Darren’s first appearance at the Goodwood Revival Meeting (in the Mini and Cobra in 2009) sparked his interest in historic racing.  We talked about getting a car together and the Zodey is the result.  Julius Thurgood at HRDC could not have been more helpful in advising us and so we are keen to support his excellent HRDC series as much as possible.  We only did a few things last year in what was my first season of racing but I did manage to luck into a class win on my solo debut at Brands – so it must be a good car!  We had admired the CCK approach each time we saw them during the year and we were delighted when the chance to put the Zodey with them arose at the end of the season.  We can’t wait to get the old girl back out again and doing some more races…”

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