1977 Tourist Trophy: despair for battling Jaguars at Silverstone

Silverstone, 18th September

During the seventies the RAC Tourist Trophy race has taken on a new mantle, that of Britain’s only representation in European series which cater for saloon cars. The formulae under which the cars have raced varied from full-blooded Group 2, in the days of four-valve-per-cylinder sixes for Ford and BMW, to the comparatively tame Trophie de l’Avenir regulations, more like those seen in our own national Championship these days.

This year’s edition of the TT, sponsored by Access for the fourth time, allowed both European Group 2 and British Group 1 cars, producing a monster 60-plus entry for the 44 places on the grid. In this case the quantity of the entry was also backed up by quality with the two Leyland-Broadspeed Jaguars taking the two premier places on the grid.

It was widely felt that this would be the race that produced a win for the two white and blue 5.4-litre coupes. Driven by the regular pairings of Andrew Rouse/Derek Bell and Tim Schenken/John Fitzpatrick, the fast corners of Silverstone were expected to spoil the 100% winning record of the BMW marque. Albeit they were private BMW CSL-equipped teams from Germany (Alpina), Belgium (Luigi) and Italy, represented by Martino Finotto‘s Imberti-prepared example, which he shares with Carlo Facetti.

Further down the grid there was the interest of a pair of BMW 320is facing up to the unexpectedly weak challenge of a Swiss-prepared Dolomite Sprint in Group 2 trim. It was not the fault of drivers Tony Dron and Jean-Claude Bering that the Triumph did not excel. The fact is that in three races the car has shown a strong tendency to blow head gaskets and generally creep round the scenery, making Leyland’s misery with the Jaguars even more pronounced.

The two days of practice — Friday unofficial and two separate hours for each of the five classes on Saturday — produced two strong impressions. The first was that the Jaguars seemed unlikely to go much faster than the Alpina BMW of Tom Walkinshaw/ Dieter Quester, barely 0.7 sec. covering the first three cars on the grid. Rouse was on pole with 1 min. 36.05 sec. (nearly 110 m.p.h. average), Schenken was 0.51 sec. behind and Quester had managed 1 min. 36.74 sec. after a glorious wheel-lifting effort on special qualifying tyres.

From a rolling 100-plus m.p.h. start a crowd of over 20,000 watched Andy Rouse gain the initial advantage

The second strong impression was of the speed achieved by a fleet of British Group 1 1/2 Capris, the fastest on the fifth row, alongside the sparkling orange Jagermeister VW Scirocco of Willi Bergmeister/Helmut Henzler, the 1,600 c.c. VW in Full Group 2 trim.

We expected a good race between the Alpina BMW and the Jaguars at the front, plus plenty of interest in the midfield runners. This time saloon car racing really did deliver the goods. From a rolling 100-plus m.p.h. start a crowd of over 20,000 watched Andy Rouse gain the initial advantage. Schenken slipped past his team-mate to take over as Rouse’s coupe was spluttering with a temporary fuel injection malfunction. The two Jaguars were under strong pressure from the Alpina coupe though. Their opening three-lap confrontation —heading some eight-strong midfield bunches of kerb-hopping, gaily painted saloons —reminded one how good this class of racing can be. On the fourth lap Schenken spun at Copse, leaving Rouse open-mouthed but in the lead!

Rouse led for 20 laps while Quester and Schenken diced desperately for second overall. Quester would skip past the Jaguar under braking, particularly at Woodcote, but the bulky 2-door XJ would woosh past the BMW again, given the expanses of the Hangar straight. Once Quester did get into second place the British lead looked very precarious and he did get by Rouse after 24 laps. But that was not the end of the matter. Rouse retook the BMW on a more permanent basis — they had been staging it repeat of the Schenken v. Quester squabble over second place — and after another five laps the Jaguar was in front to stay. Well, until its first fuel stop at 38 laps, when the BMW took over again!

Bad news for Leyland had begun on the second lap when Dron — winner of four consecutive RAC Saloon Car Championship rounds at the time of writing — found his Dolomite overheating again. Then, just a lap before the Rouse Jaguar fuel stop, Schenken found himself bounding along towards the catch fencing, in a Jaguar tricycle: a front hub had broken.