Ure the mann at Hawthorn meeting

The VSCC Wrapped up its 2001 motor-racing season with a mid-August date at Silverstone. John Ure, Charles Dean and Rod Jolley were the winners of the major trophy races.

A date clash with the Nürburgring Oldtimer event and imminence of the Silverstone Historic Festival forced the club to amalgamate entries for the feature races for the respective Hawthorn Trophies. It still produced a healthy grid and provided a fascinating comparison between the respective eras.

Ure struck a blow for the pre-war brigade when, driving Peter Mann’s glorious 1936 ERA R9B, he fended off Nick Mason’s 20 years younger Maserati 250F to win. Charles Dean in his Bugatti T51, in which he had earlier won the Boulogne Trophy for Pre-34 single-seaters, was third.

Frank Sytner (Cooper Monaco) secured the Hawthorn International Trophy race for 1950s Sports Racing Cars in controversial circumstances, after contact on the final lap sent Julian Bronson’s battling Lister-Chevrolet spearing off into the gravel trap at Luffield.