The third round of the Equipe Historic Championship opened the weekend’s race schedule and it was the TVR Griffith of Oliver Rueben on pole with the Cobras of Brian and John Caudwell second and third, David Keers-Trafford fourth on the grid with his Marco 1800GT. Brian Caudwell made the best getaway and led into Copse, but Rueben was in front by Becketts and came round at the end of the lap already with a gap to the rest.

John Caudwell had slipped to seventh at the end of lap one but was back to third by lap three, the Marcos of Ian Pearson running fourth. John Caudwell was first of the front-runners to pit at the end of lap 13, brother Brian coming in a lap later but a slow stop saw him lose places. Rueben came in after 15 laps and once everyone had stopped, had a healthy lead, staying clear to take his second win of the season, John Caudwell second and Brian recovering to come home third.

The Lotus Elan of Pim Remijn leapfrogged the Marcos class rivals through the pitstop phase and was running third with five laps to go, and came home fifth, losing out to Brian Caudwell and then Chris Ryan but securing the class two win and points. Ryan has been in the thick of the action for much of the race, part of a train of four dicing cars prior to the pitstops, and took superb fourth overall and class three honours, his second class win of the season.

Championship leader Mike Thorne had been part of the that train of cars battling with Ryan, and the pack included his class four rivals, fellow Austin Healey 3000 racers Jack and Joe Willmott. After the stops Thorne was running fifth overall but Joe Willmott was flying and the cars were together with three laps to go, and side-by-side through Aintree with two laps to go. A brief spin for Thorne in the heat of battle saw the Willmotts take the class four win, but second was enough for Thorne to leave Silverstone still at the top of the points table.

“It was all about managing the tyres, it’s hot!” said Rueben. “I like to get a gap early on so you have cushion to everyone else. There was some oil down late on that made it tricky, but great to take the win!”