Masters Historic Festival 2020: Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars

Ford Mustang driver Rob Fenn took an unexpected win during the one-hour Masters Pre-66 Touring Car race at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit this evening, when a late incident for Steve Soper led to a red flag stoppage with a lap to go.

Soper was leading by well over six seconds after a typically sensational second stint in the Mustang he shares with Henry Mann, but an unfortunate excursion at Stirling’s on the penultimate tour ultimately handed the win to Fenn.

Michael Cullen made the pole position team-mate Andrew Jordan had achieved in the earlier qualifying session count at the rolling start, holding off Mann. It wasn’t long, though, before Fenn – who qualified third – powered into the lead.

By the sixth tour, Fenn was over four seconds clear with Geoffrey Letts moving his Ford Lotus Cortina ahead of Mann at the beginning of the lap. Mann then dropped to fourth the next time around behind Ollie Taylor’s Lotus Cortina.

When the pit-window opened at the 25-minute mark, Mann was the first to head into the pitlane for his stop, at the end of lap 14, and handed the No.6 Mustang over to the redoubtable Soper.

Cullen, who had slipped down the top six, pitted at the end of lap 15 with pole qualifier Jordan climbing behind the wheel of their Cortina. Incredibly, Jordan’s involvement lasted just moments when he was forced to retire.

With half an hour to run, Fenn was still circulating in the lead with a two second cushion over Letts and Taylor. The two Cortinas then pitted nose-to-tail at the end of lap 18 and as they did so, Soper was storming through setting fastest laps.

When the order settled after the stops, Fenn was just 0.9 seconds ahead of Taylor but Soper was closing fast. Slicing past Taylor on lap 21, Soper had two seconds to make up to leader Fenn but only a lap later he had swept past the Mustang.

Controlling things at the front, Soper looked on course to take a clear win of over six seconds…but there was a late twist when he went off track at Stirlings. Fenn, therefore, took the victory by 3.7 seconds from Taylor who also won the THC class.

Alan Letts was third, the Nigel Greensall and David Gooding Ford Mustang fourth – Greensall having set fastest lap with a time of 1m47.798 seconds – with Phil Keen and Marco Attard’s Cortina fifth and David Coyne rounding out the top six in his Mustang.

Tom Bell did a fantastic job during the first half of the race, a giant-killing showing in the No.34 Austin Mini Cooper S to climb into the overall top six before the mandatory stops.

Very unfortunately, Bell cut it too fine with the pit-stop and he was fractionally too late into pitlane when the window had closed – resulting in a stop-go penalty. Team-mate Joe Ferguson still finished seventh, and also wrapped up the THD class win. Tom Sharp, in 13th overall, won the THB class in his BMW 1800 Tisa.

Zandvoort in The Netherlands is scheduled to host the next outing of the Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars on 5/6 September.