Masters Historic Festival 2024: Masters Sports Car Legends

The John Spiers/Nigel Greensall McLaren M1B was on pole, and the debuting Matt Manderson/Guy Jeynes Ellis GRD 74S led the early part of the race, but it was Paul Cope who came away the winner of the first of two Masters Sports Car Legends races at the Masters Historic Festival. His March 75S took over the mantle when the McLaren dropped out with suspension issues and the GRD lost a lot of time in the pits.

With a string of fastest laps around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, Cope then opened up a healthy gap over James Claridge in the Lola T296, with Manderson and Jeynes Ellis still salvaging third. In fourth, Keith Ahlers and Billy Bellinger notched up another class victory in the pre-66 Hulme class, their Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ profiting from the early demise of the pole-sitting McLaren M1B.

“The race was relatively uneventful for me”, said Cope. “Third place looked secure, first and second were doing a lot of tussling and that helped me obviously stay in touch. Then the McLaren went off and after the pitstops, the GRD was slower than it had been initially, so the chance was there.” And on his string of fastest laps in the second part of the race: “As often when you back off, you go faster…”

“It was quite lonely as you could see, but that car is amazing to drive”, said Claridge. “At Brands Hatch on a day like today when it’s dry, it’s still enjoyable. I really appreciate Gonçalo (Gomes) lending me the car for the weekend and trying to sharpen me up a bit. It gives you time, I haven’t driven the car very much, so it gives you time to improve everything, so next time we come out we’ll be a bit quicker.”

“It was brilliant”, said the returning Jeynes Ellis. “I’m stilllearning the circuit. I’m all right around the Indy circuit, but I’ve never raced on the Grand Prix circuit. So yeah, it was really, really fun. Loved it. I couldn’t believe we’re third. The pit stop didn’t quite go to plan, as we had trouble starting the engine again, so we had to bump start it in the end. But I’m just ecstatic. I haven’t motor raced for 20 years, and to be up here on the first attempt,

having crashed it yesterday…”

“Once the McLaren let me off the leash, I could get away and get going, which was great”, said Manderson. “But yeah, Mr. Cope did really well. He was in the mirrors for quite a long time, so that was great. And just a great opportunity to be involved in this wonderful series.”

Dan Pickett finished a fighting race in fifth, his Chevron B16 winning the Marko class despite a stop-and-go penalty for a start-procedure infringement. In sixth, Charles Allison ran home the Bonnier class win in his Chevron B8.

In continued sunshine, the Masters Sports Car Legends field set themselves up for their first of two 40-minutes races on the Masters Historic Festival weekend. John Spiers in the McLaren M1B gunned away into the lead, with Matt Manderson in the GRD 74S in second, and Paul Cope in the March 75S in third.

Three laps down, Spiers held on by a second from Manderson, with Cope chased by James Claridge’s Lola T296. The top four had dropped Dan Pickett’s Chevron B16 by 20 seconds, which in turn led Charles Allison plucky little Chevron B8 by four seconds. Georg Kjallgren was a strong seventh overall in the Daren Mk2, while Keith Ahlers in the Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ battled Peter Fisk’s Lola T290 and John Sheldon’s B16.

A strong fight for the lead led to Manderson taking over first position but soon after Spiers’ McLaren was seen trundling into the pits with a collapsed suspension, allowing Cope and Claridge to move up. Pickett was fourth now but handed a stop-and-go penalty for not adhering to the yellow-flag start procedure. Into lap 9, Pickett came in for his penalty, which dropped him all the way to ninth.

At the front, Manderson set fastest lap to increase his lead over Cope to 5.4 seconds, while Claridge had fallen away in third, his deficit to the leading GRD now 9.6 seconds. Allison in the little Bonnier-class Chevron now held a surprising fourth overall, while Ahlers had now assumed the Hulme class lead in fifth, chased by Kjallgren’s Daren. In turn, Fisk had closed up on the Swede.

With the pit window now open, Ahlers was the first to come in to hand over to Billy Bellinger, but Manderson continued, now with 7.8 seconds in hand over Cope, who in turn had dropped Claridge by 11 ticks. Sheldon was the next to stop, followed on the next tour by Manderson, who returned the car to its owner Guy Jeynes Ellis. They were joined by Kjallgren and Pickett for his second stop, while on the last possible occasion on lap 14, suddenly everyone else was in, including new leader Cope and his pursuer Claridge.

The formerly leading GRD was stationary for quite a few seconds longer than was necessary, so it would be a long way away now. Now, Cope suddenly led Claridge by seven seconds (and growing), with Jeynes Ellis a distant third, 55 seconds off from the leading March 75S. Bellinger had got the Cooper Monaco up into fourth overall, with Allison’s Chevron B8, Kjallgren’s Daren Mk2 and Daniel Pickett’s Chevron B16 all close. A 14-second gap then separated Peter Fisk from seventh overall, with John Sheldon in the other B16 next up.

At the front, Paul Cope was in a strong rhythm, as the March 75S was flying, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. He now had Claridge trailing by 13 seconds while he was about to lap Jeynes Ellis which would mean that with seven minutes remaining just two cars remained on the lead lap. Further back, Pickett had got ahead of Allison for fifth overall.

As the race clock ticked away, Cope remained in control and went on to complete 24 laps for the win. 13 seconds later, Claridge crossed the finish line in second place, while the Manderson/Jeynes Ellis GRD completed its first run in third. Keith Ahlers and Billy Bellinger were fourth to add one more victory to their impressive tally of Hulme class wins. Despite his stop-go penalty, Pickett was fifth and the winner of the Marko class, while in sixth overall Charles Allison won the Bonnier class. Georg Kjallgren brought the Daren Mk2 home in seventh ahead of Peter Fisk’s Lola T290 and John Sheldon in the other Chevron B16.

Paul Cope doubled up in the pair of Masters Sports Car Legends races at Brands Hatch when his March 75S also notched up the win in Sunday’s bout. Despite a time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, Cope had enough in hand to fend off Nigel Greensall in the McLaren M1B started by John Spiers.

“Yes, it’s a good weekend as they say and the sun’s still shining”, said Cope. “These guys were much quicker in the first stint so no denying that. But I just had to keep up a good speed and be there at the end, you know. Which is what we did.”

“For us it’s remarkable because yesterday we had the rear upright fail and so Jarno then took the upright off and after the TVR race last night he then drove three hours back down to his workshop, spent the night welding it up and then drove back up and arrived this morning at breakfast time to be able to reinstall it and also run the Capri that we’re in the HRDC race”, Greensall beamed. “And so the first time we found out if it was working was when John went out to the grid. And yes, the car is absolutely perfect. So it’s all credit to Jarno and the TT Motors racing team because it’s a remarkable job that they’ve done. It’s real team spirit and it’s what racing is all about. So yes, it’s remarkable.”

Matt Manderson was the early leader in the pretty GRD 74S but a stop-and-go penalty for a startline infringement held the car and its co-driver Guy Jeynes Ellis to third.

“So I read the rules, I watched the video which is very very informative, went into the first race yesterday and this gentleman here [Cope], passed me before we got to the first corner yesterday”, said Manderson. “So I assumed stupidly that it would be okay for this to do the same, so I just held station behind Paul into turn one just now and passed the guy that was in second place, and obviously I got pulled in for that. So I know now for the future but Paul was lucky to get away with it yesterday.”

“It’s a silly rule anyway!” Cope quipped.

Thanks to another pitlane-speeding penalty for Charles Allison in the Bonnier-class-winning Chevron B8, Dan Pickett’s Chevron B16 moved up into fourth overall right at the end while also claiming Marko class honours. The Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ ran third early on but slowed towards the end to still take sixth overall and second in the pre-66 class, behind runaway class winners Spiers and Greensall in the McLaren M1B.

Kicking off the afternoon programme of the Masters Historic Festival’s Sunday, the Masters Sports Car Legends grid lined up for their 1.50pm start. Saturday’s winner Paul Cope started from pole in his March 75S, but soon Matt Manderson in the GRD 74S vaulted up into the lead from third on the grid, passing both James Claridge’s Lola T296 and Cope. The Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ was fourth but only for one lap, as class rival John Spiers romped through from the back of the grid to get the McLaren M1B into fourth.

Manderson, however, soon picked up a stop-and-go penalty for a startline infringement, and right after that, Claridge pulled off right after Druids in the Lola. So while Manderson continued at the front for the moment, Cope was the virtual leader from Spiers, Bellinger, Georg Kjallgren in the Daren Mk2, Dan Pickett in the first of the Chevron B16s, Charles Allison in the lone Chevron B8, Peter Fisk in the beautiful Lola T290 and John Sheldon’s B16.

On lap 4, Allison nicked sixth from Pickett, which became fifth when Kjallgren ran into trouble, initially grinding to a halt at Graham Hill Bend but continuing once he had dropped to ninth, while Manderson came in for his stop-and-go. So Cope was in the lead on lap 6, with 10 seconds in hand over Spiers, as the pit window of this short 30-minute race opened. Manderson was third, 20 seconds in arrears, with Allison, Fisk and Pickett forming a group some 35 seconds behind the race leader. Sheldon and Kjallgren followed further back, but the Daren would soon disappear into the pits.

On lap 8, the race director came with a pair of announcements – one for Allison for overtaking under yellow, the other a black-and-orange flag for Pickett, as Fisk and Kjallgren were the first to come in for their mandatory stops. At the end of the lap, the first three all came into the pits together, with Allison following them in later on. As they left the pits, Cope rejoined well ahead from Greensall and Guy Jeynes Ellis, the latter now in the GRD vacated by Manderson. Pickett, meanwhile, answered the meatball flag by coming in and having a large object dislodged from the rear of his Chevron while Allison followed in to serve his penalty.

At the end of lap 10, Billy Bellinger was the last one to come in for his stop, as he handed the Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ over to Keith Ahlers. At the front, Cope was actually matching Greensall’s lap times, so the 20-second gap remained in place, as Jeynes Ellis in the GRD lost ground to the McLaren. Behind him, Ahlers fed in right in front of Peter Fisk’s Lola, with Allison a further 27 seconds back. The two Chevron B16s were up next.

All was not well at the front, though, as Cope was slammed with a ten-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, slashing his 20-second lead into half of that. Fisk and Allison were also penalised for the same infringement, but with five seconds each only.

With less than five minutes, the gap between Cope and Greensall wasn’t quite slimming down, as the March held its own against the charging McLaren. Jeynes Ellis looked safe in third while Ahlers had nine seconds in hand on both Allison and Pickett, but Allison still had that time penalty hanging over his head. Peter Fisk’s race, meanwhile, was over when he stopped his Lola T290 in a safe spot.

Towards the line, Cope remained in control and had enough in hand to negate his time penalty and take his second win on the weekend. Greensall took second and the pre-66 Hulme class win. Jeynes Ellis pressed on for a second podium finish in two races, while in the closing stages, Dan Pickett took fourth thanks to the penalty for Allison, while Ahlers in the Cooper Monaco dropped down to sixth but still took second in the pre-66 class.