Masters Historic Race Weekend 2024: Masters Gentlemen Drivers

Champions John Spiers and Nigel Greensall returned to their winning ways by claiming a last-gasp victory in the 90-minute Masters Gentlemen Drivers race that bookended an entertaining Masters Race Weekend at Donington Park. With one final push, Greensall managed to overcome long-time race leader John Davison, who in turn held off Mike Whitaker and Harry Barton to complete a remarkable TVR 1-2-3-4. Barton lost his edge through a drivethrough penalty for a mandatory stop that proved too short.

“It’s good to finish a race first time for ten months in that car!” Spiers quipped. “But, yeah, it was a super fun race, super fun.”

“I probably made the gearbox do a little bit too much work”, said Davison, referring to his win in the HRDC Allstars race earlier in the afternoon. “After the pit stop, I think it wanted to go home and have a rest. It didn’t want to go into gear coming out of the pit stop, and then it did, so we got out of the pit stop. And then the first time I tried to use second gear, it wouldn’t go in. So I was just driving third and fourth. It’s not the worst thing that can happen to you, but it just means that you’ve got no engine braking into the chicane. So you end up using the tyres and the brakes more than you’d like to – it just builds up on you. So you’re just managing it. You’re always managing these cars, so…”

“I tried to pace it at the beginning, but John was just too quick for me, so then I just thought I’ll manage the brakes for 90 minutes”, said Whitaker, “which I just about did. Good tussle with John Spears and Harry Barton at the beginning and then the inevitable Nigel Greensall comes from the back. I didn’t put any fight up to Nigel, in fact, I tried to follow him. But honestly, brilliant 90 minutes of solo running around here.”

John & Gary Pearson’s Jaguar E-type proved to be the single interloper, but disappeared when Gary Pearson ended up in the gravel toweards the ends. The Kieran Clark/Brian Caudwell Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé ended up a distant fifth ahead of CLP class winners John Tordoff and Andrew Jordan, whose Lotus Elan took over the reins when the Elan of early class leaders Simon & Dominik Jackson fell by the wayside.

“Yeah, it was good”, said Jordan. “I was struggling a little bit with the car but a class win for John is good. It’s always good to drive around here. It’s my home track, only half an hour away. I don’t know if I was catching [the Jacksons] or not, I was just driving. I saw they were parked up but I had a couple of little things I was working with. Once I saw them off, I was just driving at a pace to get the class win. All good, John’s happy, we have a good day and now we go to the Clascic for the next one.”

In a mighty tussle for the C2 class win, the Austin Healey 3000 of John Caudwell and Kieran Clark fought tooth and nail with the Morgan SLR of Keith Ahlers and Billy Bellinger, the former eventually prevailing, while Mark Bates completed a dominating run in his Porsche 911 to bag C1 class victory from Alexander & Ross McEwen’s MGB.

Rounding off the Masters Race Weekend at Donington Park, the Masters Gentlemen Drivers cars were all set for their 90-minute enduro around the undulating Derbyshire circuit. The four TVRs that claimed the four top spots on the grid stormed away in front, Davison – who had already won the HRDC Allstars race earlier on the day – leading Barton, Whitaker and Spiers, with John Pearson’s Jaguar E-type coming through to be fifth on the opening lap.

Four laps into the race, Davison headed Barton by 2.6 seconds, but Whitaker and Spiers were queuing up behind the youngster. Behind Pearson, James Hanson had moved the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé up into sixth, ahead of Kieran Clarke in a similar Daytona Cobra. In eighth overall, Simon Jackson had grabbed the early initiative in the all-Lotus Elan CLP class, having put Charlie Allison’s AC Cobra and Alan Smithies’ Daytona Cobra in between himself and John Tordoff in 11th overall. Tordoff was chased by more Elans, Peter Reynolds ahead of Mark Drain. In C2, John Caudwell’s Austin Healey 3000 led Keith Ahlers’ Morgan SLR while in C1, Mark Bates’ Porsche 911 was ahead of Alexander McEwen’s MGB.

Seven laps gone, and Whitaker’s pressure on Barton had paid off, as the light blue TVR blasted past the dark green example to take second place. Now it was Spiers’ turn to put pressure on Barton. The TVRs had dropped Pearson’s E-type by five seconds, which itself was five seconds up the road from the pursuing Cobra Daytona Coupés. Behind the gaggle of Elans, Chris Jolly ran 14th in the Shelby Mustang GT350, with the similar car of Sarah Bennett-Baggs in 18th. In between them, Ahlers and Caudwell had switched places, the Morgan having claimed the C2 class lead.

On lap 11, Peter Reynolds’ Elan was the first car to report to the pits for an unscheduled stop, but the car was back out again in fairly quick fashion. At the front, Davison drove like a man possessed, as Whitaker now trailed the leading Griffith by 4.6 seconds. Barton and Spiers were still locked together in battle for third, 1.7 seconds away from Whitaker.

Some sort of a stalemate developed at the front for the next handful of laps, as the four Griffiths continued to lead out front, followed by the E-type, the Daytona Cobras and Simon Jackson in the class-leading Lotus Elan. In C2, it remained nip and tuck between Ahlers and Caudwell, while in C1, Bates had the upper hand over McEwen. Lap 19 saw the only movement for a fair amount of laps when James Hanson lost ground to Charlie Allison’s regular AC Cobra. Further back, Mark Bates was flying in the Porsche, passing Chris Jolly for 13th.

After half an hour of running, Davison led Whitaker by the increased margin of 7.6 seconds, while Barton and Spiers still quarrelled over third place. Pearson had edged closer to the Griffiths but himself had Kieran Clark in the first of the Daytona Cobras to worry about. In seventh overall, Jackson still led the CLP class but a massive 37 seconds adrift of the six big cars ahead of him. Allison, Hanson and Smithies rounded out the top ten in more Cobras. Tordoff and Drain still ran second and third in CLP, with C1 class leader Bates a further 50 seconds back. In C2, Caudwell had turned the tables on Ahlers, the Big Healey back in front of the Morgan again.

On lap 24, however, Spiers finally did it, as he moved his TVR in front of Barton’s example. However, he was duly given a black-and-white warning flag for track limits. While Davison was even further up the road, the three TVRs chasing him were now tied together some ten seconds behind the leader as they fought over second place.

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking towards the pit window, which opened on lap 29. Spiers and Hanson were the first to take the opportunity, with Nigel Greensall stepping to the Griffith, but after an elite-driver time penalty for Greensall, and Paul Pochciol taking over from Hanson. Next were Simon Jackson – handing over to son Dominik – and John Tordoff who would evacuate the Elan for Andrew Jordan, similarly constrained by a time penalty as Greensall. Barton was next, as was Kieran Clark who was to be relieved by Brian Caudwell, with Drain and the Alexander & Ross McEwen MGB also in, Alexander handing over to Ross. Meanwhile, however, Pochciol wasn’t making his way out of the pits, as the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé had succumbed to a gearbox issue.

On lap 33, Allison gave the AC Cobra to Peter Thompson, while Steve Farthing took over from Chris Jolly, and Daniel Quintero stepped into the delayed Elan of Peter Reynolds. At the same time, the two C2 rivals had seen new drivers get into the cars, Billy Bellinger in the Morgan and Kieran Clark for a second stint, but now in the Austin Healey. On laps 34 and 35, Davison and Whitaker finally made their stops.

It took one more lap to get a clearer picture, but on lap 36, Davison led Barton by 1.6 seconds, while Gary Pearson in the Jaguar E-type had come through to third ahead of Whitaker, with Greensall a further 13 seconds back but regaining lost ground. Brian Caudwell was a distant sixth, chased by Dominik Jackson who now had a fast approaching Andrew Jordan in the second Elan to worry about. However, there was still a lap in between them, along with the physical obstacle of Thompson’s Cobra. Chris Clarkson in the Daytona Cobra started by Smithies was tenth ahead of Drain, Bates and Reynolds, while Bellinger continued the C2 class feud with Clark. Farthing and Mike Thorne in the two Shelby Mustang GT350s were next, with McEwen (R.) following in the MGB.

At the front, Davison immediately pulled away from Barton, who was under investigation for a short stop and had Pearson (G.) closing on him. Whitaker wasn’t far away either, while Greensall had already shrunk the gap to Whitaker to 11 seconds. Further back, Clark and Bellinger switched places yet again while their increased pace also meant that Bates in the Porsche was gobbled up. Behind them, Jolly reported to the pits with a fuel-pressure issue hampering his GT350, while in eigth and ninth, Jordan had cleared the hurdle of Thompson’s Cobra.

Half an hour still remained, and the top five were now evenly spaced out – Davison from Barton, Pearson, Whitaker and Greensall. 41 seconds back, Jackson (D.) still led the CLP class, closely followed by Caudwell (B.) in the Cobra Daytona Coupé. In eighth, Jordan still had a full minute to recover to Jackson in order to stake his claim on the CLP class lead, while Thompson and Clarkson completed the first ten. Drain looked safe from Reynolds in third place in the CLP class, while Clark and Bellinger continued to be split by mere tenths, the two having dropped Bates, who still circulated with an imperious C1 class lead over the McEwens.

On lap 45, Barton’s penalty was finally coming and he elected to take it straight away. This dropped him down into the gap between Greensall and Brian Caudwell, the latter having caught and passed Dominik Jackson for sixth overall. Jackson was looking backwards, though, his eyes firmly fixed on the gap to Jordan in eighth.

With 20 minutes to go, Davison controlled an eight-second gap to Pearson, but the Jaguar driver had two more Griffiths looming in his rear-view mirror, as Greensall had caught up with Whitaker. Barton was now a lonely fifth, 33 seconds down on the leader, with Caudwell a further 17 seconds down. The Elan of the Jacksons, however, had disappeared, stopping at the final chicane with a tyre problem, elevating Jordan into the CLP class lead. With Thompson and Clarkson still in between, Drain and Reynolds were now second and third in class respectively. Behind Reynolds, Clark had seemingly made a decisive break from Bellinger, the Austin Healey now leading the Morgan by six seconds, a bigger margin than it had ever been in the race.

On lap 54, with less than 15 minutes remaining, the three cars pursuing Davison all switched order, as Greensall jumped both Whitaker and Pearson. This restored a TVR 1-2-3. Soon after, though, Pearson was gone completely, as the Jaguar hit the gravel to give us the Griffith 1-2-3-4 with which we started the race. It wasn’t necessarily going to remain in that order, though, as Greensall set about for one final push. Davison had been unable to dip below the 1.22 mark for several laps, through what later emerged as the loss of second gear, but now Greensall put the pressure on by magically producing 1.19 laps out of his bag of tricks. On lap 59, he was through, while the pace of Davison’s TVR plummeted into the 1.23s, allowing Whitaker to also have a look. The latter, however, still had some nine seconds to cover, he himself having drifted away from the lead fight in the preceding laps.

As the final minutes ticked away, Greensall’s lead was never in danger, as he maintained a safe four-second margin to Davison towards the flag, while Davison managed to hold Whitaker off for second place. As a distant fourth, Barton completed the TVR 1-2-3-4. The Kieran Clark/Brian Caudwell Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé took fifth, a minute down on Barton, while Andrew Jordan claimed the CLP class win for John Tordoff and himself. The Smithies/Clarkson Daytona Coupé and the Allison/Thompson Cobra and were next, followed by Mark Drain and Peter Reynolds in two more Elans claiming second and third in the CLP class. In 11th overall, the John Caudwell/Kieran Clark Austin Healey 3000 beat the Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger Morgan SLR for the C2 class win, the Big Healey ending 29 seconds ahead of the Morgan. Bates completed a dominating C1 class run in 13th overall, split from the rival MGB of the McEwens by the Bennett-Baggs/Thorne Shelby Mustang GT350.