Masters Historic Race Weekend 2024: Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars

Once again, there was no stopping to Sam Tordoff’s dominance of the Masters Pre-66 Touring Car season, as the reigning champion added another victory to his tally to remain unbeaten in every race that his Ford Falcon has contested in 2024. Only losing the top spot during the mandatory mid-race stops, Tordoff’s pace was such that he easily overcame his elite-driver time penalty to claim a third unchallenged win.

“We’ve done a lot of testing here over the winter, so I’ve done a lot of laps around here”, Tordoff explained, his eyes on different rivals from the ones that he truly faced in the end. “We knew we had a good setup and we’d moved the car forward from last year, so it was nice to put it to practice and deliver it in the race. I got a really good start and a comfortable margin and then I was waiting for post-pitstop for it to be a bit closer but it never came so it was a bit of a relief, I was probably faster than I imagined relative to Tom [Ingram] and Rob [Huff] and in the end a comfortable win.”

Behind Tordoff, a royal three-car battle for second place was won by the John Spiers/Nigel Greensall Ford Mustang that vanquished Mike Simpson’s Lotus Cortina and John Davison’s Mustang right at the end. Davison was Tordoff’s closest pursuer for much of the race and swapped places with Simpson multiple times in the final few laps, but ultimately was forced to succumb.

“Those final few laps were just fantastic, just totally flat out”, said a jubilant Greensall. “John had driven a magnificent stint and gave us the opportunity to get a good result. With these Mustangs you know you’ve got no brakes, but it was really good fun.”

“The brakes were pretty much done”, said Davison, “and I guess I now know what it’s like to be a touring car driver because today I got overtaken by someone on the grass twice! Unfortunately, the second person lost control of his car and ran into the side of me, so there’s quite a lot of damage to the car which is a shame, but at least he came and apologised. But it was a really fun race, I was really pleased.”

“I drove that car as quick as I could”, said Simpson. “You’ve got to play to your strengths, which is corner entry, and on the straights just wave them by. [My elite-driver time penalty of] 30 seconds was hard to claw back, but I was very thankful to Peter for letting me use the car. Bit of unfortunate contact with John at the end, but I’ve never been a touring car driver, so there was a gap there and I went for it. Great fun weekend and a lovely event by Masters, hope to come back for some more.”

In fifth, former champion Richard Dutton took second in the Cortina class, ahead of the Jack Ruddell/Tom Ingram and Mark Mathieson/Rob Huff Ford Mustangs. Jake Giddings and Paul Streather claimed hard-fought third in the Cortina class, as they finished eighth overall.

Crowning a brilliant Saturday of the Masters Race Weekend at Donington Park, the Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars headed out for their 60-minute bout into the early evening. From pole, Sam Tordoff immediately set a searing pace to lead John Davison in the first of the Mustangs, Davison having passed Spiers for second, who in turn led Mike Simpson in the fastest of the Cortinas, Jack Ruddell in another Mustang and Richard Dutton also making up places in the early laps, as Alex Taylor’s Mustang dropped down the order.

On lap 4, Tordoff had accrued an advantage of 9.4 seconds over Davison, having set fastest lap after fastest lap. Behind the leader, the order remained the same, with Jake Giddings harrying Dutton for sixth and being chased by Daniel Quintero in a battle of Cortinas, while Taylor was back up to ninth after his earlier excursion. Guy Ziser and Mark Mathieson were tenth and 11th in two more Mustangs, while Peter Smith in another Cortina headed Harry Barton’s BMW 1800 tiSA. Barton in turn led Garry Townsend’s Cortina, Chris Clarkson in the Falcon shared with David Smithies, and Mark Drain in another Cortina.

As Tordoff continued to lead, Simpson was happy to relieve Spiers of third place, the lead Cortina thus moving up another spot, while Taylor’s Mustang was into the pits after all, despite its initial comeback run. As the pattern up front remained the same, Quintero was the next to come in for an unscheduled stop, just as Giddings had found a way past Dutton.

With ten laps gone, Tordoff’s pace was close to three seconds quicker than Davison’s in second place, and subsequently the Mustang now trailed by 24 seconds, with Simpson a further two ticks behind. Spiers remained in touch with the lead Cortina but was chased hard by Ruddell who in turn was caught by Giddings and Dutton, as a four-car fight for fourth was emerging, 45 seconds down on the leader. However, when Giddings was hit by a 5-second time penalty for track limits, he was effectively down into seventh despite having passed Ruddell for fifth.

As the pit window approached, Tordoff’s lead had amassed to 37 seconds, at which point on the road a tussle for second between Davison and the insatiable Simpson had evolved. 11 seconds further back, Giddings had made his way to the front of the four-car pack, with Dutton in fifth, Ruddell in sixth and Spiers now in seventh, but that five-second time penalty still meant that Giddings was at the back of that queue. On lap 19, Tordoff was into the pits for an early stop – a longer stop for him as an elite driver – while Spiers used the same opportunity to hand his Mustang to Nigel Greensall. Meanwhile, Davison was also in.

On the next lap, Ruddell and Mathieson were relieved by Tom Ingram and Rob Huff respectively, with the progress of both BTCC stars eagerly anticipated. Barton and Drain followed them in, but the Cortinas that now led the race waited for one more lap, as on lap 21, Simpson and Giddings were in for their mandatory stop, the latter handing over to Paul Streather. Dutton waited for another lap but was in as well on lap 22, and when Garry Townsend in another Cortina and Guy Ziser’s Mustang made their stops, Oli Webb taking over from Ziser, Tordoff reassumed the lead, his advantage over Davison now amounting to 9.6 seconds but growing once again. Indeed, on lap 23, Tordoff’s lead was up to 12 seconds.

Behind those two, the new situation that emerged was Richard Dutton in third, now the lead Cortina in the field, trailed by Simpson and Greensall at about ten seconds, with Streather up next but with Ingram and Huff homing in on him. Townsend was ninth ahead of Barton, Webb, Smith, Drain, Smithies and the delayed Peter Reynolds in the Cortina started by Quintero. On lap 26, Greensall made short work of Simpson to close in on Dutton, while the Ziser/Webb Cortina was handed a ten-second time penalty for causing a collision with Smith’s similar Cortina, which indeed came into the pits to have the damage checked.

15 minutes remained when Tordoff led Davison by half a minute, with Dutton a further seven seconds in arrears. Both Greensall and Simpson weren’t far away, though, so Dutton was anything but safe in third. 20 seconds behind that trio, Ingram had pushed his way up into sixth, having passed Streather, who in turn saw Huff chasing him 14 seconds down. Barton had made his way into the overall top ten, the BMW now in ninth overall, but it was severely contested by Webb and Townsend, both still carrying a penalty, though.

With eight minutes still to go, Tordoff’s lead over Davison has mushroomed to 46 seconds, but Davison’s second place was coming under threat from the flying Greensall, who on lap 35 had not only demoted Dutton to fourth, but closed the gap to Davison to less than two seconds. In fact, Simpson was flying just as much as Greensall and was back into the Cortina class lead on the next lap. In sixth, Ingram still faced a 20-second gap to Dutton while Huff continued to close on Streather – and on lap 38, he was past. Behind them, both Webb and Townsend had quietly stroked away from Barton, effectively negating their time penalties.

Next time around, the three cars trailing Tordoff had all switched positions, Greensall now in second place, with Simpson and Davison right behind. It was far from over for Davison, though – while they allowed Greensall to inch away, Davison fought back to reclaim third. Behind them, Dutton had lost touch and had been left behind by 20 seconds, while Ingram and Huff still had their eyes on Dutton’s place.

As the clock wound down towards the chequered flag, Tordoff completed his victorious run with a win by 57 seconds over Greensall. On the line, Simpson used a bit of doorhandle-doorhandle action to pip Davison after all and claim both third overall and the Cortina class win, ahead of Dutton’s Cortina in fifth and Ingram and Huff in two more Mustangs up next. Giddings and Streather claimed third in the Cortina class in eighth overall. They were followed home by Ziser/Webb and Barton who won the 2-litre class in his BMW.