Masters Race Weekend 2021: Masters Racing Legends for 66/85 F1 Cars

Having lost out in qualifying, Mike Cantillon turned the tables on rival Steve Hartley in the first Masters Historic Formula One race at Donington Park, as with four laps into the race the Irishman slung his Williams FW07C past Hartley’s pole-sitting McLaren MP4/1 to disappear into the distance.

Cantillon won by 17.8 seconds while Lukas Halusa in the McLaren M23 drove a strong race to overtake the much more recent Lotus 91 of Steve Brooks for third and run out to a dominant pre-78 class win. His engine violently expiring one corner short of the finish line, Brooks failed to meet the chequered flag but was still classified fourth ahead of post-83 class winner Mark Hazell who came back to finish fifth in his Williams FW08.

Meanwhile, Warren Briggs was another casualty, his McLaren M29 dropping out of fourth place on lap 14. Ron Maydon (Lec CRP1) and Chris Perkins (Surtees TS16), both having managed to keep Hazell behind for the best part of the race, took second and third in the pre-78 class.

Soon after the start, the leading trio of Hartley, Cantillon and Brooks initially broke free from the pack led by pre-78 class leader Halusa, as Briggs and Maydon had made their way past Hazell into fourth and fifth. Behind Hazell, Chris Perkins in the Surtees TS16 was eighth while Neil Glover’s Arrows A5 had demoted Mark Harrison’s Shadow DN9 to tenth. Meanwhile, Hazell’s post-83 class rival Ian Symmonds failed to leave the grid in his Tyrrell 012.

Going into lap 4, Cantillon made his move, inching past Hartley while setting fastest lap of the race. Going even quicker on lap 5, the Irishman had now put 1.5 seconds between himself and the carbonfibre McLaren, and repeated the trick on lap 6 with the result that the gap was up to 2.7 seconds. Brooks was now five seconds off, with Halusa clinging on 7 seconds behind the leader. At the back, Harrison was forced to retire his Shadow.

By lap 10, Cantillon’s lead over Hartley had increased to 5.4 seconds as the Irishman moved ever closer to the win. Behind the two leaders, Halusa’s tenacity had paid off, as the Austrian swept past Brooks’ Lotus to claim third overall, while Briggs and Maydon were still holding off Hazell’s more recent Williams FW08.

Easing off his pace after that, Cantillon maintained his five-second lead over Hartley, with Halusa continuing to keep Brooks at bay. On lap 14, however, Briggs dropped out on fourth right at the moment Hazell got ahead of Maydon, the Williams FW08 thus moving up two places in a single lap.

As he ran towards the chequered flag, Cantillon once again showed his might by further improving his best lap time, lowering the fastest lap of the race to a stunning 1.01.569. Now gaining 1 to 1.5 seconds per lap on Hartley, the Williams’ lead over the McLaren eventually grew to 17.8 seconds at the finish.

40 seconds down on the winner, Halusa finished a strong third overall in the class-leading pre-78 McLaren M23, ahead of Brooks whose Lotus 91 pulled off on the final lap as its Cosworth DFV expired in a mighty cloud of smoke, but he was still classified fourth ahead of Hazell, both a lap down. Maydon and Perkins completed the pre-78 podium in sixth and seventh overall.

Mike Cantillon bided his time to pressure long-time race leader Mike Hartley into a mistake two laps from the end, as the yesterday’s winner did it again in the second Masters Historic Formula One race at Donington Park. In his Williams FW07C, Cantillon harried Hartley’s pole-sitting McLaren MP4/1 lap after lap – and just as Hartley seemed to have done it again, he ran wide in the Roberts chicane, allowing his rival through for a second F1 win of the weekend.

Behind them, the battle for third was equally entertaining, as Warren Briggs ran third for much of the race, but the Kiwi’s McLaren M29 was usurped right at the end by Mark Hazell’s Williams FW08. Hazell ran fifth early on but only a few laps before had managed to pass Lukas Halusa’s McLaren M23 for fourth, after a race-long fight. Hazell won the post-83 class while Halusa grabbed the pre-78 spoils.

As soon as the field was given the green, Warren Briggs had his foot down as the Kiwi tried to separate Cantillon from second place going into Redgate. The Irishman held on, however, and then powered away in pursuit of Hartley. Briggs then continued to fend off Halusa and Hazell.

On lap 5, Cantillon produced the fastest lap of the race to latch onto the McLaren’s gearbox, the pair having left Briggs behind by some five seconds now. Hartley, however, was having none of that and the ‘Jam Baron’ now clocked the fastest lap himself to get the gap back up to seven tenths. Further back, sadly, Mark Harrison was forced to retire the ex-De Angelis Shadow DN9, his strong qualifying coming to nought.

In third, fourth and fifth, Briggs, Halusa and Hazell were now separated by less than a second, the trio having dropped Ron Maydon’s Lec CRP1 by ten seconds, Ian Simmonds in the Tyrrell 012 by twelve. For a moment, Hazell got up into fourth out of the Roberts chicane but Halusa got the place back as the pair braked into Redgate.

Ten laps gone, the tense fight at the front continued unabated, just six tenths between Hartley in the lead and Cantillon in second, but five laps later, the McLaren’s advantage had grown to nine tenths – hardly enough to give Hartley a breather but he was soaking up the pressure. At the back, meanwhile, Chris Perkins had to retire his Surtees TS16. Now 27 seconds, behind the lead pair, Briggs had Hazell to worry about, the Williams finally having made its way past the pre-78-class-leading McLaren M23 of Lukas Halusa.

With less then four minutes to go, Cantillon had closed up yet again and looked to outbrake the leader into Redgate but the Williams went wide and Hartley was back through on the inside. One minute later, Hazell made a similar move on Briggs and made it stick to take third. Behind them, Maydon was into the pits with a likely brake issue.

Hartley now needed to keep cool for two more laps but then finally cracked, misjudging his braking into the Roberts chicane – and Cantillon was through, as a dejected Hartley let the Williams out of sight by six seconds. Hazell was third, with Halusa on the final lap pipping Briggs as well. Ian Simmonds took sixth ahead of Neil Glover’s Arrows A5.