Silverstone Festival 2024: Masters Sports Car Legends

Following Christophe and Werner d’Ansembourg’s win in Masters Endurance Legends, more dad-and-lad glory followed in Saturday’s closing act, as David & Olivier Hart took their ex-Brescia Corse Ferrari 512M to a brilliant victory in the 50-minute Masters Sports Car Legends race at the Silverstone Festival. As a result, the Dutch duo took their revenge for the Ferrari duel lost to Alex Brundle in 2023. This time driving Gary Pearson’s Lola T70 Mk3B, Brundle grabbed the initiative in his opening stint but was left defenseless against an unleashed Olivier Hart who after the stops pulled out the fastest laps to win by 13 seconds.

“That was short, but nice”, said David Hart, who had a safety car and a FCY to contend with during his opening sting. “Wehad a little clash with the other Ferrari [of Alex Ames], but he came to me to apologise, so it’s okay, I don’t care. It’s plastic.”

“I thought it would be a bit drier”, said Olivier Hart. “My dad came in and he told me straight away, watch out, it’s very wet. So, it was a bit tricky towards the end, but I could manage and just do my lap times, and overtook Brundle on the inside after the old pits.”

In a fraught and action-packed contest, Alex Brundle’s Lola T70 Mk3B was caught and passed right on the line by Gonçalo Gomes in the Lola T296, the Portuguese driver eating into Brundle’s lead in the closing tours before they bumped into each other on their to a photo finish that Gomes decided in his favour by 0.048 seconds. Dan Eagling’s Royale RP17 and the other ex-Escuderia Montjuich Ferrari 512M of Alex Ames/Lukas Halusa also featured in the opening half but dropped to fifth and sixth respectively.

“The car was a bit hard to drive, it was a bit too much towards the dry settings”, said Gomes about being able to up his pace towards the end. “I’m sorry about the little bump at the end, but that’s racing.”

“It really was a great finish”, said Brundle. “It’s a shame about the contact in these old machines. I try and avoid it if I can. There’s only so much you can steer out! But yeah, it was a great race. So yeah, I had a great time, and the conditions finally turned up today, so I hope everybody enjoyed watching. I’ll have to have a look back at those final few corners. I think he had a bit more direction change than me, and he was driving it brilliantly behind me.”

Fourth overall went to John Spiers and Nigel Greensall, whose McLaren M1B blitzed the pre-66 Hulme class. Steve Seaman and Andy Newall took eighth overall en route to second place in class in their Lola T70 Mk2 Spyder, with the Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ a distant third. The Bonnier class was handed a dramatic finish when the dominant Chevron B8 of Stephen Nuttall and Darren Burke faltered on the final lap, leaving David Balfour’s similar Chevron to inherit the class win from Julian Thomas/David Denyer and Chris & Freddie Lillingston-Price in two more B8s.

Aiming to create a great finish to a slightly moist Saturday at the Silverstone Festival, the Masters Sports Car Legends cars came out to race for 50 minutes into the early evening. Two Ferraris stormed off into the lead to have a mighty ding-dong on the opening lap, with Alex Ames quickly reaching the front to pass David Hart for first position on the second lap. Behind them, Alex Brundle and Gonçalo Gomes briefly touched in pursuit of the Italian cars, with Brundle’s Lola getting in front of the Portuguese driver’s Lola T296, while Andy Willis in the other Lola T70 Mk3B and Dan Eagling’s Royale RP17 also got past, as did John Spiers in the McLaren M1B that was first of the pre-66 Hulme class runners.

Further on into lap 2, however, the safety car was out, as Carlos De Quesada had found the gravel in his Chevron B36. That’s wasn’t all, as Chris Porritt’s Chevron B19 and Kyle Tilley’s T70 Mk3B were also in the wars, as was Paul Cope’s March 75S. Meanwhile in 13th overall, Stephan Nuttall’s Chevron B8 led the Bonnier class from David Balfour and Julian Thomas in two similar Chevrons. In the Hulme class, Billy Bellinger in the Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ and Richard McAlpine in the second McLaren M1B were a long way back from Spiers, but still in a respective second and third in class, as the field continued to circulate behind the safety car for two more laps.

At the restart, Ames went wide into Abbey to momentarily recover but Hart (D.) was through into The Loop anyway, with Brundle following through. Going into Copse, Brundle put his foot down to storm past the Dutchman to claim the lead, as Ames aimed to sneak through as well – the two Ferraris briefly touched, with Hart remaining in front for now. Meanwhile, Gomes had recovered to fourth ahead of Eagling and Willis who fiercely disputed fifth. In sixth, Spiers led the Chevron B19 of Frenchman Christian Vaglio-Giors, with Tim De Silva up next in the Taydec Mk3. Soon, though, a Full Course Yellow was declared as Nick Pink’s Lola T210 had run into to trouble while Katsu Kubota’s Lotus 30 had also ground to a halt.

Such was the pace of events that almost no-one in the lead positions had noticed that the pit window in this 50-minute race had already opened – apart from John Spiers, who used the FCY to hand over to quick Nigel Greensall, and De Silva in the Taydec. Further down in the field, more cars came pouring in for their mandatory stop, all hoping to profit from the situation.

As Brundle continued to put in the fastest laps of the race to lead the two Ferraris by four seconds, the 512Ms were indeed in on the next lap, Olivier Hart taking over from his father while Lukas Halusa would take over from Ames. They were followed in by Gomes (driving solo, as James Claridge elected not to drive), Eagling and Vaglio-Giors, the latter handing over Xavier Michel. From tenth overall, Michael Gans was in with his Lola T290. On lap 9, though, Brundle made his stop – but not to make way for Gary Pearson! The F2 commentator was followed in by Andy Willis, as Stephan Joebstl got in, with the leading Bonnier-class Chevrons in next, Darren Burke taking the wheel from Nuttall, and David Denyer taking over from Thomas.

On lap 11, the big picture emerging from the cycle of pitstops was Brundle still leading, now four seconds ahead of Olivier Hart in the first Ferrari, but the young Dutchman was pounding in the fastest laps – in fact, the fastest lap of all. Gomes was third ahead of Halusa, but the Austrian was harried by Greensall in the pre-66-class-leading McLaren, who in turn had Dan Eagling’s Royale pushing behind him in sixth overall. Joebstl was falling away in seventh, but Halusa’s countryman held a big 50-second gap over Burke in the fastest of the Chevron B8s. Gans was ninth while De Silva rounded out the top ten for now. In 11th, Andy Newall emerged in second in the pre-66 class, having taken over the wheel of Steve Seaman’s Lola T70 Mk2 Spyder and now ahead of Keith Ahlers in the Cooper Monaco started by Bellinger.

With 13 minutes remaining, Hart Jnr continued his hunt of Brundle, and as soon as the Ferrari had reached the Lola, it blasted past into the lead. On lap 13, young Olivier’s lead over Brundle had grown to 1.3 seconds, with Gomes inching closer, nine seconds down on the leader. Greensall had stormed up into fourth, leaving Eagling and Halusa behind, as Joebstl continued to circulate in no man’s land. Burke led the Bonnier class in eighth, with Balfour second in 12th overall and Denyer third in 15th overall.

Two barnstorming laps by Olivier Hart were enough to put no less than five seconds between himself and Brundle in second place, while Gomes had closed the gap to the closed-top Lola to seven seconds. The Greensall group with Eagling and Halusa was 20 seconds behind and looked stuck where it was, with seven minutes still remaining.

As the clock ticked down to zero, the Hart Ferrari looked a safe bet for victory, leaving Brundle behind by ten seconds and more, but Gomes in the open-top Lola T296 had Brundle in his visor now, having cut his deficit to a mere second. Greensall was had fourth and the pre-66 class win in the pocket as he continued to lead Eagling and Halusa, while Burke had deposed De Silva and moved up into seventh as Joebstl’s Lola was slowing down more and more.

At the front, Olivier Hart had a bit more fun to lower the fastest lap by two more full seconds to win by 13 seconds from Gomes who stole second place right on the line as he and Brundle came side-by-side out of the final corner and bumped into each other as they crossed the finish 48 thousands apart. John Spiers and Nigel Greensall bagged another pre-66 Hulme-class win in fourth, with Eagling in fifth and the second Ferrari of Alex Ames/Lukas Halusa in sixth.

More drama ensued in the Bonnier class when the Nuttall/Burke Chevron B8 expired on the final lap to hand the win to David Balfour. As a result, Thomas/Denyer took second while Chris & Freddie Lillingston-Price inherited third in class. The demise of the Chevron allowed Gans into seventh overall ahead of the Steve Seaman/Andy Newall Lola T70 Mk2 Spyder, that took second in the Hulme class. In 17th overall, the Ahlers/Bellinger Cooper Monaco took a distant third in class.