55th ’Holly’ Birkett 6Hr Handicap Relay race
30th October 2004 : Silverstone National
Since 1950 the 750 Motor Club has run a classic end of season motor race, a hidden jewel in British club racing. This year's event happens tomorrow, and there's a PistonHeads Team, so come and join us.
The race is capped at 42 teams of four to six cars each, which means up to 252 cars descending on Silverstone. There'll be 42 starters on the grid trying to get to the finish and win a coveted trophy for team work and reliability.
There are five different classes for teams of a wide variety of cars, each team has two options, go for an outright win on scratch performance, or allow the 750 MC to credit your team with a number of "handicap" laps calculated against drivers lap times for Silverstone National Circuit.
The handicap system is to ensure that, in theory at least; all cars finish on the same number of laps after six hours.
This leads to a huge variety of cars and lap times. On the sheets so far the quickest car is a TR7 v8 with a 56.899 seconds, quicker than the fastest radical showing a 59.23.
The slowest on the entry sheets being an Austin seven with a 1:41:52.
Team PH is sitting with the majority of cars ranging from 1:07 in Ed’s Westfield to 1:17 with Dom’s Midget. The trick to win is to lap consistently just below your target time, and minimise the time lost in the pits and swapping cars. If lap times are significantly below your submitted best time then the handicappers will re classify your handicap. This avoids people trying to submit high times or altering the cars specification. All of the cars run to their usual championship regulations.
The way the race works is that you have one car on the track and the others waiting in the pits. When you want to swap over the on track car enters the pits. The next car pulls out behind it and follows it to the pit exit, where the incoming car peals off to the paddock and the new car goes out on the track.
If a car stops on the track through breakdown or accident you can send your next car straight out, and the other car will be recovered to the pits. This makes it important to have spotters on the track to minimise time loss.
As a spectacle of racing cars this is an even not to miss a sample of the cars on the grid are:
- Alfa GTV
- Austin 7
- Austin A40
- BMW M3,M5
- Caterham
- Corvette
- Fisher Fury
- Ford Capri
- Ford Mustang
- Frazer Nash
- Ginetta G20R
- Ginetta G27
- Hawk HF 3000 ( Lancia Stratos replica)
- Jaguar E-Type
- Jaguar XK 150
- Locost : Stig is racing with the Bitza Team
- Lotus 7
- Lotus Elise
- Mallock
- MG Metro
- MG midget / Healy Sprite
- MG TA,TC,TF
- MGB
- Morgan Plus 8
- Porsche 911
- Porsche GTS 928
- Proton Coupe
- Radical Prosport
- Rover SD1
- TR7
- TVR Grantura
- TVR Griffith (200 & 400)
- TVR Tasmin
- TVR Tscan (1960’s)
- TVR Vixen
- VW Beetle
- Westfield
The PistonHeads team consists of:
- Graham Walden -- TVR Tasmin
- Dominic Mooney -- MG Midget
- Ed Hasler -- Westfield
- Richard Burgess -- Ginetta G20R
Assisted by the usual team helpers plus PistonHeads members:
- Phoenix -- Ande Austin
- Munter -- Phillip Bell
- Griff2be -- Andy Holden
- Cejay -- Cliff Jobson
Qualifying 09:00 – 10:20
Race Start 11:00
Race Finish 17:00
Awards 18:00
Name :- Pistonheads.com
Number :- 35
Pit Garage :-11A
Thanks to George Carter and to the team for photos.
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