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1972 Oulton Park 
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Esso Uniflo Trophy

Thruxton, Hampshire, Great-Britain

Date: 3/4/1972
Track length: 3.791 m
Attendance:
Entries accepted:
Starters:
Finishers:

Pole position: Muir in 1.26,0
Fastest lap: Gardner in 1.25,4

Distance: 25 laps
Average speed:
Weather:
Ruleset: Group 2/70
Car info: 1972 Cars

 

The Wiggins Teape Paperchase circus moved down to Thruxton for its second Easter thrash and provided the crowd with the best entertainment.
The entry was virtually identical to that at Oulton Park and the front row of the grid looked much the same with Frank Gardner in the middle, despite some early oil emulsifying problems with the SCA Camaro. Brian Muir was on pole with the Gartlan Ford Capri, whilst on the outside was the Norman Reeves/Stirling Cooper Escort of Dave Brodie.
The first lap was incredibly hectic with Dave Matthews in the Melton Racing Escort making a charging start from row two and almost snatching the lead.
But, at the first corner, it was Dave Brodie out in front followed by Gardner, and this pair completed the rest of the lap almost side by side with Gardner finally snatching the lead at the chicane. From that point Gardner never actually lost the lead but that certainly does not mean he had things easy. Soon it was Muir who was challenging strongly with Matthews and Crabtree hounding the Capri. At mid-distance the big boys were well and truly mixed up with the umpteen Minis and Imps and Muir really looked as if he was about to nip by Gardner at any moment. Martin Thomas was the second of the V8 cars, with the Flame-Out Camaro, but the car extinguished itself when the gearbox broke - Martin had thought the brakes had gone and used the gearbox to slow down; after the race, the brakes were fine...

About the same time Muir started to drop back as the shining blue Capri went on to five cylinders, and then four, so Muir retired on lap 22 - two injection trumpets had shaken loose. Brodie was out of the running, too, with a fractured exhaust system and, in the closing stages, it was left to Matthews to keep Gardner on his toes.
But, on the last lap, the Escort went sick and Gardner's 6.4s margin at the finish hardly reflects how hard he had to work for victory. Matthews stuttered into second spot ahead of Terry Sanger's ex-Muir Camaro while Dennis Leech, in his 7-litre Mustang, was the only other man not to be lapped.
Mike Crabtree had retired on lap 19 with no oil pressure so the next man up was Willy Kay driving the same car that had given Willie Green the class second at Oulton.
Kay just held off up to 1300 cc class winner Vince Woodman, who pulled out quite a margin on his nearest rival, Jonathan Buncombe.
David Howes' noisy American Motors Javelin is still not sorted yet and he misfired his way round to eighth place: he even attacked the chicane on the last lap.
In fact, he just held off the omnipresent (no, it isn't rude!) Bill McGovern who scored yet another Imp class win after a gigantic scrap with 1300 Mini man Chris Montague. These completed the first 10.
Now with three Paper Chases complete, McGovern and Matthews still tie with maximum points and Gardner close behind.

Touring Cars class A-D
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine		 Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)		 Engine
Type		 Group Distance,
time		 Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out
1 1 5 SCA Freight Ltd.
Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Mk2		 Frank Gardner, AUS
 5736 V8 D 25 laps, 36.42,2 2 1.26,8 1.25,4  
2 1 30 Melton Racing with Broadspeed
Ford Escort RS 1600		 Dave Matthews, GB
 1798 L4 C 25 laps, 36.48,6 4 1.27,6 1.26,6  
3 2 10 Research Consultants Ltd.
Chevrolet Camaro Z28		 Terry Sanger, GB
 4956 V8 D 25 9 1.30,0    
4 3 6  
Ford Mustang Boss 429		 Dennis Leech, GB
 7030 V8 D 25 8 1.30,0    
5 2   Willy Kay
Ford Escort RS 1600		 Willy Kay, GB
 1800 L4 C 24 10 1.33,4    
6 1 55 VMW Motors
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Vince Woodman, GB
 1298 L4 B 24 13 1.34,2 1.32,6  
7 2 61 Richard Longman & Co.
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Jonathan Buncombe, GB
 1293 L4 B 24 11 1.33,6    
8 4 2  
AMC Javelin		 David Howes, GB
 6390 V8 D 23   1.37,6    
9 1 1 George Bevan
Hillman Imp		 Bill McGovern, GB
 998 L4 A 23   1.37,0 1.36,6  
10 3 63  
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Chris Montague, GB
 1293 L4 B 23        
11 4 70 VMW Motors
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Ted Savory, GB
 1298 L4 B 23        
12 2 80  
Hillman Imp		 Melvyn Adams, GB
 998 L4 A 23   1.38,6    
13 5 68  
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Gordon Dawkins, GB
 1293 L4 B 22        
14 3    
BMC Mini Cooper		 Mo Mendham, GB
 998 L4 A 22        
15 6    
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Richard Piper, GB
 1293 L4 B 22        
16 4 82  
BMC Mini Cooper		 Jeremy Bean, GB
 998 L4 A 22        
17 7    
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Barry Johnson, GB
 1293 L4 B 21        
NC   51  
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Andrew Rollason, GB
 1298 L4 B 20        
DNF   8 Malcolm Gartlan Racing/Wiggings Teape Ltd.
Ford Capri RS 2600		 Brian Muir, AUS
 2940 V6 D 21 1 1.26,0   Engine
DNF   78 Stapleton Motors Racing Promotions
Hillman Imp		 Adrian Webb, GB
 998 L4 A 18        
DNF   26 John Willment Racing
Ford Escort RS 1600		 Mike Crabtree, GB
 1930 L4 C 17 6 1.28,4   Oil pump drive
DNF   4 W.M.G. Marketing
Chevrolet Camaro		 Martin Thomas, GB
   V8 D 16 5 1.27,8   Gearbox
DNF   28 Norman Reeves/Stirling Cooper
Ford Escort RS 1600		 Dave Brodie, GB
 1987 L4 C 13 3 1.27,4   Exhaust
DNF   3 Cona Coffee
Ford Mustang Boss 302		 Martin Birrane, IRL
 ca. 5000 V8 D 2 7 1.28,8   Engine
DNF   59  
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Jon Mowatt, GB
 1293 L4 B   12 1.33,8    
DNF      
Ford Escort 1300 GT		 Dave Garrett, GB
 1298 L4 B         Oil leak
DNS   62 Ken Costello
BMC Mini Cooper S		 Rob Mason, GB
 1293 L4 B         Engine
DNS      
Ford Escort TC		 Zekia Redjep, GB
 1594 L4 B         Engine