Formula Ford Racing

 

This is a photograph that I took at the Knickerbrook chicane during the HSCC Historic Formula Ford race at the Historic Sports Car Club's Summer Race Meeting at Oulton Park in July 1992.

Leading is Gary Pearson in his 1971 Merlyn Mk20 followed by the 1971 Crossle 20F of Mike Whatley and the 1969 Lotus 61 of Simon Hadfield.

Friday's Ferrari

This is one of the cars that took part in the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It’s the 1970 4,993cc V12 Ferrari 512 S of Brandon Wang that was driven in that race by Gary Pearson. Twenty five examples of the Ferrari 512 were produced, allowing it to be homologated into the FIA's Group 5 Sports Car Category, and this car is chassis 1016. It was developed to challenge the Porsche 917 in the International Championship for Makes but won only one race in the 10 round Championship (Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vacarella/Mario Andretti at Sebring in 1970), although the Ferrari team picked up two second and four third places to finish that season in second place to Porsche.

Friday's Ferrari

This is one of the cars that took part in the Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's Paul Pappalardo's 1967 Ferrari 412 P, also known as a P3/P4, which was a customer version of the Ferrari 330 P3. Both cars have a 3,967cc V12 engine, but the 330 P3 has Lucas fuel injection whilst the 412 P has six Weber carburettors - which gives it slightly less power than the fuel injection cars and made the private entries less likely to beat the works cars. Paul Pappalardo's car is chassis #0850 and was originally built for the Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps team. hence the yellow Belgian racing colour. Only two cars were originally built as 412 Ps, #0850 and #0854. Two cars were built as 330 P3s, #0844 and #0848, but were later converted to 412 P specification. The car was driven in the race by Gary Pearson.

1959 Lister Jaguar

Gary Pearson drove this car in the Louis Vuitton '50s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's a 1959 Lister Jaguar and is bearing the white bodywork with blue stripes that adorned the second of these Costin bodied cars to be made, chassis BHL123, which went to the American Briggs Cunningham's racing team. Gary Pearson at one point restored the former Briggs Cunningham car, and his car at Silverstone has the same 6-cylinder inline 3,781cc Jaguar XK engine that was fitted to BHL123. The 1959 car was designed by Frank Costin to accommodate a Chevrolet Corvette engine, which most of them did, although a few of the cars used the same Jaguar engine as the earlier Lister 'Knobbly' cars.

1955 Cooper Jaguar

This car competed in the HGPCA Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Gary Pearson's 1955 Cooper Jaguar T38, chassis CJ-3-55, with a 6-cylinder inline 3,442cc engine and one of three cars built by Cooper for endurance sports car racing. One of the cars competed in the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour race, but retired after 4 hours with an oil leak.

1986 Ecosse C286

This car took part in the 2 hour long British Empire Trophy race at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001 driven by Mike Wilds and Gary Pearson.

It's a 1986 Ecosse C286 that competed in the C2 Class of Group C series racing in 1986 and 1987. The C286 was campaigned by the Ecurie Ecosse team and originally had a 3 litre Austin-Rover V6 engine. In the 1986 season the car gained C2 Class wins at the Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps and Fuji but at Le Mans was disqualified in the early hours of the Sunday morning for receiving outside assistance after an accident following a burst tyre. For 1987 the Austin-Rover engine was replaced by a 3,298cc V8 Ford Cosworth DFL engine and the car won the C2 Class at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. At Le Mans in 1987 the Ecosse driven by David Leslie, Ray Mallock and Marc Duez finished in eighth place overall and was second in the C2 Class to a Spice SE86C. 

Friday's Ferrari

 This car took part in the Italian Historic Car Cup race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1969 4,993cc V12 Ferrari 512S of Carlos Monteverde who shared the driving in the hour long race with Gary Pearson. Twenty five examples of the Ferrari 512 were produced, allowing it to be homologated into the FIA's Group 5 Sports Car Category, and this car is chassis 1016. It was developed to challenge the Porsche 917 in the International Championship for Makes but won only one race in the 10 round Championship (Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vacarella/Mario Andretti at Sebring in 1970), although the Ferrari team picked up two second and four third places to finish that season in second place to Porsche.

1963 Aston Martin DP214

This was one of the competitors in the Coys of Kensington GT Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's Simon Draper's 1963 Aston Martin DP214 in which he shared the driving in the race with Gary Pearson. This was one of two Project 214 cars built (the other being completely destroyed in an accident at the Nürburgring in 1964) and was based on DB4GT chassis 0194/R with the 3,670cc straight-6 engine bored out to 3,750cc.The car ran in the Le Mans 24 Hour race twice, retiring after 11 hours with a broken piston when in third place in 1963 driven by Bill Kimberley and Jo Schlesser, and in 1964 it was driven by Mike Salmon and Peter Sutcliffe but was disqualified after 18 hours for topping up with oil before the permitted time. It was in eleventh place at the time.

Friday's Ferrari

This car competed in the Italian Historic Car Cup race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1969 4,993cc V12 Ferrari 512 S of Carlos Monteverde who shared the driving in the hour long race with Gary Pearson. Twenty five examples of the Ferrari 512 were produced, allowing it to be homologated into the FIA's Group 5 Sports Car Category, and this car is chassis 1016.

I've shown photographs of this car previously in the hands of two previous owners, on 16 May 2014 at Silverstone in 1998 when owned by Brandon Wang, and on 12 April 2013 at Donington Park in 2003 when owned by Olivier Cazalieres.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

This car's a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB, chassis #2563GT, and was driven by Lukas Hüni and Gary Pearson in the RAC Tourist Trophy race at this meeting. The 250 GT SWB was introduced by Ferrari at the Paris Motor Show in 1959 and has the 2,953cc V12 engine that powers all the Ferrari 250 models.

On 23 May 2014 I showed a photograph of this car, together with another 250 GT SWB, at this meeting.

Jaguar D-Type

I photographed this car at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1992, where it took part in the 8 lap Historic Car Championship Race.

It's Andrew Baber's 3,781cc straight-6 1956 Jaguar D-Type and it was driven in the race by Gary Pearson. The chassis number is XKD 530 which is a car that was originally supplied to Kurt Lincoln of Helsinki and was raced also by Timo Makinen amongst others. After being campaigned in Finland for several years, including participation in ice racing, the car came into the hands of Nigel Moores in the mid-1960s. It required a complete rebuild, and at that time different parts of the car were used to create two D-Types, both bearing the XKD 530 identification. This car has the registration number XSV 979, and the other car is PAS 645.

Aston Martin Project 212

This car took part in the Coys of Kensington Pre-1964 GT Car race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1961 Aston Martin Project 212, entered in the race by Hugo Investments Ltd and driven by Gary Pearson and Mike Salmon. It was created to run in the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hour race and built on a DB4 GT chassis with an inline 6-cylinder 4 litre engine based on the DB4 GT's 3.7 litre unit. Driven in that race by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther it was amongst the leaders in the early part of the race, but retired on lap 79 after a piston failure.

On 23 January 2017 I showed a photograph of the later Aston Martin Project 214 car.

Jaguar XJR-11

This car took part in the Group C/GTP Cars race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's the JD Classics 1990 Jaguar XJR-11, driven in the race by Gary Pearson. It has a 3½ litre turbocharged V6 24 valve engine derived from the 3 litre unit of the 1985 MG 6R4 Group B rally car.

Friday's Ferrari

Two of the Ferrari 250 GT SWB models which took part in the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010. The car on the left is the 1962 model of Conrad Ulrich who shared the driving in the race with Tony Dron and is serial number 3107GT. The car on the right, a 1961 model, is serial number 2563GT and was driven in the race by Lukas Hüni and Gary Pearson.

Friday's Ferrari

One of the cars which took part in the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998, this is the 1970 Ferrari 512 S of Brandon Wang which was driven in that race by Gary Pearson.

The car is serial number 1016

Gary Pearson leaving the pit lane on a practice run in the car

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car which was entered in the Inter-Marque Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's 'Autumn Historic Car Races' meeting at Oulton Park in September 1993.

It appears to be a Ferrari 250 GTO but the programme shows it just as a Ferrari GTO of 1971, and as the 250 GTO was only made between 1962 and 1964 it's presumably a replica.

The programme shows that the car was entered in the race by Ron Cody and driven by Gary Pearson.

This is Gary Pearson during the Inter-Marque Championship race at Foulstons Chicane (now known as Britten's).