12 September 2022
Mark Holme made it a double class win at Silverstone, as Equipe Classic Racing brought down the curtain on their 2022 Season.
First out for the Carsafe Team was The Austin Healey 3000 in the Pre 63/50’s Sports Cars. “I got my quickest time on the last lap of qualifying. The track was drying quickly and I had improved by over two seconds,” he said after qualifying first in class and fourth overall.
It was a dramatic start to the race but Holme emerged in a clear second overall. “I had a reasonable start and it was three abreast into Maggotts, before the leading Jaguar E-Type missed his braking point and I dived for the inside to miss any contact with the next two Healeys,” he explained.
The E-Type managed to recover the lead, but Holme was well clear too after both of the Healeys spun on the second lap.
After starting from the pitlane Dafydd Richards’ Lotus XI came storming through and was ahead out of Woodcote on the 14th lap, as they all held station to the pitstops.
“It was just about managing it,” Holme added, after he managed to close in on Laurent’s E-Type again to retake second six laps from home and secure a dominant class win.
It was a swap to his MGB for the Equipe GTS race, fifth in class after qualifying. “I spun at Brooklands on cold tyres on my out lap, then got clean air on the drying track. But it wasn’t as dry as I thought and spun again at Copse,” he explained.
He was nearly off again at Brooklands on the first lap of the race, “I just went in too fast following Willmott’s TVR when he went off, so got a bit sideways,” he said.
He fought his way back to seventh and was in a great duel with Steve Winter’s Porsche until the latter retired. But with a few more casualties he was left on his own for the last few laps, to take his second class win of the day and fourth overall.