Lyons doubles up in wet second Murray Walker Memorial Trophy at Silverstone

Michael Lyons completed the double by also winning the second Murray Walker Memorial Trophy for Masters Historic Formula One cars at the Classic, his Ensign N180B hitting the front on the opening lap already, having started fifth on a reversed grid for the first five in Saturday’s result.

“The first laps were very exciting for me!”, said Lyons. “But yeah, luckily I was able to get a good run through Maggotts and Becketts, and we were three-wide down to Stowe which in Formula One cars isn’t a normal thing you’d say, is it, especially when it’s battling for the lead, so yeah, a lot of fun. The job the guys have done all weekend has been really, really good, and that gave me the chance to do this.”

After 10 laps, Lyons had run out to a 14-second lead over a race-long fight between Steve Hartley’s McLaren MP4/1 and Mike Cantillon’s Williams FW07C, the latter finding a way past on the penultimate lap. Jamie Constable was a lonely fourth but saw the similar Tyrrell 011 of Ken Tyrrell approach towards the end – until Steve Brooks’ Lotus 91 pipped the American for fifth right at the end.

“Fantastic race, congratulations to Michael, and Steve actually drove brilliantly”, said Cantillon. “It was really hard to track Stevie down, he was on it, and I was quite fortunate to come across a backmarker, which gave me a gap to slip through the middle.”

“I expected there to be more grip than I actually got”, said Hartley. “But when Mike passed me I realised we were all fighting for grip.”

Lukas Halusa, who had started from the reverse pole, lost seventh to Warren Briggs’ McLaren M29 on the final tour, but still dominantly won the pre-78 class in his McLaren M23, keeping many other cars between himself and Jonathan Holtzman’s Tyrrell P34 and Chris Perkins’ Surtees TS16. Having started from the back of the grid, Mark Hazell made up many places to take ninth overall and the post-82 class win in his Williams FW08, beating Ian Simmonds in the Tyrrell 012, who ended up in 12th overall.

With a reversed grid of the first five of Saturday’s results, Lukas Halusa and Steve Hartley were on the front row, with Constable and Cantillon on row 2, with Warren Briggs joining Saturday’s winner Michael Lyons on the third row. On a damp track, the first five got through in their initial order until Luffield where Lyons dealt with Constable while at Copse he had got himself up to third – and then, while Hartley pipped Halusa for the lead on the Hangar Straight, Lyons outbraked both into Stowe to take the lead as early as on the opening lap!

Halfway into lap 2, Cantillon and Constable had moved into third and fourth at the expense of Halusa, the field now resuming its more customary order, with the Austrian leading Briggs, Ken Tyrrell, Steve Brooks and Neil Glover, while from the back of the grid Mark Hazell made quick progress too – in fact, at the end of the lap, the Williams FW08 was up into tenth.

At the end of lap 3, Lyons led Hartley by 4.8 seconds, with Cantillon a further 1.7 seconds behind while Constable had lost touch and was now 21 ticks behind the leader. Halusa led a closely grouped quartet that included Briggs’ McLaren M29, Tyrrell’s Tyrrell 011, Brooks’ Lotus 91 and Hazell’s FW08, the latter now ninth ahead of Glover and leading the post-82 class from Ian Simmonds whose Tyrrell 012 was in 12th overall, trailing Mark Harrison’s Shadow DN9. Behind them, Paul Tattersall’s Ensign N179 was 13th while Jonathan Holtzman’s Tyrrell P34 sixwheeler fought Chris Perkins in the Surtees TS16 for second place in the pre-78 class that was again consummately led by Halusa.

On lap 5, Tyrrell bravely passed Halusa at Luffield to take fifth place, while Brooks had passed Briggs for seventh. At the front, going into lap 6, Lyons further improved on his best lap time to increase his lead to nine seconds while Hartley maintained his 1.6-second lead over Cantillon. Further back, Brooks went up another place by outbraking Halusa around the outside at Stowe.

Lap 7 meant another fastest lap for Lyons, who now comfortably led the pursuing duo by 11 seconds. Behind Hartley and Cantillon, however, the two Denim-liveried Tyrrell 011s were in a race of their own, Ken Tyrrell catching Constable at a rapid pace, as Harrison completed a pass on Glover for tenth.

On lap 9, Lyons missed running out the clock by 1 second, and so was given another lap, winning the race by 14 seconds. The additional lap allowed Cantillon a final opportunity to beat Hartley – which he duly grabbed, so it was Cantillon in second, and Hartley in third. Constable held off Tyrrell for fourth – and in fact, Brooks had caught and passed the American for fifth. Behind them, yet another late position change took place when Briggs passed Halusa to take seventh, but the Austrian still easily claimed a second pre-78 class win from Holtzman and Perkins. In ninth, Hazell was a class winner too, taking the post-82 class from Simmonds.