Nurburgring Report and Season Wrap-up.

A full field of 16 cars took to the grid on the Nurburgring Nordschleife ‘s long straight for the final round of the RLLMUK Historic Trophy’s first season.


A big grid for the final race.

A single double-length, double-points race formed the meeting format and as you might expect, 4 laps around the Ring gave rise to both some excellent battles, but also some attrition and walking wounded.


Kurzheck’s big roll.


Dudley leads in the midfield battle. Later in the race, damage would drop him back.

The first major casualty was Kurzheck in the Toyota. A roll at the left kink between Fuchsrohe and Adenauer-Forst left the 2000GT in a sorry state and very down on top speed even after a visit to the pits.


Up front, series newcomer Smith77 diced with Meatball in a true David-And-Goliath tussle. Meatball, however, held on to take the win after a gruelling race.



So, those champions.

Winner (Overall):
Meatball46. a surprise to literally no-one, this was on the cards since the first race. mastered a fast, but clearly difficult car, and rarely put a wheel wrong. Domination to such a degree that he scored nearly double the points of his nearest rival, despite missing the Sears point meeting.

Winner (Class O):
Meatball46 again (sealed this before Christmas). he won his class in every race he entered.

Winner (Class U):
Balhambadger. the BMW CSL also picked up second in the Class-specific standings in the hands of Dudley.
So it’s over, and all that’s left is to thank all the competitors for taking part and making for such an entertaining, and mostly incident-free racing championship.
The Next season starts soon, soo watch this blog for more info this week about the ’73-93 roadsports and the Group A touring cars series.

Meeting 4 Report - Infineon

Connection problems and scheduling conflicts for a couple of series regulars contributed to a slightly diminished grid for this week's Historic Trophy meeting, but the smaller field certainly didn't mean a lack of action.


The field get under way in Sonoma, California.

The twisting nature of the track was expected to lead to domination by the smaller cars in the field, the Nissan 240z in particular, so it was something of an upset that the top spots in qualifying were taken up by some of the larger cars competing in the series.


Dudley's BMW leads the field through the Carousel.

The star of Race 1 was clearly Joe McSpeed in his 240z - with a storming drive from 7th on the grid to the lead. Morcs' performance in the O-Class Camaro was also notable as his 4th place finish was his best in the series, a result he then repeated in race two. Third place was taken by Badger Gravling in the Chevy Nova, another result that was repeated in both races.


The twisting backstretch is a serious test of car and driver.

The second-place finisher in that first race was Dudley in the BMW, who improved on that in race two with his debut win. His recent run of form has moved him into second place in the overall championship, and the lead of the Under-5-litre Class. (The previous leader, Balhambadger, also a BMW driver, was unable to compete this week.).


Dudley (BMW) and Joe McSpeed (Datsun), this week's race winners.

Both races saw battles between the Mustangs of Beezerly and RichXM655, and in fact there was action all the way down the field.


The midfield Mustang-Pontiac battle wasn't without casualties. Specifically, brake markers.

Sadly technical difficulties saw Meerman and ThaForce record DNFs in Race 1.


ThaForce (Muira) and Meerman(Corvette) dropped out early on with technical issues.

As we move towards the final meeting of the series, we already have one champion to crown, which is Meatball in the Chevy Corvette C2, taking Class O honours. The close competition, with no clear class challenger emerging across the series, means that his points total is insurmountable, so we congratulate him on a well-earned class championship.

The overall points totals also have Meatball in a commanding position, where he only needs to score 4 more points in the final race to be certain of victory. however, the Nurburgring Nordschleife is an unforgiving racetrack and there can be no guarantee of anything...

Meeting 3 Report.

Meeting 3 of the RLLMUK Historic Trophy, held at Mugello, saw 15 cars take to the track for a pair of 8-lap races.

Meatball’s Corvette in Pole Position.

Victory in both races fell to the combination of Meatball and his C2 corvette, which still seems to be the class of the field, leading both races from lights to flag.

Meatball leading, again.

In what’s becoming a case of a “best of the rest” battle, the BMW 3.0 litre CSLs of Dudley and Balhambadger took a second-place result each. Badger Gravling’s Chevy Nova took 3rd place in the meeting’s first race, and Balhambadger visited the podium again in race 2 with a third place finish.

Nose-to-tail running as the Field come out of the long right-hand sweep at the south end of the circuit

This meeting saw a few more incidents then previous weeks – this is probably due to a closing up of the field’s level of competitiveness. Multi-way battles were the norm as once again we saw small cars dominate the corners and larger cars power down the main straight.

An early incident in Race 2 Saw Badger Gravling’s Chevy spinning across the main straight right in the path of several battling cars. Miraculously, there was no further contact as the field came through.

As the meeting drew to a close, spectators were treated to an epic battle between BalhamBadger’s BMW and RichXM655’s Mustang, as the Ford driver tried desperately to keep the charging CSL at bay. After 3 laps of defensive driving, Rich left the smallest gap open and didn’t close it quickly enough. Contact ensued, dropping the red Mustang from 3rd to 6th, which after the race both drivers judged as a racing incident.

BalhamBadger’s BMW harrases RichXM655’s Mustang for 3rd in Race 2.

Next week, Infineon raceway, where cornering performance will dominate above all. Drivers of the bigger cars are looking nervously at their setups...

Meeting Report 2 - Silverstone

A full grid of gorgeous classic racers!

The second meeting of the Historic Trophy saw a full grid of 16 cars take to the track last night. Several new series entries meant for some nerve-wracking moments as the field powered its way towards turn 1.

Dimahoo gets Sideways out of Copse.

Once again, Meatball took a win in his C2 Corvette, with Beezerly taking the top spot in Race 2. And once again, we saw a fairly even spread through the field of U and O class cars, showing a good balance between the two classes’ strengths and weaknesses.

Badger Gravling’s Ford Fairlane drag racer was an amusing participant, but won’t be returning.

New Entrant Joe McSpeed made a good showing in his hastily-prepared 240z, and BalhamBadger shrugged off having to make technical changes to his BMW by claiming a pair of podium finishes.

The midfield scramble through Becketts.

Meatball now has a comfortable lead in both the Overall and Class O standings, with Beezerly leading the Class U table.

Kurzheck's Toyota negotiates Bridge.

Next week, the sweeps and swoops (and long front straight) of Mugello.

Road America Meeting Report

The first meeting of the RLLMUK Historic Trophy was a great success, with 12 cars on the grid and some great close racing between closely matched, but very different cars.



While the long straights allowed the big-block v8s time to sing, the challenging sweeping corners would give the smaller, better handling cars plenty of opportunity to catch up and pass while the big cars struggled in the turns.

Both races saw a similar pattern at the front, with Meatball46 (Chevrolet Corvette) and ThaForce (Lamborghini Muira) battling for the lead. Meatball took race 1, ThaForce, race 2. Third place honours went to Beezerly in Race 1, and RichXM655 in race 2, both driving identical Ford 289 Mustangs. There was plenty of action down the field though, with notable, multi-way battles involving nearly all the competitors- Meerman’s Corvette had significant handling issues, but made up for it down the straights with prodigious power. The two BMW 3.0 CSLs of Dudley and BalhamBadger also saw action, as well as the lighter cars of SharkyOB (Ferrari Dino) and Kurzheck (Toyota 2000GT). These smaller cars were dicing with some cars with double the power outputs, making for some exciting racing with constant changes of position.
Late entrant Karzee seemed to struggle with the Jaguar E-type in race one, but a switch to an Alfa Romeo GTA seemed to make things a bit better. Boozy the clown recorded 7th in race 1, but a last place in the second race, and Morcs in the Chevy Camaro was the epitome of mid-table respectability with a 6th and a 7th place.

Next week, the series moves to Silverstone’s international circuit- the tighter layout and shorter straights seem certain to promote close racing as those big v8s struggle to put all that power down.