A Thrilling Weekend on the Track at Thruxton and Silverstone; June 12-13, 2021

The weekend of June 12-13 was a busy one for the team at DK Engineering, with James Cottingham and Harvey Stanley competing at the Thruxton Historic, as well and David Cottingham and Adrian King at the MGCC MG Race Meeting at Silverstone.

At Thruxton, James and Harvey had a busy day in front of them, with qualifying for both the Stirling Moss Trophy and Pre ’63 GT race in the morning, followed by both races a few hours later in the afternoon. With the Stirling Moss Trophy up first, James and Harvey performed well to qualify in third with the Tojeiro-Jaguar in a hotly contested grid, with a Lotus 15 and Lister Knobbly in front of them. For the Pre ’63 GT qualifying session, the pair superbly piloted the Huffaker E-Type to pole position.

Fighting to get to the front of the grid in the Tojeiro-Jaguar, James and Harvey managed to move up one position and cross the line in second overall, behind the Lister Knobbly of Chris Ward and Rob Smith. Just over one hour later, the Pre ’63 GT saw the Huffaker E-Type start on pole and retain the lead right through the end of the race to take the checkered flag.

Regarding the races on Saturday, James said: “Thruxton is always a thrilling circuit to wiz round, as its extremely fast and very technical. With that said, it adds an added level of complication in terms of tyre management. As we saw with both cars we had to change the left rear after only 40 minutes of running, but we were thrilled to finish 2nd overall in the Tojeiro, followed by a win in the E-Type.”

On Sunday, Harvey teamed up with William Paul in another E-Type to contest the Jaguar Classic Challenge. Although the pair qualified 6th on the grid, their luck started to run out while the car began to run rough and misfire, and sadly they were forced to retire early after a hard-fought seventeen laps of racing.

As for Harvey: “Having briefly tested the Tojeiro but not managed to race it, it was great to sit in the seat where some big names, including Jim Clark, Masten Gregory, and Ron Flockhart had sat once before, and amazing to go hell for leather in a race and wind up on the podium. On a personal note, my mother and father who have been shielding for 18 months were there in person to watch, which truly made this weekend very special.”

In addition to the on-track action, DK Engineering are proud sponsors of Motor Racing Legends and have sponsored the Pre ‘63 GT series in particular since 2018. The sales team had a lovely assortment of cars on display at the Motor Racing Legends hospitality marquee to cater to all tastes, including an Austin-Healey 100S and Ferrari 250 SWB, both previous competitors in historic racing, as well as a rare U.K.-delivery Porsche 993 Turbo S and a Giallo Modena Ferrari F50, one of just thirty-one finished in that colour.

Over at Silverstone, the duo of David Cottingham and Adrian King shared David’s beautiful AC Ace Bristol for the Equipe 50s race around the Grand Prix circuit.

With David competing on Saturday, he qualified second in class and managed to hold off that position for the race, crossing the line in second in class. Sunday would see the results improve and with Adrien behind the wheel, the Ace Bristol finished first in class.

Thrilled with their results, Adrian said; “It was my first time on the GP circuit, which was exciting and a little nerve racking! David had set the gauntlet by finishing 2nd in class in Saturdays race and keeping the Ace in fine fettle. There were fewer cars on the grid for the Sunday race but still some close, familiar competition. After a reasonable start only losing one position to Mark Ellis in his MGA twin-cam into Copse, I set about chasing Jamie Mason in his Turner mk2. I kept him under pressure didn't have quite enough to take advantage of the nimble little car which would pull away every lap out of Arena. It was a race long battle, and the Ace ran faultlessly apart from the tyres overheating towards the end. It was a brilliant weekend, especially considering that I managed to win the class and bring home a trophy!"

Photos courtesy of Jeff Bloxham, Andrew Coles, and David Cottingham.