White wins Heritage Silverstone race one comfortably

Ollie White proved himself again to be the one to beat in Heritage FF1600 by easily winning a red flag-interrupted first race at Silverstone. This was his second win from three this season.

The race was stopped after two laps when Crossle driver Scott Guthrie and Jack Clayton in his Van Diemen RF89 went off at the exit of Copse, possibly on oil. The reconvened race lasted for 10 minutes rather than the scheduled 15.

White had said in advance that Silverstone’s slipstreaming should make it a close battle, but in the event his Van Diemen streaked clear of Lewis Fox’s second-placed Duckhams-liveried Van Diemen RF92 by around a second a lap to win by 12 seconds.

Jaap Blijleven finished third in his Reynard FF88, 2.6s shy of Fox and just a tenth ahead of Paul Crosbie, who is racing against much more modern machinery in his 1980 Van Diemen.

More oil on the track, this time at Brooklands, also accounted for Neil Tofts’ Reynard 88FF late on as he spun from fourth place with two laps to go then immediately pitted.

Andrew Higginbottom finished fifth in his Van Diemen RF88. He was another to spin at Brooklands but was fortunate to do so just before the red flag, allowing him to take his original place at the restart. Samuel Street finished sixth in his Swift 92F

Twenty cars participated in the second meeting of James Beckett’s new series.

Race results