Silverstone Classic 2019

Several mechanical issues caused a big upset for the CarSafe team at the country’s biggest classic racing weekend.

The Legends endurance race was first on the agenda, and the team, which included Mark Holme and Nigel Greensall, had qualified second in class and seventh overall. There were high hopes for a good race, but on the opening lap an electrical failure forced the Healey to retire.

For the Pre ’66 race the team began in 15th. In a familiar turn of events, the race was packed with racing incidents. In his first stint, Holme had a near miss when a  bonnet detached from a Mustang in front and hit Holme. Thankfully, the Cortina only endured some body damage, and Holme, shaken by the incident, managed to maintain focus and began his ascent in the timesheet. Greensall was next in for Holme and continued the climb. He was in 14^th when an Alfa Romeo failed to brake in time, smashing into the back quarter of the Cortina. This disastrous turn of events not only ended the race for the CarSafe team, but also the damage has also resulted in ending the season three races early.

The final race of the weekend for CarSafe was the Gentleman Drivers race. A distributor problem in qualifying saw the team start in 47^th out of 64 cars. The team started well, however, and pushed through the pack into P22 (and P2 in class). During Greensall’s stint, a sparkplug cap worked its way loose, dropping the car to only five cylinders. This meant that the team was losing five seconds per lap due to the lack of power.

The drivers kept fighting on and were able to bring the Healey home P3 in class. “We were only 0.3s off P1 in class,” said Holme. “We would have won the class and been fighting with the front runners if it wasn’t for the mechanical failure. This weekend has been marred by bad weather, no testing and a lack of mechanical attention to detail,” Holme concluded.