Speed race reports 2025

2025 Speed Race Reports

Championship sponsored by Bill Rawles Classic Cars and Peter May Engineering

The 2025 championship comprises 14 rounds with 10 hill climbs and 4 sprints. Scroll on down to see the race reports shown in latest first order:

Round 1 Mallory Park 26 April 2025

(Report by LC Branch with photos by Jackie Baker)

Our first round of 2025 and the first time that we have run the championship at Mallory Park. As a result, most of the drivers had not been to the venue before, although some had recently entered a track day to understand how it flowed. This gave them a fractional advantage although three chicanes had subsequently been added which changed the track significantly.

This was also the return of the Bentley Drivers Club to arranging sprints after their last sprint at MIRA in 2019. They had clearly been successful selling this event as they had 163 cars competing - exceeding their expectation.

We had a good attendance of 14 Healey drivers, with the 5 Sprites of Rob Owen, Max and Garrow Shand, Brett Dillon and Paul Baker. We had the 3 Healey 100's of Michael Berry, Mervyn Coxon and John Ducker. The 4 3000's of Peter Walton (pictured above right hopping over the rumble strip), Will Richards, Huw Edwards and one of our new drivers Warren Beese in his beautifully presented, ex-Australian race BJ8 (pictured below right). David Lane was the sole Jensen Healey and Nav Bhamra was in the Libre Class with the famous 'Tango'.

The format of the event was similar to Goodwood, with the cars starting from the exit of the paddock, negotiating 3 added chicanes and finishing shortly after the hairpin, returning back into the paddock at the end of the start/finish straight.

The weather forecast had not been good all week but come Saturday morning it was cloudy, dry and warm with occasional sunshine. The track was dry all day and as a result provided good grip - so perfect conditions for sprinting.

Practice got underway and in the Sprite class and it was Max Shand out front with a best time from his two runs of 64.71 from Brett Dillon in 66.07, then Paul Baker in 69.22, Garrow Shand in 72.12 and Rob Owen in 72.23.

In the Big/Jensen Healey class, it was Michael Berry leading in a best time of 66.19 from Will Richards in his 3000 in 66.78 (the planned outing of his 100 had to be delayed due to outstanding issues). Peter Walton was next with a best time of 67.16 to stay ahead of David Lane in 71.28, John Ducker in 77.77, Mervyn Coxon in 78.57, Huw Edwards in 81.00 and Warren Beese managed a best time of 86.19.

In the Libre class, Nav Bhamra's Sprite was not going well. It was having serious ignitions problems and finished with a best time of 81.80 (Pictured right in the process of spinning at the Gerards chicane - see the whole set on the Gallery page).

After lunch the timed runs got underway.

In the Sprite class, it was Max Shand who took the top spot with his second timed run with a fantastic 64.17 - the quickest time for a Healey - after going off the track on his first run. Brett Dillon posted a really good time of 65.40 on his first run - Click here to see that run - then spun off on his second run - Click here to see his spin. Paul Baker lowered his best time to 66.43 - click here to see his run, followed by Garrow Shand in 68.43 and Rob Owen in 69.94 - click here to see his run.

In the Big/Jensen Healey class, it was Michael Berry who won the class with his best time of the day of 65,36 on his final run - click here to see his run. Pete Walton jumped up to second place with a much improved 66.17 from Will Richards, who's 3000 failed on its first timed run due to a faulty coil lead and then managed a 67.30 on his second run which was fractionally slower than his best practice time. David Lane broke through the 70 sec barrier to finish with a best time of 69.69 and stayed ahead of John Ducker in 73.42 and Mervyn Coxon in 75.63. Huw Edwards finished with his best time of 76.18 and Warren Beese finished his very first competitive event in 85.54 with a smile, a head full of names from the people he had met and probably a sizeable list of things he needs to do to his car to improve his times.

In the Libre class, Nav Bhamra's Sprite had a new set of plug leads, a new distributor cap and new hotter plugs and finally 'Tango' ran properly. Nav instantly went nearly 10 seconds quicker, finishing with a best time of 71.95. The moral of this story is to sort the car before the event to avoid wasting practice runs.

As this was a scratch event, the fastest driver wins:

Sprite class: 1^st Max Shand (pictured right), 2^nd Brett Dillon, 3^rd Paul Baker, 4^th Garrow Shand and 5^th Rob Owen.

Big/Jensen Healey class: 1^st Michael Berry, 2^nd Peter Walton, 3^rd Will Richards, 4^th David Lane, 5^th John Ducker, 6^th Mervyn Coxon, 7th Huw Edwards and 8th Warren Beese.

Libre class: 1st Nav Bhamra

As this was our first time at Mallory Park new records were set for all classes. However, additional points are only awarded for breaking an existing record and not for setting a new one.

Overall, a great day’s sprinting at this classic old British track, albeit a new venue for Healeysport. Bentley Drivers club did a great job in running the event efficiently to get through this large field of cars in the time available - although we heard later, that about 15 cars did not get their final run before the event had to stop at 6pm. The only downside of Mallory is the fact that the paddock is inside the track with no tunnel or bridge. So after we finished competing, we had to wait nearly an hour and a half for the rest of the cars to complete their runs before we could exit the paddock.

Our next event is a double header hill climb at the prestigious Prescott Historique event on 24/25 May, so be there if you can as we will have a good field of Healeys for you to see.

Click on the links to see the full results from this and all events this season. To see all the pictures, in-car and outside videos go to our Gallery page. If you want to see the sprint and hill climb records for each class and venue, then go to the Big Healey and Jensen Healey records and the Sprite records pages.

Want to start Sprinting and Hill Climbing?

If you own a Healey or Jensen Healey and you like what you see on this website and want to find out more then click here to take a look at our Beginners Guide. If you want to get involved, then send an email to Paul Baker our Championship Organiser at competitionsec@austinhealeyclub.com New drivers are always made very welcome.