The Vintage Sports Car Club are always popular at Castle Combe, and they kindly put together a grid for an invitational race after their regular season finished at Snetterton the week before. Combe and the Autumn Classic is obviously popular with the drivers as a high quality grid lined up for their 20 minute curtain closer to their season. David Freeman was on pole in his Aston Martin 2 Litre Speed Model whilst Frederic Wakeham was on the outside of the front row in his Frazer Nash Super Sports. Mark Brett was 3rd in his unique Ballamy-Ford V8 Special whilst Sue Derbyshire completed row 2 in his three wheeler Morgan Super Aero.

At the start it was 3rd man Mark Brett who made a lightning getaway to shoot between the middle of the front row to claim the early lead. Behind them it was all change in the early laps as David Freeman passed Wakeham for 2nd on lap 3, only for Wakeham to re-take the place on the pit straight at the beginning of lap 4. Later on in the lap and Wakeham completed his mission as he claimed the lead from the fast starting Brett. Lap 5 and things got worse for Brett as he was further demoted to 3rd by pole man David Freeman. At this stage Wakeham was attempting to break away from the rest as he opened a 1-2 second lead on the rest.

From lap 6 it was clear Wakeham and Freeman were breaking away from the developing battle for 3rd between Brett and Andrew Mitchell. After several laps of dicing for 3rd it was finally resolved on lap 9 as Mitchell passed Brett. Back at the front Wakeham now had a lead of 1.5 seconds, something he extended to 3.3 seconds by lap 11. From here things remained the same as Frederic Wakeham came home the victor, from David Freeman in 2nd and Andrew Mitchell who completed the podium.

Fast starter Mark Brett came home 4th whilst Sue Derbyshire and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards completed the top 6. This race has plenty of excitement with close battles and spectacular driving in these Pre-War race cars with a remarkable variety of little known manufacters, which is exactly why the VSCC is so popular with the Castle Combe spectators every year they race here. For more information on this great series please visit their website below.
http://www.vscc.co.uk/