In a weekend of superlatives, when persistent rain could not dampen the atmosphere, the four Masters grids were outstanding with huge fields of cars delivering top quality races.
 
Two races for the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship put almost 40 cars onto the grid and marked one of the absolute highlights of the record-breaking weekend.
 
Martin Stretton (Tyrrell 012) survived a slow start and a late scare to win the opener in the sunshine of Saturday. Six cars ran in a high-speed train at the head of the race, with Sam Hancock (Fittipaldi F5A) grabbing an early lead. Steve Hartley’s Arrows A4 joined the contest with Loic Deman (Tyrrell 010), Andy Wolfe (Tyrrell 011) and Greg Thornton (Lotus 91/5) all in contention.
 
Stretton fought back ahead with a mighty move around the outside of Hancock at Village and made a small break as Hancock now had his hands full with Deman. Then, with two laps to go, Stretton had to ease his pace due to a loose rear wheel but he got to the line with less than two seconds to spare over Hancock and Deman as Wolfe, Thornton and Hartley chased.
 
“Sam was driving brilliantly,” said Stretton. “I gave him racing room on the first lap and he repaid the favour later on.” Hancock had also enjoyed the contest: “Martin was super fast and I had no chance of hanging on to his tail.”
 
In the rain of Sunday, Stretton led throughout but was kept honest by Hancock. Though Stretton made a mid-race break, Hancock closed in dramatically on the final lap when Stretton was held up by a backmarker in the Becketts complex.
 
Behind the two leaders, there was a superb duel between Deman and Wolfe, which was ultimately resolved in Wolfe’s favour. However, by the end of the race Nick Padmore had latched onto their tail in the considerably older Lotus 77 after pulling off a number of spectacular passes as he worked his way up the order. Stretton, Hancock and Deman were all class winners in each race.
 
Martin O’Connell raced Sandy Watson’s Chevron B19 solo to victory in a hotly contested FIA Masters Historic Sports Car race on Saturday afternoon. Former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff in Richard Meins’ Lola T70 Mk3B led away from pole position ahead of O’Connell, with Grant Tromans (Lola T70 Mk3B) giving chase and Marino Franchitti soon up to fourth from 14th on the grid in a similar car.
 
Once the pit-stops had shaken out, Meins held the advantage over Simon Hadfield’s Lola T70 Mk3B – up from 27th on the grid after a strong opening stint by Leo Voyazides – followed by O’Connell and Richard Meaden (in for Franchitti), with less than 12 seconds covering the four cars.
 
It didn’t take long for the flying Hadfield to move to the front of the field, sweeping around the outside of Meins at Stowe, but his charge was halted a few laps later when his car ground to a halt. With Meins falling back, O’Connell took the lead with Meaden slotting into second. “I just drove as fast as I could. I was flat out for the whole race,” said O’Connell.
 
Having spun on his out lap following the pit-stops, Tromans’ co-driver Martin Stretton made amends by relieving Meins of third, with the Lola T70 Mk3B of Jason Wright and Andy Wolfe, Anthony and Ollie Hancock’s Lola T212 and Daniel Gibson’s Lola T70 Mk3B next up from a sensational 50-car grid.
 
Class wins fell to O’Connell, Franchitti/Meaden, Tromans/Stretton, Andy Newall (Chevron B8), Peter Hallford/Stephen Treherne (Chevrolet Corvette), Andrew Smith/James Cottingham (Ford GT40) and Jamie Boot (Chevron B16).
 
With only a short break to catch his breath, O’Connell was back to take another solo win in a stunning Gentleman Drivers race, titled the International Trophy for Classic GT Cars. This time O’Connell was racing Sandy Watson’s Jaguar E-type and he saw off another tremendous grid to ensure he was named ‘driver of the weekend’ by Motorsport magazine.
 
Early on Michael Gans moved ahead in his AC Cobra, initially pulling away until O’Connell and Mike Whitaker (TVR Griffith) began to home in, with O’Connell up from 25th on the shuffled grid.
 
By lap five, it was three for the lead and it made a superb spectacle as Gans used all of the Cobra’s straight-line speed to defend from his rivals. Gans’ mighty defensive effort under intense pressure only came to an end when he slid wide on the exit of Copse on lap 11 and O’Connell saw his chance.
 
Gans’ team-mate Andy Wolfe briefly threatened to redress the balance once the pit-stops had been completed but O’Connell was up to the challenge and responded in style to ease away as Whitaker dropped back to a safe third and just stayed clear of the similar Griffith of Sean McInerney, who had been dealt P54 in the grid draw after rain washed out Friday’s qualifying session.
 
“The first half of the race was superb,” said O’Connell. “There was nothing left for tyres or brakes,” said Whitaker. “Losing to those two is good enough for me!”
 
Class victors were O’Connell, Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger (Morgan SLR), Robi Bernberg/Rod Begbie (TVR Grantura) and David Tomlin (Lotus Elan).
 
Mike Whitaker (TVR Griffith) and Matt Nicoll-Jones (Jaguar E-type) were the stars of the Jet Battle of Britain Trophy, with Whitaker winning Saturday’s dry race and Nicoll-Jones beating some horrible conditions on Sunday to win as the second race brought the curtain down on the weekend.
 
A huge and varied grid of British cars delivered some excellent battles all the way down the order and brought some rare and unusual cars onto the track. In Sunday’s wet race, the mighty Mini Coopers of Jonathan Lewis and Italian Andrea Stortoni revelled in the tricky conditions to finish third and fourth.