Historic Sports Car Club - Wolds Trophy

Cadwell Park

5th - 6th June 2021

The Historic Sports Car Club returned to Cadwell Park last weekend to host its annual Wolds Trophy meeting. Racing over the weekend were single seat, GT and saloon race cars from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The Pistonclick team went along as spectators shooting from behind the wire, but carrying some specialist camera gear. At last week’s event I decided to take my old Nikon D7200 for a run out. A good camera but I wasn’t too happy with the pictures. 

This weekend I would revert back to the Nikon D3x an even older camera, but for me the full frame images are much better than the crop sensor on the 7200.

I matched the camera to the stalwarts of the amateur photography world - a 70-200mm and a super zoom, the Nikon 200-500mm f5.6. My shooting partner was using a Nikon D4 again with the Nikon 200-500mm.

As the COVID 19 restrictions haven’t been fully lifted, the paddock to Hall bends area including the cafeteria was still out of bounds to the paying public. However, it was accessible to the racers and pit crew.

So we utilised the rest of the track to bring you these pictures.

We have been to the Wolds Trophy quite a lot and have some background knowledge of racing in the Formula Ford class so we knew what we were going see, well sort of.

There is Formula Ford, Classic FF, Historic FF, Historic Formula 3, 2000 then throw in the mix a few grids of Formula Junior and it can get a little confusing for the casual observer.

I don’t worry too much about the classes or even the classes within the races, I just enjoy the race cars from a golden age of racing again as they should be enjoyed, out on the track.

To be able to race these cars in 2021 the HSCC rules are broadly that the cars must be period correct, which equates to old school suspension and skinny tyres.

This is makes the racing as it would have been back in the day and entertaining for the spectator at a sunny Cadwell Park.

As the lively single seaters came out to tackle the twists and turns of the mini Nurburgring for qualifying we settled in for a day of automotive photography. 

Over the weekend there were quite a few of the classic and historic cars exceeding the track limits. Nothing too dramatic from my viewpoint, but goes to show that the drivers were giving it their all.

A few of the racers had the track well mapped out and made the twists and turns of Cadwell trouble-free.

We watched Cam Jackson last year in the black number 7 car make racing look easy and this year was no different, six from six in the various races.

What was different this year was Samuel Harrison in the number 8 car, he chased Jackson down at every opportunity but every time he got close, Jackson pulled away.

This young man has some racing talent and I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses this year in the Historic Formula Ford.

A much closer battle was going on for the last step on the podium, Horatio Fitz-Simon, Danny Stanzl, Brian Morris and Matt Wrigley were all contenders with Wrigley taking it on race 9.

In the second Historic Formula Ford race Horatio Fitz-Simon pictured below was second and Danny Stanzl in the Elden Mk8 third behind the reigning champion Jackson.

In the earlier classic Formula Ford race Cam Jackson again had dominated in his Winkelmann with Samuel Harrison again chasing him down.

It was much the same on Sunday, but a much closer race with just a quarter of a second separating the two, Rick Morris #3 in his Royale RP29 was third in both races.

The Historic Formula Ford 2000s seemed to be out on track all the time what with qualifying and heats races to determine who was going to go into the actual races.

There were 36 cars entered with it coming down to two racers, Andrew Park and Benn Simms, who had a tremendous battle in the first race with #2 Simms just keeping the lead until the last lap when #1 Park eventually took the chequered flag.

In the second race Simms didn’t let Park have the opportunity to get close, putting the hammer down early. Graham Fennymore was third in both races.

Just to mix things up, it wasn’t just single seat race cars out on track, but also 70s and 80s Road Sports cars and Historic Road Sports were doing battle as well.

The single seat cars are of a somewhat similar design so as a photographer you set your lens to the focal length to capture the cars at the point you want to take the shot and snap away.

With the sports cars they are somewhat different, requiring slightly different focal lengths to fill the frame when taking shots.

The mighty Datsun 240Z and the demure Lotus require a quick twist of the lens to get the best shot, this is one of the advantages of the super zoom.

Just like the Formula Ford races there was some crossover of drivers in the 70s and 80s Road Sports cars and Historic Road Sports.

Kevin Kivlochan was racing in the 70s Road Sports in his Morgan Plus 8 and an AC Cobra in the Historic Road Sports, taking the top spot with both cars. In the Historic Road Sports 26 John Davison in the Lotus Elan and 2 Peter Garland in his Morgan Plus 8 followed him in.

However, he didn’t get it all his own way in the Road Sports races. Wining the first race with 11 Howard Payne second and 9 Julian Barter third.

In the second race it was 9 Julian Barter in the TVR 3000M taking the top spot, second 79 William Plant with 98 Kivlochan still getting a podium in third.

The 80s Production Cars race didn’t look all that fair to me, starting in the same race as the 70s Road Sports cars but in a delayed start the Ferrari Mondial of Nick Taylor soon caught the 70s tail enders. Racing with him were a quartet of Vauxhall Novas headed by Jason Wood. 

However the Novas were in different class to the Ferrari. Thirty cars started the race I counted eight different classes all racing together so there were battles up and down the field, its not just about first past the post!

Photographic Post Script

There was loads more racing over the weekend with plenty of opportunities for the amateur photographer to practice their skills.

When we arrived on Saturday it was bright, very bright, and with the sun beating down on the mountain, it was way too bright with the sun in your face, so the first set of pictures were taken at the Goose Neck where early in the day the sun is low and behind you making the colourful cars pop.

This set the tone for the Saturday, following the sun. Next was the exit to Chris curve and then back to the mountain. Sunday was overcast so the sun didn’t have that much of an influence. I started just before lunch at Park shooting through the fence.

This is a good location for the first few laps as the cars are bunched up. Also they can take to the grass when getting a little to enthusiastic.

Later I moved down to Charlie’s for the shot as they crest the hill with the trees in the background. Always a good location, especially in the afternoon when the sun is behind you.

You can drive to this area and it makes an excellent spot for the last races as you can make a speedy exit from the circuit.

That concludes our annual visit to the HSCC Wolds trophy. Our next event at Cadwell will be in a similar vein, classic sports cars.

Thanks to Rob from RPW Photography for helping out on this report.