1969
The Competition History of RAD 366G - Marcos 1600GT :1968-1974
After licensing the car for 1st January, I was happy to use it as a road car, but with the arrival of Spring, I was keen to see its competition potential and in the next few months I competed in four Sprints at Thruxton and Castle Combe (both later to become my favourite hunting grounds) and at Prescott – managing to get a time under a minute.
I was very happy with the results and it confirmed to me what a superb handling car this was. So, it was no surprise when a friend suggested that I take a step up and try a High-Speed Trial at Combe.
On a sunny day, I happily qualified with the required number of laps in the target time of twenty minutes and particularly liked the way that the car could be driven through fast corners. This was enough to give me confidence to compete in a full race. So, between June and October I entered and finished four races at Thruxton and Combe in one piece with within reasonable results from 2nd to 10th in class.
During this busy year, I had done nothing to modify the engine other than to fit an oil cooler and a temporary straight through exhaust pipe. I had at some stage in the year started using Dunlop Racing tyres which my pal Jol brought to the circuit each time. These made a huge difference.
Sprints:
Date | Circuit | Club | Comp | Time | Class | No |
| Mar | Thruxton | BARC | Sprint | 59.8 | 9/9 | 68 |
| Mar | Castle Combe | VAHCC | 2-Lap Sprint | 3.03.7 | 1/7 | 52 |
| May | Castle Combe | SOC | 2-Lap Sprint | 3.05.7 | 3/9 | 64 |
| Unk | Castle Combe | VAHCC | 2-Lap Sprint | 3.01.5 | 4/9 | 75 |
| May | Castle Combe | HAGLEY LCC | High Speed Trial | Qual | 155 | |
| July | Prescott | BOC | Hill Climb | 59.98 | 9/23 | 53 |
Other than Prescott, the second part of the year was raced:
Races:
Date | Circuit | Club | Practice | Race Distance (Laps) | Finish Class | No |
| June | Thruxton | BARC | 1.49.0 | 12.57.8 (7l) | 21/27 (C10) | 21 |
| June | Castle Combe | 750 | 12.04.6 (8l) | 14/16 (C3) | 159 | |
| Here you see a picture of us just coming out of Camp Corner. The grass attached to the bumper is evidence of a big departure off the track at the exit of Old Paddock, where we disappeared backwards into a corn field with the growing corn higher than the car. | ||||||
| Aug | Castle Combe | Monoposto | 12.56.0 (9l) | 13/18 (C2) | 132 | |
| Huge mixed class including a GT40 | ||||||
| Oct | Thruxton | BARC | 1.48.2 | 16.13.0 (9l) | 18/25 (C5) | 103 |
Summary:
A good year with a lot learnt.
© Ian Gemmell 2024