Denis Welch Motorsport at The Castle Combe Autumn Classic

BURTON ON TRENT, U.K. - Oct. 10, 2017 - PRLog -- Denis Welch Motorsport prepared and supported 3 cars in the third round of the GT and Sports Car Cup which was held at the Castle Combe Autumn Classic last weekend. The short 1.85 mile track, with a full grid of 39 cars ensured there was plenty of action for the spectators who braved the wet start and cold winds on the viewing banks.

The track was wet during qualifying which made setting a fast time difficult and several cars ended up 'out of position'.

With qualifying taking place mid-morning and the race in the afternoon it didn't leave a lot of time for running repairs.

During this time the team had to work on the rear suspension of SMO 746, welding the broken Panhard rod mount back onto the axle ready for the race. Fortunately the team were able to make use of the truck awning for shelter, there are no pit garages at Castle Combe! Thanks go to Julian Bronson of Bristol Fork Lifts, the sponsor of the event for the loan of his welder.

SMO 746, the ex-works Austin Healey 3000 was driven by owner Martyn Corfield and co-driver Jeremy Welch. Corfield would start the race from 5th but 6 laps in would have a minor coming together with a Morgan Plus 4. As a result he was forced to drive into the pits to check for damage. Despite some bodywork damage and knocking the steering geometry out in the incident he was able to re-join the race, though he had lost the best part of 40 seconds in the process.

He would eventually hand over to Jeremy Welch during one of the fastest compulsary pit stops of the race. It took a few laps for Jeremy to adapt to the damaged steering but was able to make up sufficient time to secure 8th overall and 2nd in the GT3 class to an E-Type. The pairing were also comfortably the best placed and fastest Healey of the race with a best lap of 1:21.142, an average speed of 78.34mph.

Tony Worthington in his Healey 3000, TSU 680 along with co-driver Simon Drinkall started well down the grid due to the wet qualifying. The tightly bunched pack meant they were frequently battling for position until the end. Their good race performance and a tidy pit stop would see them finish 20th overall out of the 31 cars who finished.

More photographs and full race results can be found on the Denis Welch Motorsport website at www.bighealey.co.uk