Race report: Alan Mann Trophy 74MM – Members’ Meeting Favourite Moments

29th March 2020

Henry Biggs

The field of 26 Ford GT40s and one GT40 Roadster were led away by Christian Glaesel, followed by Oliver Bryant storming up from the second row, Rob Huff from sixth and then the car of Olivier Ellerbrock. Huff took second early on, as the top three were pursued by Steve Soper and Rob Hall.

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The second visit to St Mary’s saw Huff claim the lead but nearly run out of road as Hall passed Bryant and Ellerbrock dropped back to tenth. Hall had soon reeled in and passed Glaesel and began to chase the runaway Huff as David Hart moved into fourth. Hart and Glaesel both had moments at St. Mary’s dropping them onto the grass and Glaesel out of the running. A hard charging Mike Jordan was soon snapping at Hall’s heels for second place.

A retirement by Huff seconds before the driver change window opened left Hall in second, just six-tenths clear of Jordan. An early stop for Mike Jordan to hand over to son Andrew dropped them down to seventh while Rob Hall stayed on into the twilight to extend his lead by a second a lap before handing over to Scott Walker.

The gamble failed to pay off however as a very last minute driver change had allowed Jordan to battle up to second and he was turning into Madgwick as Walker exited the pits with Steve Soper following in third. It was a short lived lead, Jordan limping into the pits with a failed wheel bearing after less than two laps as leader, followed into retirement shortly afterward by Phil Keen who had been challenging Soper for the lead.

Soper was left with a 25 second lead over Martin Stretton, chased by Simon Hadfield, Tim Harvey and Andy Wolfe. A beached Afschin Fatemi at Lavant saw the cars get the chequered flag early, handing Soper a well-deserved win.

Image by Drew Gibson.