Monday 27th August - Bovingdon, Graham Hill Memorial
The second running of the Graham Hill Memorial Trophy took
place at Bovingdon on August Bank Holiday Monday. Three drivers
made the trip from Holland including current World and European
Champion Jan van Rengs, 1978 World Champion Henk Hanssen and
Jan Schraets who was making his debut in England.
Twenty Midgets lined up for the Graham Hill Trophy race and
a notable absentee was Mick Bonner who blew a diff in practice.
Jan Schraets and Gary Pollard spun on the first bend, but
luckily the rest of the field got through without damage.
Geoff Hughes made the early running with Brian Harding and
Harold Lowe in tow. Basil Craske was through into third as
early as lap six and he, Hughes and Harding travelled around
as one until Craske forced his way through to the front on
lap nine. At this point fourth placed Harold Lowe had his
throttle stick open forcing him to spin on the top bend and
an unlucky Jan van Rengs ran into him forcing both drivers
out. With van Rengs out Henk Hanssen looked like the only
danger to the flying Craske. Hanssen was having a tremendous
race with Hughes and Harding for 2nd, 3rd and 4th places,
the trio passing and re-passing several times. Geoff Hughes
spun out of contention on lap 13 and four laps later Henk
Hanssen was past Brian Harding for second place. There was
no way Hanssen was going to catch Craske and he finished three
quarters of a lap down with 1978 winner Brian Harding third.
The second race had Basil Craske again taking the chequered
flag but he and Jan van Rengs provided the crowd with the
best GP Midget race of the year. The pair of them passed and
re-passed each other several times over the last four laps
and Craske managed to squeeze by on the last bend to win by
by a nose cone with Gary Pollard third.
