Silverstone Walter Hayes 2025

The Alfa Romeo and Italian Intermarque championship made its second visit to the Silverstone National circuit in three weeks to contest the final rounds of this year’s championship as part of the supporting race programme for the Walter Hayes Trophy weekend. Championship Leader Toby Broome had effectively secured his second consecutive title at the last visit but for other drivers, the class championships and podium places were still there to be won or lost. For other drivers a chance to participate on the 1.64 mile national circuit in a race event headlined by an international field of almost a hundred Formula Ford runners was itself an attraction, ensuring a healthy grid of cars once again.

The entry comprised 24 cars across all 4 classes with the Modified group of 7 entries headed by the lap record holding TCR Giulietta of Jamie Thwaites being joined by the impressive Giulia of Barry McMahon. Scott Austin was in the Integrale engined 156, Jack Berry was in the Alfa Workshop 4C and Andy Page returned in his 116 Giulietta, hoping for better fortune than last time out. Completing a strong group of Modified cars was Ian Woolfenden in Barry McMahon’s Britcar 156 Turbo and Thomas Laudage having travelled over from Germany to drive the Alfa Workshop Mito.

In the Power Trophy, the regular cars of Toby Broome, Stacey Dennis, Chris McFie, and Steve Godfrey, were joined once again by Dave Messenger in his 156 GTA, with George Osborne making a second appearance of the season in the stunning Alfa 75. John Griffiths was in the 156, Mark Skeggs in the Bianco Motorsports supported Giulietta and Mark Purcell completing the line-up in the ex Jamie Thwaites 155 Touring car. We also welcomed newcomer Tom Pringle in his Giulia Super who ran as an Invitation entry within the class.

In the Turismo class Nathan Bignell had already claimed the title and he was joined by Dave Pickup in the ex Simon Cresswell 156.

The Twin Spark class had George Warren and Andy Winterton in their 156s and Ian Fenwick in his 147. James and Richard Ford had both brought along their familiar 156s with Richard hoping to close in on a second Twin Spark championship following his success four years ago.

QUALIFYING

Barry McMahon’s Giulia was quickly showing its intent with a 1:05.5 on the second lap, almost 5 seconds quicker than the previous best time of Toby Broome recorded earlier on the same lap. Over the next few laps, Jamie Thwaites and Scott Austin were also on the pace as the lap times came down, with Barry once again top of the leaderboard with a 1:02.317 on lap 6. This remained the provisional pole for the next half a dozen laps until Jamie Thwaites put in a stunning sub 61 second lap to take pole on lap 12, with Barry second. Scott Austin finished third with a very creditable 1:02.949 with Jack Berry’s 4C completing the first two rows a second adrift.

Toby Broome’s time of 1:05.9 took the Power Trophy pole by a second from George Osborne’s 75 with Stacey Dennis a close 3rd and Dave Messenger’s 156 a further second adrift in 4th. John Griffiths took 5^th and 10^th overall in his 156 with Chris McFie’s Punto and the Giulietta of Mark Skeggs in 6^th and 7^th positions. Mark Purcell’s 155 was 8^th Steve Godfrey’s GT 9th and the Invitation Giulia Super 10^th.

In the Turismo class, champion elect Nathan Bignell once again took pole and 13^th overall with a 1:11.584 with Dave Pickup 2^nd and 19^th overall in his 156.

In the Twin Spark class, the 156 cars of James and Richard Ford traded the lead in the first few laps with Richard’s time of 1:12.175 looking good through the middle part of the session. However, both cars achieved the best times on lap 9, with James taking pole with a 1:12.154 by just three thousandths of a second and 15^th overall. Ian Fenwick’s time of 1:12.667 was good enough for 3^rd by a tenth from George Warren’s 156 with Andy Winterton’s 156 5^th in class.

RACE 1

As the lights went out to signal the start of race one, the leading cars of Barry McMahon and Jack Berry got a cleaner start than the polesitter Jamie’s Giulietta and as the cars filed through Becketts for the first time it was the Alfa Workshop 4C of Jack Berry leading from Barry’s Giulia with Jamie third and Scott Austin’s 156 just behind. Toby Broome had also made a good start in his Revs Italia supported 147 and that was the order as the cars started their second lap. George Osborne was just over a second behind Toby in the Power Trophy class with Stacey Dennis a couple of seconds back in third and Dave Messenger fourth in class and 8^th overall. In 9^th place was the 116 Giulietta of Andy Page which was going well having required some major work since the last Silverstone races, Andy deservedly getting the praise for getting the car ready for the final races. Next came the leading Turismo class 33 of Nathan Bignell followed by the Bianco Motorsports Giulietta of Mark Skeggs. In the Twin Spark Cup, the 156s of James and Richard Ford had got away well and were within a quarter of a second of each other around the first lap with James starting lap 2 just ahead. Next on the road was the Power Trophy car of John Griffiths with the 156  of George Warren the third Twin Spark.

Mark Purcell was next up in the PT 155 followed by the 4^th placed TS of Andy Winterton. The 2^nd placed Turismo class 156 of Dave Pickup was next, with Steve Godfrey’s PT GT in 19^th overall. Then came Thomas Laudage in the Alfa Workshop Mito, the Fiat Punto of Chris McFie and the Giulia Super Invitation car of Tom Pringle. Ian Woolfenden had elected to start from the pit lane in the ex Britcar 156 of Barry McMahon and was 7 seconds behind at the start of lap 2. The 147 Twin Spark of Ian Fenwick had to pull into the pits at the end of the lap as the bonnet had come open and had damaged both the bonnet and the roof. Ian was grateful for assistance that was offered in the pits to effect a temporary fix and was able to rejoin the race, albeit three laps behind the leading cars.

At the front, Jamie was getting into his stride, moving into 2^nd ahead of Barry on lap 3, then taking the lead on lap 4. Meanwhile, the 4^th placed car of Scott Austin had slowed and pulled into the pits at the end of lap 4 with what turned out to be rear suspension damage following earlier contact on the opening lap, causing Scott to unfortunately retire the car.

That remained the order at the front for the rest of the race, with Jamie putting in some very quick laps to consolidate his lead and setting another new lap record in the process, with the top 3 lapping the rest of the field.

In the Power Trophy, Toby had inherited 4^th after Scott’s retirement and led the class initially from the 75  of George Osborne but George had to retire the car on lap 13 with a broken exhaust. Toby took the flag a lap behind the leading trio with Stacey Dennis 2^nd and 5^th overall. In 6^th place was the Modified class Giulietta of Andy Page ahead of the 156 of Dave Messenger who picked up the third PT podium spot. The leading Turismo car of Nathan Bignell was 8^th with the PT cars of Chris McFie and Mark Skeggs rounding off the top ten. Mark Purcell finished 6^th in the PT and 11^th overall. John Griffiths had been running in 6^th but his 156 developed engine problems and he had to retire the car after 10 laps.

In the Twin Spark Cup, James and Richard Ford were never more than half a second apart over the first 5 laps, but as the cars negotiated Luffield and Woodcote for the fifth time Richard managed to get a good exit with the two cars crossing the timing line together to start the next lap. The momentum and positioning enabled Richard to take the lead into Copse. They continued to lap close to each other but James was unable to find a way through and Richard took the class win by a couple of seconds. George Warren took the third podium slot behind the Power Trophy car of Steve Godfrey and ahead of the 2^nd placed Turismo car of Dave Pickup. Andy Winterton was 4^th TS ahead of the Mito of Thomas Laudage, the Giulia Super of Tom Pringle and the 147 TS of Ian Fenwick, whose reward for rejoining the race was to pick up 12 championship points even though he finished at the back of the field.

Race 1 Results

After heavy overnight rain, Sunday morning saw the circuit bathed in late Autumn sunshine. The race was scheduled for a 9:50 start and there were a couple of sessions of track action preceding the start. It looked like the track would dry sufficiently for slick tyres to be the correct choice. As the time approached to gather in the Assembly area, feedback from early runners seemed to indicate that track conditions were difficult and this caused a number of drivers to rethink their tyre choice resulting in some last minute changes on to wets. In the end, the front row cars of Jamie Thwaites and Jack Berry stayed on slicks but the majority of the Modified and Power Trophy cars opted for wet tyres. Scott Austin was having a difficult weekend. After managing to repair the suspension damage that caused his retirement in race one, he made it to the assemby area only to find that the 156 wasn’t running well and kept defaulting to limp mode. The cause was subsequently traced to a defective throttle position sensor connection, but the problem resulted in Scott being unable to take part in the race.

The question of which was the appropriate call on tyres was soon answered! As the lights went out, the leading TCR Giulietta of Jamie Thwaites and the 4C of Jack Berry made tentative progress but it was the Giulia of Barry McMahon that led intp Copse and was soon followed into 2^nd place by Toby Broome’s 147. Such was the dominance of the Giulia on its wet tyres that it was 4 seconds a lap quicker than Toby’s 147 which was itself 4 seconds a lap quicker than the rest of the field. Another fast starter from 9^th on the grid was the Fiat Punto of Chris McFie, having worked his way up to 3^rd on lap one and clearly enjoying the conditions. Jack Berry and Jamie Thwaites were running 4^th and 5^th followed by Dave Messenger’s 156 and Stacey Dennis’s Giulietta. The Twin Spark 156s of Richard and James Ford also had a good start and were running close together in 8^th and 9^th followed by George Osborne’s 75 who was makling his way up the Leaderboard having started at the back of the grid as a result of his race one retirement. Andy Page’s Modified class Giulietta was next ahead of Nathan Bignell’s Turismo class 33. The remaining Power Trophy runners of Mark Skeggs’s Giulietta, Mark Purcell’s 155 Touring Car and Steve Godfrey’s GT started lap two in 13^th, 15^th and 18^th respectively. George Warren’s 156 Twin Spark  was 14^th ahead of Andy Winterton’s similar car in 16^th and Ian Fenwick’s 147 in 19^th. In 17^th spot was the second Turismo class 156 of Dave Pickup, whilst Tom Pringle’s Giulia Super Invitation car was in 20^th position ahead of the Modified cars of Thomas Laudage and Ian Woolfenden.

Barry McMahon and Toby Broome continued to dominate the leaderboard throughout the race with Barry taking the chequered flag by over a minute from Toby, the only other car on the same lap. Jamie Thwaites and Jack Berry would end up being caught in a race long tussle with the wet shod Power Trophy runners, with Chris Mc Fie in particular taking full advantage of the superior grip in the corners and only being pegged back on the longer straights as the track conditions continued to favour those on treaded tyres. In the end, Jack was very happy to take 3^rd overall in the 4C with Jamie 4^th, less than 3 seconds ahead of the 2^nd placed Power Trophy car of Chris McFie. Dave Messenger took the 3^rd Power Trophy spot some 14 seconds down the road ahead of George Osborne’s 75 and Stacey’s Giulietta. Mark Skeggs was 6^th in the Giulietta with Mark Purcell’s 155 7^th and Steve Godfrey’s GT 8^th. Ian Woolfenden’s Modified 156 finished 16^th and 4^th in class with Andy Page’s 116 Giulietta 20^th ahead of the Mito of Thomas Laudage.

Also revelling in the wet conditions was James Ford in the Twin Spark car, his 156 setup well suited to take advantage. After having passed Richard’s 156 around Luffield on the second lap he was putting in lap times that were not far adrift of the group of wet shod Power Trophy cars in front of him on track. Richard himself had opened up a 5 second gap to George Warren’s 3^rd placed 156 by lap 3, who in turn had a 4 second cushion to 4^th placed Andy Winterton with Ian Fenwick’s 147 a further second adrift. Ian moved into 4^th in class on lap 5 and that would remain the order until the chequered flag.

The Turismo win went to the class champion Nathan Bignell who finished 10 seconds ahead of Dave Pickup in the 156. Tom Pringle’s Giulia Super was 5 laps down and unfortunately was not classified as he was a lap short of the 80% required.

The driver of the weekend award went to Chris McFie after an entertaining drive in tricky conditions in the second race.

Congratulations go to Toby Broome, the overall champion and Power Trophy class winner, and the other class winners: Modified, Jamie Thwaites, Turismo, Nathan Bignell and Twin Spark Cup, Richard Ford.

• 2^nd and 3^rd overall: Jamie Thwaites and Richard Ford
• 2^nd and 3^rd Modified class: Jack Berry and Andy Page
• 2^nd and 3^rd Power Trophy: Stacey Dennis and Chris McFie
• 2^nd and 3^rd Turismo class: James Powell and Edward Robinson
• 2^nd and 3^rd Twin Spark Cup: George Warren and James Ford

Race 2 Results

The awards evening will be at the Priest House Hotel, Castle Donington on Saturday 31^st January 2026. Information and Tickets will be on alfaracer.com very soon.