Race Report: Silverstone, 27 August 1973

Due to the clashing race at Castle Combe a handful of top drivers were missing and only 20 cars arrived for practice of which 16 would start the race, non-starters were José Espirito Santo (accident), Val Musetti, Simon Sherman (both with engine problems) and Marco Tessiore who didn’t like the weather. Tony Brise had damaged his March during practice when he hit a spinning Santo damaging a corner and kinking the tub, the damage was repaired for the race. Alan Jones was finding his GRD much improved following the fitment of Bilstein dampers and new suspension brackets to cut down on excessive camber change.

It began raining as the cars took their warm up lap and Brian Henton spun into the sleepers at Woodcote slightly damaging the GRD and creating a small handling problem. As the cars lined up on the grid the rain increased and the decision was taken to delay the start so that everyone could fit wets.

Tony Brise took the lead from pole position but on lap 2 he spun at Copse allowing Alan Jones to take the lead, the Australian then proceeded to dominate the rest of the race despite the tricky conditions pulling away from the rest of the field at a second a lap to win by 26 seconds. Brise’s spin had dropped him to tenth but he promptly began to race back through the field taking tight lines and by keeping to the best drained areas he was back up to fifth by lap 8. On lap 12 Brise had caught up with the Marches of Russell Wood and Richard Robarts who were fighting over second, Robarts spun away his position and then Brise passed Woods on lap 15 to take second himself. However Brise was unable to shake off Woods and on lap 19 fuel pressure problems began and Brise quickly fell back through the field, a poor reward for an excellent drive.
With Brise’s problems Wood was now unchallenged in second and with Jones long gone he concentrated on not making any mistakes and he duly took the runner up spot. Leonel Friedrich drove well to take third ahead of a recovering Robarts who passed Masami Kuwashima on the last lap when the Japanese driver had a small problem at Becketts. Mike Tyrrell was another driver to stay out of trouble and his reward was sixth place, his best result of the season to date. Mike Wilds had been running with Wood in the early stages but two spins resulted in him falling back to seventh place at the finish. “Teleco” had been holding fourth spot until he was eliminated early on with damp electrics and Tony Rouff retired on the first lap whilst Pedro Passadore was delayed by a pit stop.

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