Race report – 1933 II British Empire Trophy

DRAMA AND DEEDS OF DER-RING-DO UPON THE STEEP BANKING OF BROOKLANDS!

Weybridge, Surrey, 1 July 1933 — The fifteenth round of the Golden Era Championship saw a magnificent assembly of speed and mechanical fortitude gather at the historic Brooklands Outer Circuit, where the towering concrete banking and treacherous bumps promised a contest of the most punishing variety. Under a sky of grey clouds and moderate English temperatures, seventeen brave souls prepared their magnificent steeds for a forty-five-lap trial of strength upon this four-kilometre oval. The paddock was alive with talk of the monstrous Napier Railton, a twenty-four-litre aircraft-engined beast with no brakes save for a handbrake, which was considered the favourite for this high-speed venue.

Even though the race was packed with drama as expected, it started already before the green flag was weaved. Haley Smith’s pride and the favorite of the home crowd, the British green Bentley Blower refused to start and she was forced to make a painful decision to sit the race out. She headed to the Club House and was said to drank there the whole weekend cursing and thinking where to get better mechanics. She was soon accompanied with Kai Syvertsen whose fortune turned dark too before the race even began. His team has brought the wrong car to Surrey and despite his desperate efforts the marshalls did not let him race with the car. It was rumoured that the two would found a new team with the best mechanics in the whole world, but on Monday morning they both refused to comment about that matter to the press.

The race commenced with a traditional Brooklands standing start, where the cars lined up nearly abreast across the track with mere inches separating their shimmering chassis. As the flag dropped, the superior acceleration of the Alfa Romeo P3s was immediately evident, with Markus Peltonen, Eetu Nurmi, and the driver known as Lenloon eking out an early advantage into the first sweeping turn. However, the raw power of the Napier Railtons could not be denied for long, and Vesa Tolonen and Anssi Hyytiäinen soon roared past on the high side of the banking at speeds exceeding three-hundred kilometres per hour.

Disaster struck early for some of the championship’s most formidable contenders, as Hyytiäinen was forced to retire his Napier Railton after only seven laps following a violent collision with the environment. Shortly thereafter, the Delage of Lenloon also vanished from the contest, having returned to the pits via teleportation after a disastrous early misfortune. These early exits left Kari Uotila in his Napier Railton to lead the field with a serene authority, humming along at three-hundred kilometres per hour for a substantial portion of the race.

A spirited three-way battle developed for the minor positions between Max Kamiński, Eetu Nurmi, and Daniel Withoeft, with the trio trading places like fighter jets through the bumpy banking. This excitement turned to calamity on the twelfth lap when Kamiński suffered twin rear punctures and a spin, leaving his Delage stranded in the middle of the racing line. Tolonen, approaching at immense speed and possessing no brakes, was unable to avoid the stationary car, resulting in a heavy collision that stripped a wheel from his Napier and caused a fuel tank puncture. Tolonen heroically limped to the pits, where his crew performed a miraculous repair that allowed him to rejoin the fray, albeit far down the order.

While Uotila seemed destined for victory, his fortunes turned during a prolonged pit stop that cost him nearly two and a half of race distance. His mechanics had forgotten to bring spare tyres to the pits and in the desparete moment of need, they spent minutes negotiating with Hyytiäinen’s team manager for the price. This gave Tolonen an opening to demonstrate the staggering velocity of his repaired machine, as he began shaving five seconds per lap off his rivals. Later it was speculated in the paddock if Hyytiäinen and Tolonen had some inside plans against Uotila, but they dismissed those just as ill-intended rumors. Yet the people at the Brooklands Club House heard some sharp cursing over the roaring engines from the pits during the tyre change episode. He finally was able to climb to 6th position after fresh rubber and fierce climbing. Yet part of the glory belongs to the supercharger of Heru Lah, that decided to explode at the last lap letting Uotila to catch him before chequered flag.

Further down the classification, Alex Henry endured a day of relentless mechanical grief, suffering both oil pressure failure and a broken fourth gear in his Maserati 8CM, yet he displayed remarkable persistence to finish eighth. Peltonen and Withoeft managed to steer their Alfa Romeos to fourth and fifth places respectively, having avoided the worst of the day’s carnage. Heru Lah and Ledu Renaud also navigated their Alfas through the bumps to secure seventh and tenth positions.

The lower reaches of the field saw a battle against both the track and the temperamental nature of early engineering. Trevor Fall and Evadne Cleo brought their Talbots home in eleventh and thirteenth, while Teofil Lubomirski secured twelfth in his Delage. Emil Magnusson rounded out the fourteen finishers in his Bugatti T39a. The most extraordinary tale belonged to Erik Halin, who, after suffering a triple puncture in his Talbot 700 Indy spec, found himself from a weird unknown ditch at the roadside —a bizarre malady that almost ended his race after thirty-one laps.

As the final lap concluded, it was Tolonen who took the chequered flag, having overcome a major collision and a broken engine to claim a spectacular victory in his Napier Railton. Nurmi secured a solid second place for the TissiTuning team, followed by the consistent Korkiakoski in third. The 1933 British Empire Trophy will be remembered not just for the speed of the Napier Railton, but for the grit of the drivers who survived the brutal banking of Brooklands.

Official Final Standings

Official broadcast