Following the close of another successful racing season, Masters Historic Racing has confirmed the winners of its FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship and FIA Masters Historic Sports Car Championship, as well as the popular Gentlemen Drivers Pre-66 GT series and Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars.<\/p>\n
Michael Lyons and Max Smith-Hilliard were crowned champions in the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship. Lyons won the Post-\u201978 Head and Lauda Class championship in his RAM-Williams FW07, a car that started life as a Longhorn Indycar (above, Pere Nubile photo courtesy of Masters Historic Racing). The young Brit won six races outright, took seven class wins and turned the fastest lap in every race in which he competed, an extraordinary season for a driver who excels in both historic and modern machinery. Belgian ace Loic Deman tackled only part of the season in his Tyrrell 010, but still secured 2nd<\/sup> place in the Post-\u201978 category with race wins at Magny Cours, N\u00fcrburgring and Spa-Francorchamps, while Steve Hartley took third in his Arrows A4 after a class win at Brands Hatch in May.<\/p>\n Smith-Hilliard was the man to beat in the Pre-\u201978 Stewart and Fittipaldi Classes Championship, splitting his season between his Shadow DN5 and Fittipaldi F5A while securing five class wins and setting two fastest laps. Nick Padmore also raced Max\u2019s cars, driving whichever chassis Max didn\u2019t, so he too took six class wins in the Shadow and eight fastest laps! Nick also returned to the Post-\u201978 class to race at Silverstone aboard Max\u2019s Williams FW07 and he ended the season just nine points down on Smith-Hilliard. Greg Thornton guided his Lotus 77 to third place, with class wins at Magny Cours and Silverstone, but by electing to race his later Lotus 91\/5 in Barcelona he abandoned the possibility of more Pre-\u201978 points.<\/p>\n On the sports car side, the experienced duo of Keith Ahlers and Billy Bellinger repeated as FIA Masters Historic Sports Car champions, taking their Cooper Monaco to five wins from eight races to secure the crown by just eight points. Championship runner-up Graham Wilson raced both a Chevron B8 and a Lola T70 Spyder on his way to runner-up honors, winning his class at Barcelona, Magny Cours, Silverstone and Zandvoort. His championship bid was, however, derailed in Spain when insufficient starters in the class meant he couldn\u2019t score full points. Even so, Wilson shone throughout, sharing on most occasions with David Pittard. Third place went to Italian-based American Jason Wright, a consistent points-scorer in his Lola T70 Mk3B who claimed class wins at the N\u00fcrburgring and Estoril.<\/p>\n