Classic Endurance Racing
Classic Endurance Racing was a traditional nice overview of classic cars of the 1970s and late 1960s. Most of the cars look nice and distinctive and for those who remember them racing it must have brought great memories. This race was notable for arrival of many Porsche 935s, which is a change from the past. Two of the 935s were driven very well and featured quite high in the sheets. A lone Porsche 908 Coupe from late 1960s driven by former Group C racer Hervé Regout was in the lead for most of the first qualifying session which was held in rain. In the end he was beaten by two BMW M1s and a Porsche 935. The sessions was however skipped by some of the top drivers, namely Jean-Marc Luco in Porsche 936 or Michel Quiniou in Lola T280 or Ludovic Caron in Chevron B21. They all along with Brunn/Brunn in Sauber C5 dominated the second qualifying session and did a great battle during the first part of the race. They were well supported by several long-tile Lola T298s.
However later in the race one of mid-field running BMW M1 lost oil on the track and organisers could not think of something worse than to call safety car to the track. That might not have been that bad if it picked up the leader. But it let pass him by and then circulated ahead of randomly selected Porsche 911 Carrera RSR, which was by the way followed by the Lola T280 of Quiniou. Luco, who was in the lead with his Porsche 936 by then, could easily create a lead almost a lap long and the race became one complete chaos. Later the Safety Car driver realized the Carrera is apparently not the leader (in fact we believe he was told to let all cars pass by until the distinct 936 is behind). This would be nice but the cars had to run under yellow for several more laps than necessary and since in the field we had cars like Ferrari 275 GTB or almost serial MGB which lapped almost as slow as safety car and nobody could overtake them, the Luco was still in the massive lead when the race was restarted.
But the restart was another chaos. Some of the track marshalls waved yellows, some of them waved with green flags and even Luco was not sure what do to when he very quickly catched the end of the field. We were at least happy that nothing bad happened (some may remember the Group C race here in 1986 when two factory 962Cs were destroyed) but it once again it was proved how the current solutions with safety cars are weak, dangerous, and we believe completely stupid and unfair.
We think (it happened at the time of pitstops and the field of more than 50 cars was very mixed when caution started) that one of the Lolas T298 was not picked up by the Safety Car, so it probably ran second without that large and artificial SC-delay but it retired soon after the restart anyway. But there was really no sense in following the race positions thereafter. It was just nice to enjoy those great cars that had been never affected by those 'modern' things like safety cars or performance balancing and weight ballasts during their original racing life. Luco in the 936 was then flagged as a winner ahead of something..., we really did not care as the interesting race was completely spoilt.
Formula Le Mans
Other support races consisted of two different Formula 3 series and several other sports car-based races. There was a Radical European Masters, German national GT championship race called ADAC GT Masters and of course, the new Formula Le Mans race. We paid some attention only to the last two named because they are regularly covered by RSC. Both FLM heats were won traditionally by Nico Verdonck with his co-driver Gavin Cronje. Both heats however suffered from the lack of cars - only nine prototypes lined up for the pratice sessions. Fortunatelly, all of them made it to the grid of both races, but the field looked too sparse even compared to the earlier Spa race. A spec formula is not something really welcomed in the realm of sports car racing, so we will have to wait if and how this ACO- and ORECA-strogly supported idea would develop. It is the truth that it was not easy to start a completely new series in the current economic situation, on the other side, it is hard to consider this series a success. Though it seems much stronger than another similar attempt of this kind when circuit Fuji supported a series of identical GC21 F3-based prototypes. The field of between 4 and 7 cars used to appear regularly for full five seasons before disappearing into the history.
ADAC GT Masters
German GT races were nice with a strong entry of 23 cars artificially ballanced per FIA GT3 regulations. BMW Alpina completely dominated the first race. Unfortunately in the second race, when it was started by its slower driver and ran at the end of the first third of the field, it was forced to retire too early, before the pitstop, so an expected battle to take the victory from the back did not take the place. There was a lot of GT3 makes present but many of them only by one or two entries. So it happened that a lonely Lamborghini was destroyed in its first session and did not take any further part at the meeting, one of two Ascaris had to skipped most of the sessions and also retired early in its first race. Among other suffering manufacturers there were two Ford GT40s, two Ferrari F430, and all Porsches but one. The strongest performance showed Corvettes, three of which started at the race. Audis had advantage in numbers but generally could not match the pace of Corvettes. Generally we witnessed that GT3 can work at national level and one German race created larger and more entertaining field than a combined British and Belgian race in Spa a few months ago. Moreover there is by far shorter tradition for modern GT racing in Germany.
