Last week I got an offer to travel to Slovakiaring for another Austrian Histo Cup event. Since I have been to no car race meeting this year yet, I agreed after failing to ask for accreditation to WEC Spa, due to many COVID restrictions and unclear outcome of such request.
Histo Cup has very friendly organisation, there was a free access for all and accreditation was not a problem. Of the three-day programme we chose Saturday as there was most track action. The day started with 1H Ravenol Endurance race. We have arrived at the track just in the middle of the race and had no idea that it was not a free practice of all classes. The race was originally scheduled on Friday late evening and we had no idea of this change until later, when I got an updated Timetable in the Media Center. It was only one of many changes making our plans obsolete. Generally the information and results services were not to the standards I am used to, I could not even find online data by the time of writing this report, so I will concentrate on bringing you the photos and general overview of the races as absorbed by me without deep knowledge of the cars and the drivers. Some available results on the Message Board contained no car information (which is usually the most interesting one in case of historic races) so I did not even took a photo of those, hoping the results would be available somewhere online later on.
Ravenol 1-Hour Endurance race photos
After the 1-Hour Ravenol race the Saturday's round of qualifying started. The organisation went very smoothly. Some sessions were interrupted by red flag but nothing serious, just usually a trip to the gravel.
KTM race:
KTMs started programme after a lunch time break, being the first race in a block of afternoon races. Two closed KTMs against a dozen of original cycle-winged KTM X-Bows formed the field. The two closed cars ran usually in top five but the race was won by an open version of the car. Note that all KTMs were equipped with rear wings. And several of them took part in several other races of the day, they were eligible for. Those wore two or even three different races numbers with logos of each particular races or series.
BMW 325 Challenge / Mini race
Another one-make race followed. This time, two Minis made a little diversity to the BMW 325 Challenge / Mini race. As all other, this one was also held for 10 laps. The Minis could not match the pace of fastest BMWs but they were not last and one of them nearly make it to the top 10 in the field of a little less than 20 cars.
Touring Car Masters race
Touring Car Masters was another race on the program. Similarly as KTMs, they ran their second race of the meeting, having completed the first one on Friday. This was basically a mix of GT cars, consisting mainly of Porsches, KTMs, two Lamborghini Huracans and rarely anything else. At the top there was a Porsche, followed by a Ferrari and some other GT cars. The most notable achievement in the race was the fastest closed KTM, which ran about 5th position, later spun dropped a lot of positions, and then in remaining laps regained its original position back.
Histo Cup K / STW / PCC race
By far most interesting race was so called 'Histo Cup K/STW/PCC'. Mix of 19 cars was dominated by two big Trans-Am machines (Pontiac Firebird, Plymouth Barracuda - both in original colours), a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé with a large rear wing and a legendary Ford GT40, in yellow colours. A third Trans-Am big-bore monster stayed in the paddock with a broken engine following Friday's action. Another interesting car was a Ginetta G33, identity number 019, but it was not at the pace of the previously named ones.
Unfortunately not was neither BMW M1, nor and of the Group 5 Silhouettes but still the race brought together the most attractive field with lot of diversity, Escorts, Alfa Romeo, various Porsches (944, 928, 911 Carrera RSR), Mustang, Jaguar XJS and some more. After the start the pole sitting Cobra Daytona took the lead but the yellow Ford GT40 and also Pontiac were very close behind. The green Plymouth was a bit back with two red Porsches and two XJS in the following pack. White-and-blue Pontiac then closed the leading Cobra Daytona and during their battle they managed to swap their positions several times a lap. But it was a bit raining and the track became rather slippery. Several cars (Escort and Alfa) spun off but then also the leading Cobra ended up in the gravel. It was in a dangerous position and not self-recoverable, so safety car was called in. Unfortunately they grabbed the third car in the standing, which spoilt the race a bit. The Plymouth spun under yellow and most of the field passed by before it managed to continue. The race was over for this car. After the restart with just one lap to go, Ford kept lead after Pontiac spun. Half before the finish, the leading Ford spun, rotated by 360 grades on the straight and continued. But the Pontiac was close enough now to try to overtake the Ford. It happened in the final corner. But the Pontiac was too long and went slightly off the track, defending its first place only a few meters ahead of a red Porsche 944, which was followed by Jaguar XJS, another red Porsche (Carrera RSR) and other interesting cars.
Formel Historic race
Much less interesting was the next race for Formel Historic cars. Most of them had wet tyres. Some of driver opted not to take part in wet conditions so we lost one of two sports cars in the field. There were two PRC in Group C legendary tobacco colour - Rothmans and Camel. The yellow Camel car was missing on the grid, as two mid-engined 'Coopers' of late 50's feel (no idea what car identities actually were). So the field was reduced and moreover very unequal. The winning F3 no.14 lapped nearly entire field. The PRC in Rothmans colour manage to finish third about half lap behind the winner, while all other top finishers consist of various 90s formula 3.
Young Timer / TCO race
The last proper race of Saturday's programme was Young Timer / TCO. With the field of 34 cars, it was by far most busy race of the afternoon - others featuring between 14 and 19 cars. Black Porsche dominated the race after a short lead by one of closed KTMs. KTM was generally faster in the corners but notably slower on long Slovakiaring straights. But the fastest car was a pole-sitting BMW Alpina GT3. It led only to the first corner, spinning out and losing about 25 positions. It progress quickly and with a short Safety Car period it managed to get among the top three but when while having overtook the already mentioned closed KTM (this one wore race number 14, 812 and 29), both cars touched, span and lost to a white BMW E46 which was running fourth by that time. With several laps to the finish, recovered KTM managed to overtake the white BMW to take second behind the black Porsche. The recovered BMW Alpina was not able to catch the podium finishing cars and stayed fourth.
