C.E.R. - Spa 2009

Hard target

The second race of the Classic Endurance Racing championship, that took place from 8-9 May on the legendary circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, offered some emotions of the good old days to the numerous spectators flocked to see the event. The 55 entered cars fought a battle in all categories, with many new-entries decided to give those series experts a lot of trouble. Thilloy absent, the unlucky protagonist in Barcelona, Luco (Porsche 936 and Nicolet (March 74S) have been competing for the absolute success since the qualifying tests; the two drivers gained the first row with two seconds’ lead over Knapfield, the first of the following competitors.

At the start, the English driver with his Ferrari 712, overtook the first two, and pulled ahead in an unexpected and short way: in fact on lap 3 his still remarkable lead was cancelled from the entry of Safety car, called on the track so as to remove the Lola T70MkIII B driven by Thurner from the circuit, where it was stopped because of the gearbox shaft breakage. At re-start the fight seemed to be a matter between Nicolet and Luco, because Knapfield was sadly obliged to go back to pits with his engine in trouble. The French driver, temporary in the lead, didn’t maintain the rivals’ rate and was soon passed by the Swiss, being seventh after the pit-stop. When the race didn’t seem to reserve any more surprise, Nicolet started an epic recovering which brought him to gain 17” in 6 laps; after passing his opponents one after the other, he overtook the Porsche 936 at Les Combes. However, on the same lap an electrical problem obliged him to retire, giving Luca a chance for his second victory in a row: luckily, the accident of the Ford Gt40 at Blanchimont and the consequent red flags froze the classification on the previous lap, with Nicolet’s chance to score the second place, ahead of the Lola 298 with Cazalieres.

In the others categories there was a new win for Sheldon at the wheel of his Chevron B16 in P1, while the GT2 saw the two Ferraris 512 BBLM give a lot of trouble to BMW M1 with McInerney and Porsche 935 Moby Dick, all closed in few seconds for many laps. In GT1, despite of the crash, it was the Ford Gt40 to win the race ahead of the Corvette with Gaudard-de Doncker.

Marco Zanello

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