C.E.R. - Spa-Francorchamps

Pure powerful

The circuit of Spa-Francorchamps served as frame to the second meeting of the C.E.R. 2010, with a good 59 cars that entered the track to confirm the present state of health of this championship. As usual there weren't missing pleasant surprises like the Mirage GR7, which entered last year the competition at Silverstone, a lightened version derived from the M6 still mentioned for the first win of the Cosworth V8 engine in the Sports World Championship, and the Cheetah G601, which took part three times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the end of the 70's, unfortunately, with lack of success.

The week-end was characterized by a changeable weather, typical of the region, which didn't fail to trouble the setting operations made by the drivers. On Friday the free testing session was raced on a wet track which mainly favoured the GTcars, while in the afternoon, on a dry track, the values recorded were re-balanced with Lafargue and Luco leading time classification. As usual, the competition for Pole was decided on Saturday morning session, finished after only 20 minutes due to a technical problem to the Porsche 911 Rs driven by Galda/Laloge close to the Rivage bend: the car stopped on the mid-circuit. It was Luco (Porsche 936) who got the better of his rivals being ahead of Knapfield (Ferrari 712 Cam am), Wilkins (Lola T296BDG), Caron (Chevron B21) and Lafargue (Lola T298), the only driver who didn't improve himself in the second session and, all the same, being at a distance of 2 seconds from the top.

At the start of the race Knapfield exploited all the Ferrari's horsepower to pass Luco on Source: the Swiss driver didn't accept it and being faster in the rival's wake managed to overtake him on Les Combes, but he exaggerated and his car spun right round restarting from it seven. It went worst for the winner of the first race, started well but turned down on Source, who ran on lap 1 at the ninth position and with 14 second's delay over the first. While Knapfield was starting a lonely race which scored him the second win in the CER championship, after the win of Monza in 2005, the two rivals left behind started an unlucky recovery: Lafargue, first driver of the OAK Heritage Team abandoned the race starting lap 5 due to a suspension break following to a collision during a wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari 275 GTB4, while Luco, after newly catching up the second position, was crashed on Source during the lap 11 by the Porsche of Gadal/Lologe, collision that involved the rear of the 936 chassis obliging the Swiss driver to retire.

With Knapfield and Wilkins/Catlow easily first and second placed, a never subdued driver Quiniou took the third position after an excellent overtaking to the disadvantage of Caron, but on this occasion fortune didn't smile on him: on lap 19 his Lola started clearly slowing down so much as to make him go down to the sixth final place, passed by Barbot and Lacroix too.

In the P1 there was a second win for Ferrer at the wheel of the Lola T70Spyder, the winner of a fine duel against Sheldon (Chevron B16), this duel had been animating the category till the pit stop, during which the English driver lost 1 minute over his rival; a slow down of his has then allowed Gutzwiller, at the wheel of a twin-car, to catch up a well deserved second place.

In the GT2 category there was the successful return of Michael McInerney (BMW M1), who took the advantage of a problem to the crew of Espirito Santo/Mello Breyner; on the contrary, Sean McInerney was unlucky because obliged to retire after standing out above all the others.

Finally, In the GT1 category, a new win gained by Moreau (Porsche 911 Rsr), while the short of petrol only one lap before the arrival deprived Meyers/Martin crew of a deserved second place.

From 4 to 6 June the new appointment will be on the circuit of Monza, obviously with Connectingrod.it.

Marco Zanello
Photos by Giacomo & Marco Zanello

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