Group C Racing - Paul Ricard

Alive

The fifth and last practice of the championship "2010 Group C Racing" has taken place on the circuit of Paul Ricard during the Dix Mille Tours, as usual met by the welcome and approval of the present public: still today it gives the creeps to even more trained fans the roars of the engines which thrust these prototypes. A false note has been the absence of the leaders of Le Mans race; in particular, of the three Jaguars that on Sarthe had monopolized qualifying practice and race, which has reduced the cars on the track to the number of fifteen.

On Friday during the free test session, there was the fight between most favourites Evans-Berridge in the Mercedes C11 (2) and Nathan Kinch at the wheel of a powerful Spice Chevrolet (15), one of the last prototypes built by the factory that was set up by Gordon Spice, powered by a giant V 8 cylinder 6600 cc, the only ones to run two minutes down the record. On Saturday morning the protagonists met on the track for the thirty minutes' qualification, with Nathan Kinch who got pole position easily at 1:52:341, followed by crew Espirito Santo-Mello Brayer in the Spice SE88C and Evans-Berridge, much less incisive in comparison with free tests.

Earlier than the beginning of the race 1, programmed on Saturday afternoon and envisaged to last one hour, the crew, the author of the second best performance in the qualifying tests, was forced to retire. At start Nathan Kinch left as quick as lightning, passing Evans-Berridge with such an authority as to find himself with more than ten seconds' lead over in only two laps; but fortune wasn't favourable to the English driver and during the third passage, going out of the Signes his Chevrolet engine cut out forcing him to pull his car sadly into the pits. Then Mercedes took the lead of the race followed by Abrahamson with Nissan RC90 (17) that after scarcely qualifying seemed even to aspire to the first position; behind them the two Porsches 932C driven by Harburg-Park (8) and Meyers-Martin (27) held their ground. On lap 11 the cars started having the usual waltz of filling up (as a rule it has to last less than 4'), with Abrahmson first in the back position and then forced to retire, while Meyers-Martin, choosing a delayed pit, managed to get the better of the other Porsche crew. While first two positions will remain unchanged up to the finishing line, on three laps down from the finish, Harburg-Park crew, in clear difficulties, was forced to yield the lower podium step to Mckay-Ward in Spice SE88C (101).

The Race 2, scheduled on Sunday morning, saw nine cars only on the start grid, two of them in which Mercedes, ran first two rounds only. The small number of cars on the track risked the public getting bored, but luckily the struggle for the win warmed up the atmosphere. In nineteen out of twenty-seven racing laps, the two Porsches have been fighting, with Meyers-Martin able to gain the first position only after returning from the obliged refuels. Other excellent final of the race was run by McKay-Ward that, just on the last lap, scoffed at Harburg-Park for the second time, gaining the second step on podium.

Marco Zanello
Photos are taken by Giacomo Zanello

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