Images & words: Marcel Hundscheid of Speed-O-Graphica
The Spa Six Hours 2014, already the 22nd edition of this unique event, had it all. No less than 650 historic race cars and a six hour endurance race on Saturday that saw three horrendous storms.
Along with the main event on Saturday the weekend offered three days of action packed historic racing, featuring Formula 1, sports and touring cars and GTs from the early fifties to the early eighties.
108 GTs and touring cars entered the six-hour endurance, including 10 epic Ford GT40s. Former Indy Car champion Kenny Brack put the nr. 5 Ford GT40 on pole position that he shared with Christian Gläsel. The GT40s dominated qualifying and treated fans and spectators with a great show.
Around 45 minutes after the lights went green, the clouds above Spa burst and a first rain storm flooded the Ardennes rollercoaster. Several cars crashed into each other on the main straight resulting in a long neutralisation. Later, a second violent storm caused a second neutralization.
In the end the battle for the lead went between the nr. 15 Ford GT40 of Portuguese driver Diogo Ferrao and the very experienced Briton Marton Stretton and the Ford driven by last year’s winners Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield. Hadfield managed to close the gap with the leading Ford as just ten minutes prior to the official finish a third extremely violent storm hit the track. Race control had to show the red flag as driving in those conditions were impossible. This resulted in the first victory for a Portuguese driver, Diogo Ferrao and the fourth win for Briton Martin Stretton.
First cars on track on Saturday were the Formula Junior single seaters. Forty-six cars appeared for their first race including Coopers, Lotus, Brabham, Taraschis etc. Briton.
From 1958 to 1963 Formula Junior replaced the motorcycle engine 500 cc Formula 3 cars as the new stepping-stone to Formule 1 cars. Formula Junior cars provided for 1.0 and 1.1 litre engines. Lots of famous racing drivers such as Graf Wolfgang Bergen von Trips, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt, Mike Spence and John Surtees were amongst the drivers that started their racing careers in Formula Junior.
The series would become the first past formula to be revived as a historic series. Briton Jon Milicevic proved to be the man to beat in this first race with his Cooper T59. Fellow countrymen Sam Wilson (Lotus 20/22) and Pete Morton (Lightning Envoyette) finished second and third. On Sunday the second race of the weekend was scheduled as Briton Stuart Roach (Alexis Mk.4) fought an epic battle with Italian Manfredo Rossi di Montelera (Lotus 22). In the end it was Stuart Roach who beat his Italian opponent with just 0.0820 second. Sam Wilson scored his second consecutive podium of the weekend by finishing third.
For the second race on Saturday, some of the most powerful cars of the weekend filled the grid. The CanAm Interseries Challenge attracted former CanAm V8 monsters, as well as a couple of historic sports cars, including the Lola T292, Lola T210 etc.
The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am was an SCCA/CASC sport car racing series from 1966 to 1987, featuring outreagous cars with well over 1000 horsepower.
Although the smallest field of cars to enter a race that weekend, the CanAm cars are always amongst the favourites of the crowd. A McLaren M1B, M8C and M8F, a Lola T310, March 717 and a Shadow Mk.I provided the classic CanAm V8 growl. Besides the Lola T310 of German Peter Schleifer, not a single CanAm finished the race. In the end it was Italian Michele Liguori in his 3.0 litre Cosworth powered Lola T292 who scored victory. Briton Steve Tandy crossed the finish line second in his Lola T70 Mk.IIIB, as Peter Schleifer scored a third place in his Lola T310.
The Historic Grand Prix Car Association was formed in 1979 by a group of leading historic racing enthusiasts. Unique Grand Prix Cars, made by Alfa Romeo, BRM, Cooper, ERA, Ferrari, Lotus, Scarab etc., find their way to the international European historic motorsports scene.
Thirty-two cars appeared for their first race on Saturday. Briton Peter Horsman proved to be a class of his own as nobody could answer the speed of his Lotus 18/21. He drove a lonely race as German Max Blees finished second in his Brabham BT7A, finishing twenty-eight seconds behind Horsman’s Lotus. American James King scored a third place in his Brabham BT7.
On Sunday Peter Horsman couldn’t answer the speed of Briton Julian Bronson’s Scarab Offenhauser. Horsman had to settle for a second place as his fellow countryman Rod Jolley crossed the finish line third in his Lister Jaguar Monzanapolis.
Next on the track were the competitors of the Historic Sports Car Club, HSCC. The HSCC was created in the UK, back in 1966, open to a wide variety of cars. During the two thirty minute races cars from the Historic Road Sports, 70s Road Sports, Historic Touring Cars, Guards Trophy, Super Touring Cars and Martini Trophy saw action at the track.
Cars like the Lola T212, Chevron B6 and B8, Jaguar E-Type, Lotus Elan, TVR Griffith, just to name a few, competed against each other. In the end it was the Lola T212 of Bob and Vicky Brooks scoring a victory over the Chevron B8 of Martin O’Connell and Andrew Kirkaldy. Third on the winners podest was George Douglas in his Martin BM9/10.
On Sunday both Martin O’Connell and well known British GT racer and team principal Andrew Kirkaldy scored a crushing victory over the Zakspeed 2 Escort of Mark Wright and David Coyne. Bob and Vicky Brooks scored their second consecutive podium of the weekend finishing third in their Lola T212.
The Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy is open for post-war racing cars up until 1955. The Woodcote Trophy is supported by the British Royal Automobile Club featuring cars such as AC Ace Bristol, Allard J2X Le Mans, Aston Martin DB2, Aston Martin DB2/4 – DB3, Austin Healey 100M/100S, Cooper Sports, Ferrari 750 Monza, Frazer Nash Le Mans, Healey Silverstone, Jaguar C-Type, Jaguar D-Type, Jaguar Sports, Jaguar XK140, Kurtis 500s, Lotus X, Maserati 250SI etc.
Sir Stirling Moss supports the Stirling Moss Trophy featuring sports cars built before 1960. Cars like Cooper Monaco, Jaguar D-Type, Lister Chevrolet, Lister Jaguar Knobbly, Lotus 15 etc. could be seen in one of the largest grids of the weekend.
The race on Saturday saw initially a hard fought duel between the splendid looking and sounding Ferrari 246S of Bobby Verdon-Roe and the Lister Costin of Chris Ward. In the end it was Briton Ward who took overall victory and a class win in the Stirling Moss Trophy in front of his fellow countryman Bobby Verdon-Roe. Briton Mark Piercy finished third in his Cooper Monaco.
Winner of the Woodcote Trophy were UK residents Patrick Blakeny-Edwards and Andrew Hall in a Cooper T38. German Christian Gläsel scored a second place in his Jaguar D-Type, as Brazilian Carlos Monteverde and Briton Gary Pearson finished fourth.
The glory days of the European Touring Car Championship relived with the Historic Motor Racing News U2TC. Fans of the Ford Lotus Cortina, Alfa Romeo GTA and BMW 1800 could eat their hearts out, seeing the oldies but goldies drifting and sliding over the Ardennes rollercoaster. Thirty-two classic touring cars gathered for their race on Saturday. Germans Alex Furiani and Max Werner dominated the first race in their bright red Alfa Romeo Guilia Sprint GTA.
There wasn’t really a fight for second and third place as the drivers drove their own race. Britons Neil Brown and Richard finished second in their Ford Lotus Cortina. Grant Tromans (Monaco) and Richard Meaden (UK) scored a third place in their Ford Lotus Cortina Mk.1.
Unmistakable were the unique shapes of classic Formula 1 cars fitted with the typical three-litre, eight-cylinder, Cosworth engine. Just sixteen cars of the FIA Masters Historic F1 Championship found their way to Spa as the Masters Historic organization hosted another event in Singapore as support programme for the F1 Grand Prix.
Briton Martin Stretton was the man to beat and in the end he scored a victory in a Williams FW07B in front of the Arrows A4 of fellow countryman Steve Hartley. Belgian Christophe D’Ansembourg completed the podium with a third place in a Williams FW07/C.
On Sunday Steve Hartley drove his Arrows A4 to a commanding victory, as Italian Manfredo Rossi di Montelera finished second in a Brabham BT42. Briton Simon Fish finished third in a former Jan Lammers Ensign N180.
The British Sports-GT & Saloon Challenge drove their single race of the weekend on Sunday morning. This series is open to a great variety of cars, as long as they are built between the forties and the seventies. No less than 75 cars appeared on a soaked grid as the rain poured down above Spa. Cheng Lim and Phil James appeared with their powerful RAM Cobra and fought a close battle with the Ford Capri Mk.1 of Steve Dance. After a 61 minute race it was the Cobra that crossed the finish line first, just five tenths of a second faster than the Capri. The Aston Martin of Matt Le Breton and the very experienced GT-driver Jamie Campbell-Walter.
Road-going mass production saloons built prior to 1966 gathered into Masters Pre-66 Touring were next in line, featuring everything between a V8 and a Mini. In the end, Steve Dance from the UK took victory after sixty-one minute of racing in his 3.0 litre Ford Capri. Fellow country men Daniel and Sean Brown couldn’t match the Capri’s speed in their Ford Escort RS2000 and had to settle for second place. Third on the podium was the Porsche 911 RSR of Briton Mark Bates.
The final race of the weekend was the ninety minute race hosted by the Masters Gentlemen Drivers.
No less than 45 epic classic pre-66 GTs battled it out on the Ardennes rollercoaster. Jaguar E-Types, Bizzarrinis, Lotus, AC Cobras, TVRs, Ginettas and many more entertained the crowds. Nobody had an answer on the performance of Roger Wills and James Littlejohn’s splendid looking and sounding 1965 Bizzarrini 5300GT. After 26 laps they crossed the finish line first with a gap of nearly thirty-seven seconds ahead of the AC Cobra of Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield. Rob Hall and Andy Willis finished third overall in their Shelby Cobra.
A big thank you goes to the Roadbook Organisation of Alain Defalle and Vincent Collard for organizing the 22nd edition of the Spa 6 Hours. The 2014 edition had it all, joy, excitement, drama, sun and lots of water. We can’t wait for the 23rd edition in 2015!
© Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica.com
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