Report and Gallery: The 2024 Edition of the TABAC Classic GP Assen

By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica

The third edition of the TABAC Classic GP Assen ran over the 13th to the 15th of September, 2024, bringing icons of motor racing to Circuit Assen in Holland for a successful celebration of speed. Scroll on to enjoy our coverage of the action.

The presence of former Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and multiple world champion sidecar racers Steve Webster and Rolf Biland provided the audience in the Cathedral of Speed with unforgettable moments. The program during this edition included no fewer than 21 races.

Supersixties, from the Netherlands, always guarantees a full starting grid and exciting motor sport. The first race in Supersixties was dominated by Alexander Weiss from Denmark with his Lotus Elan.

Weiss proved his class by also winning the second race on Sunday. The Dane only had to briefly leave the number one spot to Bob Stevens during the mandatory pit stop. However, as soon as Weiss returned, Stevens quickly had to acknowledge the superiority of the Dane.

The presence of historic touring cars such as those from the old DTM era always gets the public on their feet. The Tourenwagen Legends from Germany had their final three races of the season scheduled at Assen. During the first race on Friday, Peter Mücke raced alone to a convincing victory in his Mercedes-Benz C-Class DTM ahead of Mike Torwesten’s Porsche 935 TR.

The second race on Saturday was of a completely different calibre. An exciting three way battle between Peter Mücke, Mike Torwesten and Thorsten Stadler lasted almost 75% of the race. Five laps before the chequered flag, Torwesten grabbed the lead and never relinquished it. Peter Mücke showed his class again during the last race and took off towards the horizon as soon as the lights turned green.

Fast Seventies, another competition from the Netherlands, treated the spectators with three races featuring a colourful mix of GTs and touring cars. Daniel Schrey convincingly drove his mighty Porsche 935 K1 to the top step of the podium during the first race.

During the second race on Saturday, Wim Kuijl initially seemed to be able to follow Schrey, but the German soon gained the upper hand again, making the race and result of this second meeting look like a copy of the first. As the Capris didn’t enter the third and final race of the weekend on Sunday, Schrey drove a third impressive victory.

The always popular Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge had three races scheduled over the weekend, although the first race on Saturday ended up only lasting three laps. Chass Mallard’s Chevrolet Camaro went off the track quickly after he was hit by Robert Dubler who was attempting to avoid another car, causing race control to raise the red flag. Fortunately, Mallard was unhurt, but the race was not restarted.

Gadd was classified as the winner of the first race and proved unbeatable during the second one. Schrey benefited from technical problems with Gadd in the third race of the weekend, and claimed victory.

An exciting first race of the Belcar Historic Cup from Belgium provided a great battle between the BMW E36 325i of Tim Kuijl and the Corvette of Luc Branckaerts. Kuijl seemed to be taking the win, until Branckaerts struck in the very last lap and snuck past him.

During the second race, Branckaerts got into trouble shortly before the end of the race with Wim and Tim Kuijl. Three laps before the chequered flag, the Corvette driver struck and took his second victory of the weekend. Wim Kuijl ultimately finished ahead of Tim Kuijl.

Alexander Weiss was the man of the weekend as he claimed two further victories in the ADAC Graf Berge von Trips Pokal. Although he faced strong competition from Daniel Hornung, the Dane kept his cool and grabbed a double victory in his Reynard 873.

In addition to cars, attention was of course also paid to motorcycles. Jeffrey Vermeulen won both IHRO Classics races on a Ducati MK.

The smallest participants of the weekend could be found in the Kampf der Zwerge. NSUs, Simcas, Minis etc. raced on the limit as Christoph Wilde scored two impressive race wins in his Simca Rally 2.

The third edition of the TABAC was a great success and the event has now occupied an indelible place on the historic motorsport calendar. We are already looking forward to the fourth edition!