Group C/GTP Racing 2012 Yearbook

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Group C/GTP Racing 2012 Championship Review Jon Bunston & David Smith 3

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Foreword Being offered the opportunity to drive the iconic Porsche 962 at Le Mans one more time was simply too good to refuse, even at the age of 70. It was the car with which I won both of my World Championships and also the last two of my Le Mans victories; and with this being the 25th anniversary of my fifth and final win, it seemed appropriate to accept the challenge.

While the circuit has changed much since then, there were no chicanes along the Mulsanne Straight back in the 1980s and although I did drive on the track with chicanes during my last race in 1996, the Dunlop curves were new to me! Le Mans however remains a special challenge for driver & team and even though we weren’t tackling the 24 Hours this time, this was still a competitive race.

I was there purely for the enjoyment, of course, but the fact that we ended up racing in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen at La Sarthe is testament to the fact that the Group C Racing series is much more than a moving museum.

I spent much of my time in Group C racing as a factory Porsche driver and so was used to a large team of top-class engineers and mechanics being on hand to look after the car, but things were very different at Le Mans this year with just a small band of skilled enthusiasts in support. Even so, the racer in me immediately came to the surface and I found myself ruing the selection of the long-tail bodywork as it soon became apparent that it wasn’t suited to today’s circuit. But despite this and a mirror problem during qualifying I very much enjoyed my weekend and was happy with my performance in the astonishingly wet race. And the fact that we had a number of cars sharing the awnings in the support paddock brought back memories of the old Le Mans pits.

I would like to thank Martin Overington for the invitation to race his car on my old stomping ground and would like to congratulate Bob Berridge and Zo ë Copas on assembling such a marvellous entry for the race and organising such a well-run and friendly series.

More than anything, I would like to pay tribute to the teams and drivers who compete in the series and keep these old girls on the track where they belong; it requires a commitment and dedication that is truly admirable and to see these cars still being properly raced is wonderful. May they and Group C Racing go from strength to strength.

Derek Bell MBE 5

Introduction to Group C/GTP Racing Endurance Sportscar racing hasn’t had an easy time of it over the years, with this branch of motorsport constantly reinventing itself and often to the bewilderment of even committed fans with its myriad of championships and classes. Contrast this with Formula One, which is the world’s most popular form of motorsport, largely because it has remained for half a century a single-class, single seater championship with two-hour races, and even people with no interest in motorsport know what it is as a result of its immense media exposure. But there was a time – a single, golden decade – when F1 had to look over its shoulder; and was indeed so scared by what it saw that it was forced to act to preserve its dominance.

Group C was introduced in 1982 by the then-governing body FISA as an attempt to reintroduce a single endurance championship after a number of years of increasing fracture and dilution, with more and more championships chasing the same dwindling numbers of competitors. With the 1973 oil crisis still fresh in people’s minds, it was determined that this was to be a fuel-consumption formula. Cars would be built to strict technical regulations, with a minimum dry weight of 800 kilograms and a fuel allowance of just 600 litres (and no more than five refuelling stops) for the standard 1000km/six-hour race, equivalent to a maximum consumption rate of 4.7 mile per gallon. At Le Mans, the fuel allowance was to be 2,600 litres and a maximum of 25 refuelling stops. Engine choice was free, providing that it came from a manufacturer that had cars homologated with FISA. An initial intention to have Group B cars running as the second class had to be quickly reconsidered after a very low take up, and in 1983 Group C Junior was introduced. This was for cars constructed to the same technical regs as Group C, but with a 700kg dry weight and a 330 litre fuel allowance. It would not be until 1985 that this class was officially known as C2, even though the main class had been called C1 a year earlier.

Over the next few years the technical regulations saw a number of changes; for instance, the C1 fuel allowance came down to 510 litres in 1985, but the number of refuelling stops was no longer restricted; the choice of engine became fully free, meaning they could be sourced from lowvolume, non-homologated manufacturers; and there were a number of safety improvements, such as the requirement to have the driver’s pedals located behind the axis of the front wheels, which most notably led to the Porsche 962 replacing the 956. Changes to the sporting regulations also saw the introduction of points and championships for drivers and teams in both categories.

But what was most significant was that the level of competition was markedly ramped up as the new category began to quickly attract the attention of some major manufacturers.

Porsche was there from the start, of course, as were Ford and Lancia; but while the latter two manufacturers turned their attention elsewhere and ended their programs early, the German marque quickly came to dominate, with 956s and 962s winning all but four of the FIA World Endurance Championship races from 1983 to 1985 and taking the Le Mans 24 Hours six times in a row between 1982 and 1987.

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But things began to change when TWR Jaguar and Sauber Mercedes started to win races in 1986.

Porsche soon found itself with little in reserve as the competition escalated and the 1987 Le Mans 24 Hours was the marque’s last major victory of the Group C era. Jaguar, on the other hand, went from strength to strength, winning the 1987 and 1988 World Championships, as well as Le Mans in 1988 and 1990; but they in turn would find themselves struggling to hold back Mercedes and the Stuttgart giant took the 1989 and 1990 championships. C2, meanwhile, was dominated by the Spice marque, which took titles in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1989.

In contrast to F1, where fan interest was largely focused on the driver, in Group C it was very much a case of ‘the car’s the star’, as Jaguar’s enormous following at Le Mans will attest. The races were attracting large crowds and manufacturer interest was high as the 1990s approached. And while we talk about Group C, we must also remember that the cars were equally popular – if not more so – in the USA, where they were running to different (non fuel consumption) regulations under the IMSA brand. Toyota and Mazda were major player in the States, while Nissan also joined the world stage in the late 1980s.

But with this success came the realisation from the governing body that Group C’s success could be detrimental to F1, as manufacturer interest was diverted. In consequence, the next generation of cars was to be very different indeed, with a 3.5ltr, normally-aspirated engine being the centre point of the new regulations; the intention being that the engine rules for F1 and the World Sportscar Championship (WSC) would be the same.

The net result was the creation of some spectacular cars from the likes of Peugeot, Mercedes, Toyota and Mazda, but in too small numbers and at too high a cost to be sustainable. The privateers who had been the bedrock of Group C’s success were wiped out and the WSC was cancelled at the end of 1992. The Peugeot 905 would go on to take the 1992 and 1993 Le Mans wins, but by 1994 group C was effectively dead.

So what could have been the start of a new chapter for endurance racing once again ended in a politically-orchestrated calamity. Happily, though, it wouldn’t be long before the sportscar racing Phoenix rose from the ashes and reinvented itself afresh.

But what to do with all those old Group C racing cars?

What could you possibly do with these beautiful but redundant machines?

“Hmm…why don’t we go racing?” thought some…..

Mark Howson

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RACE REPORTS

Race Reports complied by Mark Howson of www,dailysportscar.com 9

Race Report Donington Park Group C Racing opened its 2012 season in fine style at Donington Park last weekend, when Aston Martin factory driver Andy Meyrick held off a race-long challenge from Mike Donovan’s Spice SE89 to take the opening round in Paul Whight’s Aston Martin AMR1 by less than two seconds.

17 cars made up the grid for the one-hour event – undoubtedly one of the main attractions of the Donington Historic Festival – with nearly all of the major marques of the Group C era represented: Mercedes, Jaguar, Porsche, Nissan, Lancia, Spice, Tiga and Argo; as well as rarer cars like the Cheetah and the Veskanda.

Despite the awful weather that has blighted the UK since the start of April, both qualifying and the race somehow managed to take place in (mostly) dry conditions. Gareth Evans took pole early on Saturday afternoon in the #62 Mercedes with a time of 1:02.690 on a patchily damp track, just under four tenths quicker than Andy Meyrick’s time in the #18 AMR1, with Bob Berridge taking third in the #6 Lancia LC2 that he was sharing with Rupert Clevely.

Mike Donovan was the fastest in C2, with a 1:04.422 in the #111 Spice, while Peter Meyrick was second in the class, and sixth overall, with a 1:06.822 in the #102 Spice SE89C. Aaron Scott was third fastest in C2, seventh overall, in Tommy Dreelan’s misfiring #170 Spice SE86.

Race day was unexpectedly dry and bright and there were no damp patches in evidence around the two-mile National Circuit as the Group C field began its pace lap just before four o’clock on Sunday afternoon. The field closed up as the cars negotiated the final chicane, and as the lights turned green the sound of ten thousand horses being unleashed filled the air.

Immediately, Meyrick and Evans were engaged in a drag race to the first corner and it was the blue and white Aston Martin that rounded Hollywood and began the descent through the Craner Curves in the lead. Mike Donovan was third in the #111 Spice, having also out-dragged Rupert Clevely’s Lancia to the first corner, but Steve Tandy’s Nissan was nowhere to be seen; the yellow #27 R90 CK had found some oil dropped during an earlier race as it crossed the line and was turned sideways into the barriers, and that unfortunately was Steve’s race run.

The AMR1 quickly established a three-second lead, but Evans was able to peg the gap and by Lap 6 was beginning to close back up again by a couple of tenths.

Disaster struck the next time round, however, as the Mercedes’ engine cut out and 90 seconds were lost in the process of restarting it. Gareth rejoined at the back of the field, but the C9’s engine was misfiring and he was forced to pit for further investigation soon after.

The demise of the Mercedes left the road ahead clear for Mike Donovan and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. By Lap 11 the gap between the first two was under a second and Meyrick soon found himself having to defend his lead; the Aston Martin and Spice nose to tail for lap after lap. By this point in the race, the leaders were almost half a minute of Andy’s dad in the third-placed #102 Spice and almost a minute clear of the Lancia in fourth. Paul Stubber was having a great time in the Veskanda – this being not only his first race in the recently-restored car, but also the car’s first race outside of Australia; and with some of the people involved in the original project cheering from the sidelines – and was in fifth place at the stop.

By the time the pit-window closed, with 25 minutes remaining, several cars been topped up with fuel and two had had new drivers, but the positions were largely unchanged. Andy Meyrick was back in the lead – just – from Mike Donovan, while Peter Meyrick was half a minute further back. One of the fastest men on track, however, was Bob Berridge – now installed in the #6 Lancia – but he was a lap down on the leaders and it looked as though there was nothing he could do about the #102 Spice of Meyrick Snr in the time remaining.

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A short safety car period with about 15 minutes remaining would change all that, however. The bunching up brought the top three to with seven seconds of each other, but a spin on the restart cost the unfortunate Peter Meyrick more than a minute and the Lancia was up to third. Berridge wasn’t content with that, though, and a string of rapid laps yielded the fastest lap of the race; 1:02.304 on Lap 45.

But all eyes were on the head of the field, as the sensational fight between the Aston and the spice continued relentlessly. As the minutes ticked down, so did the gap reduce, and as the last lap began the C1 and C2 leaders were separated by just a third of a second. Donovan sensed a final opportunity to grab the lead, but Meyrick knew what he had to do over the final two miles and he didn’t allow the Spice to find the gap needed; the AMR1 taking the flag to the delight of its driver and also its watching owner.

And the C2 winner had also had a hugely enjoyable time; “It was a tremendous race,” said Mike Donovan. “I had a clean start, but while the C1 cars seemed to take a while to get up to speed I just wanted to attack.

“I had a fantastic race against Andy – he was just superb and it was clear to me that he was flattering the car. I nearly got the lead on two or three occasions, but he was very robust and hung on in there; and it was proper racing – not quite BTCC perhaps, but definitely comparable with my experiences in Dutch Supercar and GT Cup. “As much fun as you can have with your clothes on!”

Bob Berridge and Peter Meyrick came home third and fourth overall, second in C1 and C2 respectively, with Paul Stubber delighted with his fifth-place finish and third in C1 in the Veskanda; “On a personal note the event was everything I could have asked or,” said the Australian. “It had rain, cold and more rain right up until race day when the sun shone and we got to race in near perfect conditions.

“Now I have never raced this car or any other prototype sportscar, and prior to Donington I had completed 25 laps on a slow circuit in South Australia, so I had few clues about down force or clever things like that. I was very careful coming up to speed in the car and lap times tell me I was too careful - but then I did drive it back to the pits so I cannot complain.

“The car simply glides and it has no ‘vices’ whatsoever and I’m looking forward to extending my learning curve at Spa in a few weeks time. There are many things I must learn in order to maximise the potential of this car and I soundly believe it was capable of a further two-second reduction at Donington.”

Aaron Scott had been running third in C2 towards the end of the race in the #170 Spice, but a worsening misfire caused him to switch off the engine to prevent further damage and allowed Jonathan Fay to claim third in the class in the #112 Tiga.

The series now moves on to Spa-Francorchamps on May 25th-27th – a circuit dripping with Group C history – where a 28strong field is sure to put on a heck of a show.

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Donington Park Round 1 5-6th May Circuit Length = 1.9790 miles Weather/Track: Bright/Dry POS

NO

CL

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME

1

18

C1

Meyrick

Aston Martin

AMR1

49

01:00:53

2

111

C2

Donovan

SPICE

SE89

49

01:00:54

3

6

C1

Clevely/Berridge

Lancia

LC2

48

4

102

C2

Meyrick

Spice

SE89C

5

21

C1

Stubber

Veskanda

6

33

C1

Lindberg

Porsche

7

60

C1

Rickenbacher

8

12

C1

9

112

10

GAP

MPH

BEST

95.54

01:02.9

1.709

95.5

01:02.8

01:01:04

1 Lap

93.3

01:02.3

48

01:01:58

1 Lap

91.94

01:03.4

46

01:00:55

3 Laps

89.64

01:05.7

962C

46

01:01:59

3 Laps

88.09

01:07.3

Cheetah

CT606

45

01:01:07

4 Laps

87.4

01:09.1

Kempnich

Porsche

956

43

01:00:54

6 Laps

83.8

01:09.3

C2

Fay

TIGA

GT287

43

01:01:51

6 Laps

82.52

01:13.9

140

C2

Miles

Jaguar

XJR5B

41

01:01:04

8 Laps

79.69

01:08.3

62

C1

Evans

Mercedes

C9

38

01:01:05

N.C.F.

73.84

01:03.1

170

C2

Dreelan/Scott

Spice

SE86

36

50:29.7

D.N.F.

84.61

01:05.4

22

C1

Eyre

Jaguar

XJR16

33

58:13.1

D.N.F.

67.27

01:06.0

164

C2

Watt

Argo

JM19C

27

38:31.3

D.N.F.

83.17

01:10.5

104

C2

Knight

Spice

SE88

19

24:57.4

D.N.F.

90.32

01:13.0

30

C1

Garrod

Nissan

NTPi90

18

53:46.1

D.N.F.

39.71

01:19.1

27

C1

Tandy

Nissan

R90CK

1

02:02.6

D.N.F.

57.18

02:02.6

6

C1

Clevely/Berridge

Lancia

LC2

45

01:02.3 114.34mph

184.02kph

111

C2

Donovan

SPICE

SE89

32

01:02.8 113.50mph

182.67kph

NOT CLASSIFIED

FASTEST LAP

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

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Race Report Spa-Francorchamps The second edition of the Spa-Classic was the venue for Round 2 of the Group C Racing Championship, with the race living up to the billing in fine style. Gareth Evans took his first win of the year in C1, while Mike Donovan made it two out of two in C2; and once again, the on-track action proved that these cars are anything but museum pieces.

The format for the weekend would see a 45-minute free-practice session on the Friday, followed by two qualifying sessions of 45-minute and 30-minute duration, and the 60-minute race on Sunday; but while one normally thinks of rain when the Belgian circuit is mentioned, every minute of track action would be dry as the Ardennes experienced the fine weather being enjoyed across Northern Europe.

Alas for Paul Stubber, his meeting was a brief one as the Veskanda encountered suspension issues early in the practice session which proved to be insurmountable at the track. Frustratingly, in testing at Spa earlier in the week, the team had resolved a fuel pick-up issue with the Australian car and Paul had set a time that would have been good enough for fifth on the grid. All they could do was watch from the trackside and then begin to prepare for the next race a Gareth Evans set the fastest time in free-practice – a 2:15.115 – in the #62 Mercedes C9, just over a second quicker than the #102 Group C2 Spice SE89C of father and son combo Peter and Andy Meyrick.t Le Mans Third fastest was the #17 Jägermeister Porsche 962 of Christophe D'Ansembourg and Hervé Regout.

Steve Tandy was an encouraging fifth in the #27 FROMA Nissan R90CK, especially after his dramatic exit from the Donington race in its opening moments; “I was really downcast after that race,” he admitted. “I thought I’d made a mistake – and an expensive one at that! But Bob Berridge phoned me the next day to tell me I’d hit oil that had been dropped by a couple of E-Types that had crashed at the same spot earlier on; and when I had a look at the telemetry, it showed that I was only on 60% throttle when the car broke traction. It’s a bit disappointing that we weren’t warned about the oil at the start of the race, but there you go.

“Anyway, the guys at CGA (Race Engineering) stripped the car down and found that we’d done a corner of the tub; but they did a fantastic job in rebuilding it and I think they only had to get in two parts – the rest they did themselves at the workshop. They put it back together and we got here on Tuesday, ready for testing on Wednesday. We found a few teething issues, which we quickly ironed out, and then got on with just running the car – we’ve not done much of that so far this year. “So I’ve gone from being downhearted at Donington to being delighted here at Spa!” The first of the two qualifying sessions took place in the cooler conditions of Saturday morning, and it was during this 45 minutes that the grid was set (the much warmer conditions in the later session prevented any time improvements and it became essentially a test session). Gareth Evans secured pole with a sizzling 2:12.712 in the Mercedes, but Hervé Regout left it late to set his time in the 962; "The car stopped suddenly, just as I began my first qualifying time on new tyres," said the Belgian, who raced in Group C back in the day. "I was out of the car on the other side of the track, but fortunately had my phone with me and the team talked me through the procedure for an electronic restart.....and the engine restarted! I made it back to the pits for a check-over, but only had seven minutes remaining when I came back out.

"I was so upset - sometimes that helps - that I managed a 2:13.812 in just two laps; I've never lapped Spa so quickly before!"

The second row on the grid was occupied by Andy Meyrick (2:14.310) and Steve Tandy (2:15.327), with Donington C2 winner Mike Donovan fifth in his #111 Spice SE88 and Henrik Lindberg sixth in the #11 C1 Lancia LC2.

The 12 C1s and eight C2s formed up on the grid on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The air temperature was 22 degrees and the track 34 degrees, and both would rise; but in the closed cockpits of the racecars – built a long time before air-conditioning was thought about – it was going to get a lot warmer than that!

Gareth Evans lead in the Mercedes C11 lasted less than a lap as Andy Meyrick burst through into the lead in the #102 Spice and quickly pulled out a gap on his pursuers; the C2 crossing the line to start Lap 2 4.4s before the #62 did.

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Hervé Regout had had a slow start in the #17 Porsche (Christophe D’Ansembourg should have started, but was still on the podium collecting his trophy for third place in one of the F1 races when the Group C cars started to roll) and fell to fourth behind Mike Donovan’s Spice, but had recovered to third by the end of the opening lap; while Steve Tandy had dropped to fifth after an understandably cautious start in the yellow Nissan.

As Meyrick set about building his lead, his task was made easier by the fight for second that had quickly developed between Evans and Regout. It wasn’t quite noseto-tail, but the Belgian was keeping the English driver close enough to ensure that the Mercedes was more concerned with defending than attacking; and when the C11 found itself baulked by backmarkers at Blanchimont on Lap 7, the ex-Brun Porsche went round the outside of them all to claim second in a move that Regout described as ‘very exciting!’ By this point in the race, fourth place had also changed hands, with Steve Tandy having wrested the position from Mike Donovan on Lap 4.

The leading positions were to remain unchanged until Evans made his pitstop on Lap 11, but things were more fluid further back in the field.

Eric Jamar had not made a good start in the #107 C2 Spice SE88C and had dropped to tenth by Lap 2 after starting in seventh.

By the time he handed over to Thomas Dozin on Lap 11, however, he had fought his way back to eighth and was swapping places with the #60 Cheetah of Eric Rickenbacher.And there was a very entertaining fight between the #12 Porsche 956 of Russell Kempnich and the #45 962 of Pierre-Alain France, which was sadly ended on Lap 10 with the 962’s retirement.

Back at the head of the field, Andy Meyrick was seemingly in control of his own destiny and still held a ten-second lead over Hervé Regout (who had pulled back four seconds since taking second) as his pitstop approached. But when he came in at the end of Lap 14 to hand the Spice over to his father, Peter, something was amiss with the car; and it wasn’t long before engine failure was diagnosed. But although the Spice’s race was run, Andy Meyrick’s day had not yet ended and he would finish the race behind the wheel of Henrik Lindberg’s LC2; although an issue dropped the car to ninth by the end after requiring two extra stops.

As the pitstop cycle came to a close, Gareth Evans found himself back in the lead, but with a backwards-written ‘Jägermeister’ filling his mirrors. Just four-tenths separated the two cars at the end of Lap 16, but Evans pulled out all the stops and also used the traffic to his advantage to pull out a small margin over the Porsche.

Christophe D’Ansembourg was now installed behind the wheel of the second-placed car, but was suffering with a sore foot caused by operating the pedals of his Williams F1 car in the earlier races.

Mike Donovan was in third (and leading C2) at this point and had a large advantage over Steve Tandy’s Nissan, which had been suffering from high brake temperatures owing to too much duct-tape being applied over the vents. This had required an earlier than planned stop, which hadn’t been as swift as hoped; “All part of the learning curve!” said Steve later.

With the final minutes of the race approaching, the Mercedes had pulled out a seven-second gap over the Porsche; but traffic again intervened and by the time Evans started his 24th (and what would prove to be the final) lap, his advantage had shrunk to less than a second. Despite his foot, D’Ansembourg pushed as hard as he could, but Evans used all his experience to stay ahead and hung on to take the win, crossing the line just 1.558 seconds ahead of his pursuer after a great race.

Mike Donovan completed his second consecutive Group C2 win of 2012, a minute and 20 seconds further back, while Steve Tandy completed the C1 podium with fourth overall – the final car still on the lead lap. The Nissan driver had suffered in the heat of the cockpit and wasn’t far from collapse as he climbed out.

Rupert Clevely – racing solo this time – had driven a consistent race in the #6 Lancia LC2 to finish fifth having started in ninth, while the top six was completed by the #20 C1 Spice SE89C of Claus Bjerglund.

The C2 podium was completed by Thomas Dozin, who had taken over the #107 Spice from Eric Jamar to finish eighth overall, and by Don Miles, who claimed tenth overall in his #140 Jaguar XJR5.

The Group C Racing field now moves on to the spiritual home of sportscar racing, when it takes on the mighty Le Mans 24 Hour circuit in front of 200,000 fans on the morning of the 80th edition of the great race. A field of 34 cars is expected, with a certain D. Bell joining in the fun in a Porsche 962. It’s going to be memorable!

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Spa Round 2 25-27th May Circuit Length = 4.35 miles Weather/Track: Dry POS

NO

CL

DRIVERS

CAR

LAPS

TIME

1

62

C1

Evans

Mercedes

C9

24

01:00:16

2

17

C1

D'Ansembourg/Regout

Porsche

962

24

01:00:17

3

111

C2

Donovan

Spice

SE88

24

4

27

C1

Tandy

Nissan

R90CK

5

6

C1

Clevely

Lancia

6

20

C1

Bjerglund

Spice

7

60

C1

Rickenbacher

Cheetah

8

107

C2

Dozin/Jamar

Spice

9

11

C1

Lindberg

10

140

C2

11

7

12 13

GAP

KPH

BEST

167.4

8

02:15.9

185.6

1.558

167.3

6

02:16.7

184.4

01:01:36

01:20.7

163.7

2

02:19.9

180.2

24

01:02:18

02:02.6

161.9

3

02:18.4

182.2

LC2

23

01:01:53

1 Lap

156.2

10

02:24.9

174

SE89C

22

01:01:06

2 Laps

151.3

6

02:30.1

168

22

01:02:40

2 Laps

147.5

10

02:27.0

171.5

SE88C

22

01:02:54

2 Laps

147

5

02:23.1

176.2

Lancia

LC2

21

01:00:37

3 Laps

145.6

17

02:22.5

177

Miles

Jaguar

XJR5

21

01:01:20

3 Laps

143.9

10

02:37.6

160

C1

Monterio

Porsche

962

21

01:01:28

3 Laps

143.6

11

02:37.2

160.4

12

C1

Kempnich

Porsche

956

21

01:02:27

3 Laps

141.3

4

02:28.0

170.3

181

C2

Schlesinger/Duchene

Tiga

GC287

20

01:02:46

4 Laps

133.9

4

02:40.9

156.7

30

C1

Garrod

Nissan

NPTI90

20

57:35.6

6

02:31.9

166

164

C2

Watt

Argo

JM19C

17

52:46.3

10

02:30.2

167.9

199

C2

Legras/Danvin

Tiga

GC285

16

58:56.6

15

02:57.8

141.9

102

C2

Meyrick/Meyrick

Spice

SE89C

14

32:09.6

5

02:15.8

185.6

45

C1

France

Porsche

962C

9

22:44.8

4

02:26.6

172

34

C1

Merlin

Porsche

962C

6

16:21.1

5

02:35.8

161.8

117

C2

Brockdroff

Argo

JM19C

3

17:54.0

102

C2

Meyrick/Meyrick

Spice

SE89C

5

02:15.8 185.6 kph

NOT CLASSIFIED

FASTEST LAP

22

23

24

25

Race Report Le Mans Qualifying “That was fantastic – she was made for this circuit!” said a very happy Gareth Evans after he had taken the #62 Sauber Mercedes C9 to pole for Saturday’s 45minute Group C race. “I think I may have run out of fuel at the end, so we might have to dial it back a bit for the race, but I could have got more out of her if I’d wanted. Other than that, it was a trouble-free run; and to tell you the truth I prefer this car to the Lola I raced here in the 24 Hours in 2009.”

Evans’ 3:44.333 was 6.406s clear of Bob Berridge’s #63 Mercedes C11, which suffered a blown front-left tyre midway through the session. The cause of the puncture was the tyre rubbing against the new nose that had been made for the car following Berridge’s testing shunt at Donington recently. The team got to work on making the necessary adjustments – a bit of trimming, basically – to ensure that there will be no repeat in the race itself.

Third was the #5 Lancia LC2 of New Zealander Roger Wills (3:55.216) who will be racing the JMW Ferrari 458 in the 24 Hours itself later on Saturday.

Mike Donovan took C2 pole for the third race in a row in the #111 Spice SE88, sixth overall with a 4:03.376, and was thoroughly enjoying the Le Mans Experience; “It’s my first time here and an absolute privilege to be racing on the 24 Hour Circuit; I love it – especially the Porsche Curves which are just intoxicating!

“I got out of the car with a big smile on my face; a very nice day at the office!”

Another driver smiling broadly – but who has rather more Le Mans experience on his CV than Donovan – was five-time LM24 winner Derek Bell, who ended his session in the #10 Kenwood Porsche in 20th place with a best of 4:27.789; not bad for a Septuagenarian.

Second fastest in C2 was the #116 Spice SE89 of Pierre-Francois Rousselot, who ended the session 13th overall with a 4:16.994. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, his drive back to the Group C paddock was rather more eventful than expected, with several people chasing him up the hill and trying to alert him to the fact that his car was on fire. The flames were extinguished before they spread too far, and the team cancelled their plans for a casual Friday.

Steve Tandy’s first experience of Le Mans as a driver lasts just one lap before he was forced to pit the #27 Nissan R90CK with a cockpit full of smoke; “It looks like a wire was rubbing on the bodywork – it’s never happened before – and shorted out causing an electrical fire,” he explained. “I got to the pitlane, but couldn’t turn the car off because of the fire – a marshal had to pull the master switch out from the outside!

“The guys did a brilliant job to patch a repair and get me out for two slow laps before the end – I must admit, though, that I was expecting to go quicker than a 55:21.827!” he laughed. His next opportunity to learn the circuit will come during the race itself, in front of 200,000 people; no pressure then!

Several other cars hit trouble – Zak Brown’s #16 Porsche 962 (gearbox temperatures), Rupert Clevely’s #6 Lancia LC2 (contact), and the #181 Tiga GC287 of Alain Schlesinger and Thomas Duchene (driver’s door AWOL) among them – but the majority appeared to get to the end unscathed Race Torrential rain and a lengthy Safety Car period were unfortunately the main features of the 45-minute Group C race on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe on June 16th, with blinding spray and misting windscreens making life very difficult for the intrepid drivers – amongst whom was five-time 24 Hours winner Derek Bell, who described the conditions as the worst he’d ever seen at Le Mans. Through it all came a happy, if relieved, Bob Berridge, to take victory in the #31 Mercedes C11.

After a dry qualifying session, the Group C field was faced with a very wet Circuit de la Sarthe for the race itself at 10:10 having just watched the LM24 runners slipping, sliding and spinning their way round the eight and a half mile track during warm-up; most definitely not a confidence-building 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the worst of the weather was still to come.

26

The rain had begun falling on Friday evening – making the traditional Parade des Pilotes in the town rather a soggy affair – and had yet to relent; and the clouds approaching the track as Gareth Evans led the field away behind the pace car for the rolling start were very ominous indeed.

Conditions didn’t seem to bad along the Mulsanne Straight and through Indianapolis and Arnage, but as the field negotiated the Porsche Curves and approached the Ford Chicane for the start the heavens opened. The pace car nevertheless pulled off and the race was on.

As a huge cloud of spray was thrown into the air, the large crowd was treated to the sight of four Group C cars – Evans’ and Berridge’s Mercedes, Roger Wills’ Lancia LC2 and Kent Abrahamson’s Nissan R90CK – side-by-side in the run up to the Dunlop Curve; a drag-race won by the #31 C11, with Wills slotting the Lancia in ahead of the #62 C9 for second.

Further back, Mike Donovan had not even reached the start line in his #111 Spice SE88 after being tapped into a spin by the #45 Porsche 962 of Pierre-Alain France as the two cars exited the chicane. Both cars continued, but the C2 pole-sitter had lost many places. Despite this setback, Donovan was soon back in amongst the pack and passing cars at a rate of knots as their drivers struggled in the spray.

On the run down to the Forza Motorsport Chicane, however, Donovan had contact with a car for the second time – both instances being simple racing incidents – but this time the consequences were far more serious; the Spice and the #181 Tiga GC287 of Alain Schlesinger both being pitched nose first into the Armco at high speed. The Spice spun though 360° three times before coming to rest against the Armco, while the Tiga was left stranded in the middle of the track and facing the wrong way. Amazingly, no other car became embroiled in the shunt despite the close proximity of several of them.

Donovan immediately climbed out of his wrecked car and hopped over the fence unaided, while Schlesinger limped away from his with the aid of a marshal. Happily, however, neither driver required the services of the medical staff.

With the Tiga stuck fast, the Clerk of the Course had no option but to scramble the safety car, which duly picked up the #31 Mercedes. Shortly before the crash, Abrahamson had taken third from Evans, while Paul Stubber had profited from the first incident to move the #21 Veskanda into fifth after starting eighth.

It soon became apparent that this would be a lengthy caution period, as the recovery crews tried to clear the damaged cars, but not all of the field would see the green flag again.

Peter Meyrick found himself promoted to the head of the C2 field after the #111’s demise, but his lead would end after just two laps when the #102 Spice SE89 pulled off the track after suffering a mechanical issue; and we had already lost Richard Bateman’s #40 Spice SE90 at the end of the first lap after the engine started to cut-out. Peter Garrod, meanwhile, was suffering with a gearbox issue in the #30 MOMO-liveried Nissan NPTi90.

But the appearance of the Safety Car was good news for some, with the biggest beneficiary being the #116 Spice SE89 of Pierre-Francois Rousselot. This was the car that had ended the qualifying session in flames, and its driver headed for the pits at the end of the pace lap for a quick check-over before rejoining at the tail of the field. When the caution period finally ended – with just 11 minutes of the race remaining – Rousselot had the opportunity to climb up the field again.

At the restart Bob Berridge and Roger Wills immediately broke clear of the pack, but the huge plumes of spray that erupted once more graphically illustrated that the conditions hadn’t eased a jot in the intervening 25 minutes. The Mercedes C11 held on to the lead, while the older model was making progress behind as Gareth Evans retook third from Kent Abrahamson at Tertre Rouge. The Nissan also lost a place to Russell Kempnich, who followed the C9 through at the start of the Mulsanne Straight in the #12 Porsche 956.

27

This time there were to be no incidents, but it was not easy to identify individual cars in the spray; even so, the sight of Eric Rickenbacher out-dragging Christophe D’Ansembourg’s Jägermeister Porsche 962 into Mulsanne Corner in the #60 Cheetah was stirring stuff. As the Swiss driver began the run down to Indianapolis, however, he almost ran into the back of the #28 Nissan, which had itself slowed in order to avoid Kempnich’s Porsche which was in the process of expiring. Rickenbacher got by briefly, but the Nissan soon retook the place.

But the car that had made the best of the restart was the Leyton House Porsche 962 of Richard Eyre, which had gone from tenth to fourth in two-thirds of a lap.

Elsewhere, Steve Tandy was making progress in the #27 Nissan R90CK – up to 11th after starting from the rear of the field – while two laps further back was Rousselot, who was now second in Group C2 and poised to take the lead from the Spice SE86 of Tommy Dreelan.

After five laps, Berridge led Wills by five seconds, with Evans 20 seconds behind the New Zealander in third.

Lap 6 wasn’t quite as hectic, but it certainly wasn’t quiet. Rousselot completed his excellent fight-back by taking the C2 lead, while Derek Bell – who had been keeping the many Radio Le Mans listeners at the track and around the world updated with a live radio link from the car – suffered a spin at the Dunlop Bridge in the #10 Kenwood Porsche 962. He was able to resume without too much delay, but dropped three places. Moments later, Claus Bjerglund made exactly the same error at exactly the same part of the track in the #20 Spice SE89. He too was able to continue unscathed.

Christophe D’Ansembourg became not the latest driver to pit to have a fully-misted windscreen dealt with, while Peter Garrod’s Nissan finally succumbed to its gearbox gremlins and was pushed behind the Armco in the Porsche Curves.

With just under a minute and a half remaining on the clock, the C11 crossed the line to begin the final lap, with the #5 Lancia still in hot pursuit. Evans was clear in third in the C9, but the battle for fourth was raging between the #22 Porsche, the #28 Nissan and the #60 Cheetah; and this was destined to go to the flag.

Bob Berridge completed the last eight and a half miles without drama and took his first win of the year in the Mercedes C11 by 4.349s from Roger Wills, who would now switch paddocks and prepare for the start of the 24 Hours, where he would be co-driving the #66 JMW Ferrari 458. Gareth Evans came home third in the C9, almost a minute further back. But who would be fourth?

Kent Abrahamson had gradually reeled the turquoise Porsche back in after losing the place on Lap 5 and was able to get onto its tail in the very last stages of the race, while simultaneously having to hold off a determined Eric Rickenbacher. The trio was nose to tail through the Ford Chicane and the Porsche looked to have done enough; but a surge of power brought the Nissan alongside as the line approached and the Swede just got the nose in front to take the place by a mere 25 thousandths of a second. The Cheetah was just a second adrift in sixth. Fabulous stuff.

Henrik Lindberg came home seventh after a steady run in the all-red #11 Lancia LC2, while Paul Stubber survived a last lap mishap – the Veskanda having to take the short route through the Michelin Chicane after failing to brake in time – to come home in eighth. And Steve Tandy caught and passed the #16 Porsche 962 of Zak Brown on the final lap to claim ninth in the #27 FROMA Nissan.

Pierre-Francois Rousselot took the C2 win in the #116 Spice, ten seconds ahead of the #170 SE86 of Tommy Dreelan, while Adrian Watt claimed third in the #164 Argo JM19C, half a minute further back.

Despite the horrendous conditions, the Group C field had managed to put on a great show for the large Le Mans crowd; many of whom had seen these cars race back in the 1980s and were thrilled just to see and hear these wonderful machines on their old stomping ground again.

28

Bob Berridge, #31 Mercedes C11: "I'm delight to have taken the win, especially after the problems we had in qualifying - it's testament to the great work done by the team.

"The conditions were terrible at the start, but it seemed to be better round Tertre Rouge before getting worse again further round, so it looked to me that [the storm] was travelling along the Mulsanne Straight.

"It's a great honour to drive at Le Mans, and it's a real privilege to race a Mercedes Group C car - I'm one of only about 15 people ever to do so. And for ChamberlainSynergy to get a 1-2-3 is just a dream result.

"And to top it all, I set the fastest top speed of the whole week - 352 kph. The Audis and Toyotas were 20 kph slower!"

Gareth Evans, #62 Mercedes C9: "It's a shame we lost so many laps with the Safety Car and I kind of ended up on my tod - all I could see of Bob and Roger was a ball of spray in the distance. I kind of enjoyed it though!"

Paul Stubber, #21 Veskanda:"That's the silliest I've ever done in my life I reckon! "I'm pretty pleased considering how treacherous it was out there; I started eighth and finished eighth. At the restart there was zero visibility and I lost a few places because of that. "But all credit to the guys - most people drove within their limits; it was drive to survive!"

Tommy Dreelan, #170 Spice SE86: "I'm very happy with the result - my goal was to finish ahead of Derek Bell and I achieved that!

"When I drove my March F1 at Monaco in the rain recently, my driver coach, Aaron Scott, told me to make sure I could see the red light of the car in front as then I at least would know what's in front of me. I followed his advice again here and it worked."

Zak Brown, #16 Porsche 962: "It's enjoyable now, but it was terrifying at the time! But this track in the dry is just awesome!

"The car will stay in Europe now and I hope to do some more races soon, and hopefully we can come back here too."

Steve Tandy, #27 Nissan R90CK: "It was a shame that we had so few racing laps, but it was good to go from 30th to ninth."

Adrian Watt, #164 Argo JM19C:"It's a fantastic result for us considering all we've had to go through recently. The engine destroyed itself in Spa, but JE Pistons in America were fantastic and made us a new set of pistons in just three days. So we rebuilt the engine and also bought a spare from Florida. It was on the dyno until 5am on Tuesday and then put in the truck for the journey here. Then in Qualifying on Thursday, it blew up again before we'd even done a full lap and there wasn't much that was salvageable; but we managed to make one good engine out of two and it first ran at 11 o'clock last night.

"I've been racing since the mid-90s in all sorts of disciplines and so I know that it is 95% frustration; but that the remaining 5% makes it all worthwhile. If you keep trying, it eventually comes back to you!"

Despite the horrendous conditions, the Group C field had managed to put on a great show for the large Le Mans crowd; many of whom had seen these cars race back in the 1980s and were thrilled just to see and hear these wonderful machines on their old stomping ground again.

29

Le Mans POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 NOT CLASSIFIED 27 28 29 30 31 FASTEST LAP

Round 3 15 -16th June

Circuit Length = 13.62 miles

NO 31 5 62 28 22 60 11 21 27 16 116 170 10 6 164 107 17 7 140 163 199 20 30 12 45 102

CL C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 C2 C2 C1 C1 C2 C2 C1 C1 C2 C2 C2 C1 C1 C1 C1 C2

DRIVER Berridge Wills Evans Abrahamson Eyre Rickenbacher Lindberg Stubber Tandy Brown Rousselot Dreelan Bell Clevely Watt Dozin D'Ansembourg Monterio Miles De Latre Legras-Danvin Bjerglund Garrod Kempnich France Meyrick

CAR Mercedes Lancia Mercedes Nissan Porsche Cheetah Lancia Veskanda Nissan Porsche Spice Spice Porsche Lancia Argo Spice Porsche Porsche Jaguar Alba Tiga Spice Nissan Porsche Porsche Spice

C11 LC2 C9 R90CK 962

40 23 34 111 181 7

C1 C1 C1 C2 C2 C1

Bateman Roche Merlin Donovan Schledinger Wills

Spice Nissan Porsche Spice Tiga Lancia

SE90 R88C 962 SE88 GC287 LC2

LC2 R90CK 962 SE89 SE86 962 LC2 JM19C SE88 962 962 XJR5 AR2 GC285 SE89 NPTI90 956 962 SE89

Weather/Track: Wet

LAPS 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 4 3 2

TIME 48:02.3 48:06.6 48:59.8 49:57.5 49:57.5 49:58.6 50:07.0 50:16.1 50:16.6 50:41.3 50:46.2 50:55.5 50:59.8 51:05.5 51:14.6 51:32.1 52:24.1 52:31.4 53:28.1 53:57.4 54:32.0 48:02.3 55:16.3 34:19.8 25:53.4 14:50.4

GAP 4.349 57.502 +1:55.230 +1:55.255 +1:56.316 +2:04.709 +2:13.856 +2:14.336 +2:39.058 +2:43.923 +2:53.257 +2:57.514 +3:03.195 +3:12.320 +3:29.787 +4:21.849 +4:29.166 +5:25.805 +5:55.119 +6:29.729 1 Lap 2 Laps 3 Laps 4 Laps 5 Laps

KPH 119.2 119 116.8 114.6 114.6 114.5 114.2 113.9 113.9 112.9 112.7 112.4 112.2 112 111.7 111.1 109.2 109 107.1 106.1 105 102.1 74 95.3 94.8 110.2

1

07:45.0

6 Laps

105.5

04:32.8 179.8 kph 30

7 7 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 7 7 7 7 6 7 7 6 6 7 6 6 2 4 2 2

BEST 04:34.1 04:32.8 04:51.9 04:59.5 05:06.9 04:59.1 05:03.3 05:05.5 04:58.9 05:11.5 05:17.1 05:18.7 05:17.5 05:16.2 05:22.8 05:28.9 05:05.9 05:41.4 06:12.8 06:05.5 06:23.9 06:12.9 08:38.6 08:43.5 07:53.9 09:16.6

179 179.8 168.1 163.8 159.9 164 161.8 160.6 164.1 157.5 154.8 153.9 154.5 155.2 152 149.2 160.4 143.7 131.6 134.2 127.8 131.6 94.6 93.7 103.5 88.2

31

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33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

Race Report Silverstone Qualifying Great weather, a record crowd and a fine field of machinery provided all the ingredients necessary for a memorable Silverstone Classic; and Group C Racing delivered in spades, with racing that had the spectators on the edge of their seats.

Did I say fine weather? Ah, let me qualify that…..it was fine weather once the deluges of Thursday and Friday had finally subsided! Unfortunately, the meeting began where Le Mans had left off, with torrential rain throughout practice and qualifying. In fact, the rain was so heavy on the Friday evening that there was a real risk that the curfew would arrive before the Group Cs could complete their qualifying session; the preceding session had been stopped due to the conditions and it wasn’t until 19:18 that the big prototypes were allowed out.

21 cars took part in the session, with the final classification setting the grid for both of the weekend’s 30-minute races, which would take place on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Christophe D’Ansembourg would be sharing his #17 Jägermeister Porsche 962 with Hervé Regout for the second time this season, but neither of them were familiar with the new Silverstone GP Circuit and had called upon the services of one of the track’s instructors during free practice to give them some advice. This appeared to have been a wise decision, as Regout claimed pole with a 2:12.297 on his 14th lap.

Despite the dreadful conditions, the battle for pole was a close one. Former Peugeot factory driver Nic Minassian came very close – 67 thousandths of a second, in fact – to taking P1 on his Group C debut in Rupert Clevely’s #2 Peugeot 905 Evo 1b (running as a C3 entry owing to its ineligibility for championship points), with Gareth Evans’ Mercedes C9, Steve Tandy’s Nissan R90 Ck ad Roger Wills’ Lancia LC2 all within three quarters of a second of pole.

Alas for Minassian – and the spectators – clutch problems would prevent the Pug from taking any further part in the weekend’s events, but Clevely invited the UK -domiciled Frenchman to share his #6 LC2 and take the wheel for Sunday’s race; a marvellous gesture.

Peter Meyrick took C2 pole in the #102 Spice SE89C, eighth overall; but things went badly wrong for Mike Donovan in his rebuilt #111 Spice SE88 after the rain ‘drowned the engine’ and left him a lowly 17th overall and fourth in class, behind the Spice SE88 of Nick Chester and the Argo JM19C of Adrian Watt.

Race 1 It would not be until the late evening on Saturday that the Group C field would next take to the track, but the appeal of these cars was such that a large crowd had stayed on to watch the first race; and the twilight start made for a spectacular and slightly magical atmosphere.

The Peugeot’s withdrawal had led to all the cars after the pole-sitter moving up a spot, and so D’Ansembourg found himself accompanied on the front row by the C9 of Evans, while Tandy and Wills occupied Row 2. Owing to the fact that this would be the first time during the event that slicks had been fitted, the pace car would stay out for two laps (in order to allow the drivers to get heat into the tyres) but the clock would be started after the first of them.

The pace car peeled off and the grid approached the lights….green! Almost immediately the frontrunners were three wide as they charged down the International Pits Straight and headed for the Abbey right-hander. Pole-sitter D’Ansembourg had already dropped to fourth after a cautious start, but he fared better than several cars behind him as David Mercer found himself hit from behind and tapped into a spin, precipitating a mini-pileup at the first corner. After the dust settled, Mercer’s Spice was one of three cars heading for retirement; the others being the Lancia LC2 of Robin Ward (which had gone over the front of Mercer’s car) and the Nissan R90 of Kent Abrahamson. Richard Eyre also pitted his Jaguar XJR16 at the end of the lap, but was able to return to the race.

Despite the carnage, the race continued without the aid of a safety car and Gareth Evans found himself 2.661s ahead of Roger Wills at the end of the first racing lap. Christophe D’Ansembourg was five seconds further back in third, with Rupert Clevely up to fourth in his Lancia from a start position of eighth. Amazingly, Mike Donovan – by his own admission fortunate to have missed getting caught up in the melee – found himself in sixth overall and leading C2 at the end of the lap, with Peter Meyrick just behind in seventh. The #111 Spice then quickly found a way past Clevely to put some distance between it and the #102.

50

At the head of the field Evans was doing what he could to consolidate his lead, but Wills wasn’t making it easy for him and the gap remained below five seconds for the first half of the race. The pace of this battle quickly took the two leaders away from the fight for third, which changed hands when Steve Tandy found a way past the orange Porsche on Lap 4. The pace of the yellow FROM-A Nissan allowed Tandy to pull clear, but it wouldn’t be long before the gremlins would strike and the #27 would start to fall back into the clutches of D’Ansembourg, who quickly began to up his own pace on a consistent basis; it wouldn’t be until Lap 13 that third place would change hands again, but Tandy was powerless to prevent the #17 962 going by.

Russell Kempnich and Henrik Lindberg had also managed to avoid the first corner incident, albeit losing several seconds each in the process, and found themselves in ninth and tenth places respectively at the end of the opening lap and separated by 2.5s. Kempnich used traffic (i.e. those slower cars that had been promoted in the confusion) to pull away in the #12 Porsche 956, but it wasn’t long before Lindberg got to grips with his 962C and the gap began to close again. On Lap 10, the Dane found a way past and stayed ahead of the Australian for the remainder of the race. On the same lap Kempnich’s compatriot Paul Stubber retired the Veskanda from the race.

Mike Donovan’s progress in the rapid #111 Spice had been stymied by the C1 fight between D’Ansembourg and Tandy. This should have allowed Peter Meyrick to close in the #102, but he found himself fighting for track position with the #6 LC2 of Rupert Clevely. This turned out to be an excellent duel with the Welshman finally finding a way past into sixth overall, but not until the penultimate lap. Instead of Donovan’s Spice, the next car up the road was Steve Tandy’s faltering Nissan; Meyrick put his foot down and set the fastest C2 lap of the race to close to within a second of the #27, but he had run out of time.

Gareth Evans had finally broken clear of Roger Wills in the second half of the race and was seemingly cruising to a commanding victory in the Mercedes C9. However, as the silver car crossed the line to begin the final lap, Wills was suddenly 12 seconds closer than he had been at the start of the previous lap! Was the leader in trouble?

The answer was no – a 1:59.513 on his final lap was more than enough for Evans to take the win, with Wills crossing the line 4.906s later despite taking a further two seconds out of the lead on the last lap. Christophe D’Ansembourg came home a happy third.

Mike Donovan finished fourth overall to take the C2 win, while Nick Chester – who had lost out badly at the start – finished third in the #9 Spice.

Race 2 The second race of the weekend would prove to be one that would stay in the memory for a long time and was certainly the race (of a very good batch) of the year so far.

The grid was reset as per the qualifying results – Hervé Regout this time leading the field away in the #17 Porsche – but the #4 Lancia was sadly absent after its shunt, leaving Duncan McKay without a drive. All the other cars were present, however, and raring to go as the three o’clock start time approached.

This time there was to be no first corner incident and Regout reached Abbey first ahead of Gareth Evans; but the Belgian soon found that he would have no opportunity to pull away from the Mercedes and the two drivers were locked in a combat that would last for almost the entire race.

As early as the second lap the Porsche and the Mercedes were side by side round Stowe, with paint and stickers being rubbed away. Evans was very briefly ahead but was repassed by Regout and the contest continued with no quarter being given or asked.

On Lap 4 the two cars were again side by side, but this time round the ultra-quick Copse corner, and this time Evans made his move stick; but there was no shaking off the Porsche and the fight continued relentlessly.

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Race Report Silverstone Nic Minassian’s move from ninth to third on the opening lap was somewhat overshadowed by the dramas ahead, but this was impressive stuff indeed – especially as this was the first time that he had driven the Lancia. But even though Roger Wills found himself unable to stay with Minassian (his own Lancia clearly not at full health), the French driver was unable to close on the leaders and was actually dropping away at around half a second per lap. Steve Tandy was also soon past Wills in his revitalised Nissan, but was unable to close on the #6 LC2.

In C2 Peter Meyrick had made a very good start in the #102 Spice and was soon up to sixth at the expense of Paul Stubber’s Veskanda. Mike Donovan, meanwhile, was having to fight his way through the field in the #111 SE88, but even so had climbed to tenth from 15th by Lap 5.

The duel for the lead was, to quote Hervé Regout, “Fantastic….just fantastic!” with the C9 and the 962 swapping the lead (and more paint) on several occasions; the Belgian watching for a mistake from the Englishman – which wouldn’t come – but also figuring out where around the 3.6 mile track his car was stronger.

On Lap 12 the Porsche crossed the line once more in the lead, but a fastest lap from Evans (1:52.483) reversed the positions once more on the next lap; but Regout noticed that something wasn’t right with his car and it became more apparent on the next lap – the fuel pressure was falling in right-handers! Regout pushed on and managed to hold the gap to below a second as the cars completed the penultimate lap, but thereafter Evans felt as though someone had cut the rope that had bound them together so far and the C9 at last saw the Porsche getting smaller in his mirrors.

The Mercedes driver completed the final lap with a relatively leisurely 1:55.728 to take his second win of the weekend after an excellent performance, but that same lap was agony for Regout as he saw a potential win disappear…and then saw second snatched from his grasp just three corners from the end by a grateful Nic Minassian.

“It was brilliant fun,” said a very happy Gareth Evans after the race, “and always nice to beat the Pug factory driver!”

"To be honest, on the podium I was more disappointed than happy for a few moments, but the enthusiasm of everybody was a great reward," said Hervé Regout.

"Thanks to my team for their fantastic work and, once again, thanks to Christophe to let me drive such a fantastic car. Christophe finished eighth and sixth in his F1 races as well, so it's been a great weekend for us and Mec Auto. "Silverstone suits Group C perfectly - after Spa, of course!" he smiled. "We will take our revenge at Paul Ricard!"

Steve Tandy finished fourth in his Nissan, twenty seconds ahead of C2 winner Peter Meyrick who fully deserved the win.

Mike Donovan finished just five seconds shy of Meyrick in the #111 Spice, having run out of time as he chased the #102 down – he was, however, delighted with his weekend’s work; "I'm absolutely delighted to make The Classic and sincere thanks to the team for that - PCA Ltd did a fantastic job to get the car to Silverstone at all and the car looked and ran faultlessly.

"We've had great racing in front of a huge crowd and I am really pleased with the results and to be leading the Championship" “That was an absolute barnstormer of a race,” enthused Group C Co-ordinator Bob Berridge. “Two quick drivers battling it out and providing spectacular entertainment to the huge crowd we’ve had here today – a true testimony to the quality of racing that’s taking place in Group C this season!”

And so ended a tremendous weekend of Group C racing. The series now takes its summer break before reconvening at Paul Ricard for the Deux Mille Tours meeting on the first weekend of October.

52

53

Silverstone Round 4 20-22nd July Circuit Length = 3.649 miles Weather/Track: Cloud/Dry POS

NO

CL

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME

1

62

C1

Evans

Mercedes

C9

15

31:02.7

2

5

C1

Wills

Lancia

LC2

15

31:07.6

3

17

C1

D'Ansembourg

Porsche

962

15

4

111

C2

Donovan

Spice

SE88

5

27

C1

Tandy

NISSAN

6

102

C2

Meyrick

7

6

C1

8

33

9

GAP

MPH

BEST

105.61

01:54.4

4.906

105.34

01:56.2

31:41.4

38.662

103.47

01:56.4

15

31:51.2

48.485

102.94

01:58.0

R90CK

15

32:02.0

59.286

102.36

01:56.5

Spice

SE89C

15

32:03.1

01:00.4

102.3

01:57.3

Clevely

Lancia

LC2

15

32:10.4

01:07.7

101.91

01:59.5

C1

Lindburgh

Porsche

962C

15

32:55.9

01:53.2

99.57

02:02.0

12

C1

Kempnich

Porsche

956

15

33:02.8

02:00.1

99.22

02:03.4

10

9

C2

Chester

Spice

SE88

14

31:20.7

1 Lap

97.62

02:02.9

11

30

C1

Garrod

NISSAN

NTPi90

14

32:55.5

1 Lap

92.94

02:13.0

12

140

C2

Miles

Jaguar

XJR5B

14

33:02.6

1 Lap

92.6

02:10.3

13

71

C1

Kjallgren

Courage

C26S

14

33:05.2

1 Lap

92.48

02:11.0

14

112

C2

Fay

Tiga

GT287

13

32:51.3

2 Laps

86.47

02:19.1

15

164

C2

Watt

Argo

JM19C

12

32:41.4

3 Laps

80.21

02:09.4

16

22

C1

Eyre

Jaguar

XJR16

12

32:46.4

3 Laps

80

02:03.3

21

C1

Stubber

Veskandar

10

23:58.9

D.N.F.

91.07

02:05.2

41

C1

Mwercer

Spice

SE90C

2

07:52.9

D.N.F.

54.9

03:35.5

28

C1

Abrahamson

NISSAN

R90CK

2

09:56.6

D.N.F.

43.52

03:37.5

4

C1

Ward

Lancia

LC2

1

03:36.8

D.N.F.

59.18

03:36.8

62

C1

Evans

Mercedes

C9

9

01:54.4 114.83mph 184.81kph

102

C2

Meyrick

Spice

SE89C

15

01:57.3 111.96mph 180.18kph

NOT CLASSIFIED

FASTEST LAP

54

Silverstone Round 5 20-22nd July Circuit Length = 3.649 miles Weather/Track:Sunny/Dry POS

NO

CL

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME

1

62

C1

Evans

Mercedes

C9

15

30:11.7

2

6

C1

Minassian

Lancia

LC2

15

30:13.9

3

17

C1

Regout

Porsche

962

15

4

27

C1

Tandy

Nissan

R90CK

5

102

C2

Meyrick

Spice

6

5

C1

Wills

7

111

C2

8

28

9

GAP

MPH

BEST

108.59

01:52.5

2.125

108.46

01:52.5

30:17.2

5.416

108.26

01:52.8

15

31:05.3

53.536

105.47

01:55.6

SE89C

15

31:26.2

01:14.5

104.3

01:58.1

Lancia

LC2

15

31:29.3

01:17.5

104.13

01:56.9

Donovan

Spice

SE88

15

31:31.1

01:19.4

104.03

01:57.5

C1

Abrahamsson

Nissan

R90CK

15

32:06.3

01:54.5

102.13

02:01.0

21

C1

Stubber

Veskanda

15

32:10.1

01:58.3

101.93

02:00.7

10

9

C2

Chester

Spice

SE88

14

30:18.4

1 Lap

100.97

02:01.3

11

12

C1

Kempnich

Porsche

956

14

30:20.5

1 Lap

100.85

02:02.0

12

140

C2

Miles

Jaguar

XJR5B

13

30:25.8

2 Laps

93.36

02:10.6

13

30

C1

Garrod

Nissan

NTPi90

13

30:26.5

2 Laps

93.32

02:10.7

14

71

C1

Kjallgren

Courage

C26S

13

30:29.5

2 Laps

93.17

02:10.1

15

164

C2

Watt

Argo

JM19C

13

31:39.5

2 Laps

89.74

02:06.7

16

112

C2

Fay

Tiga

GT287

13

31:57.5

2 Laps

88.9

02:18.9

22

C1

Eyre

Jaguar

XJR16

10

21:34.0

D.N.F.

101.28

01:58.6

41

C1

Mercer

Spice

SE90C

5

23:55.9

D.N.F.

45.53

02:02.5

33

C1

Lindberg

Porsche

962C

3

08:40.6

D.N.F.

75.11

02:25.8

62

C1

Evans

Mercedes

C9

13

01:52.5

111

C2

Chester

Spice

SE88

12

NOT CLASSIFIED

FASTEST LAP

55

116.78mph 187.94kph

01:57.5 111.77mph 179.88kph

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

Race Report Paul Ricard The penultimate round of the 2012 Group C Racing Championship took place in the South of France in the immaculate surroundings of the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit at Le Castellet, which features the legendary – and very, very fast – Mistral straight. 18 cars assembled for the weekend, but the track would take its toll on several of them before the weekend was through.

Qualifying Bob Berridge took pole for Sunday’s 60-minute race with a scintillating lap of 1:46.613 during second qualifying on Saturday afternoon in the #31 Mercedes C11; a time that would have taken pole for both the 2011 and 2012 Le Mans Series races, which used the same configuration of the HTTT. Joe Osborne had earlier set provisional pole in the first session, with a 1:48.428 in Steve Tandy’s #27 Nissan R90CK. Unfortunately, three cars didn’t make it through to the race – the #107 Spice of Thomas Dozin (engine), the #58 ADA of Michel Ghio (suspension) and the #22 Jaguar of Richard Eyre (turbo) all being forced to withdraw.

Race The race began in typically fine and sunny weather, with the temperature in the mid-20s (although it would be a lot warmer in the cars, clearly), and with rain a very distant possibility. The opening lap was an eventful one, with wholesale position changes throughout the field. In fact the only two cars to start Lap 2 in the same positions they had been in a lap earlier were the #31 Mercedes and the #27 Nissan; Gareth Evans keeping his lead and crossing the line after that first lap with a lead of 2.156s over Steve Tandy It hadn’t been a good start for Mike Donovan, with the #111 Spice dropping to fifth from third on the opening lap at the expense of the #45 Porsche 962C of Pierre-Alain France and the #102 Spice of Peter Meyrick; the Welsh driver having made up four places over the first six kilometres. Donovan quickly recovered, however, and had retaken fourth from Meyrick by the end of the second lap.

Further back, Paul Stubber was also beginning to recover lost ground in the #21 Veskanda. Having started seventh on the grid, the Australian car and driver had lost two places on the opening lap but was back up to seventh on Lap 2. On the next circuit, though, Stubber found his way past the #60 Cheetah of Eric Rickenbacher – who had himself demoted the #34 Porsche 962C of Jean-Marc Merlin on the opening lap – and the #102 Spice, which had plummeted down the order after a lap of 2:23 which indicated a spin or a problem. Meyrick seemed able to pick up the pace again on Lap 4, but was headed to the pits a lap later with engine problems, never to be seen again.

At the head of the field, Evans continued to pull away at the rate of about half a second per lap, but Tandy was doing a good job of staying in touch on the highspeed circuit as the two leaders rapidly pulled away from the chasing pack. Donovan, meanwhile, was doing his best to keep up with France, but the C1 Porsche was just a couple of tenths quicker per lap.

As the Meyrick Spice dropped out of contention, the #116 SE89C of Pierre-François Rousselot was promoted to second in C2 and was closing quickly on the #34 Porsche of Merlin for seventh overall. Before any challenge could take place, however, the Safety Car was out on track and the race was neutralised. spun the #140 Jaguar XJR5 at Turn 6, the car coming to rest across the track. His attempts to restart the engine had come to naught and his race was run The unfortunate Don Miles had.

The recovery process took almost ten minutes (three laps), during which time the field had closed back up; the order being 31, 27, 45, 111, 21, 60, 34, 116, 164, 40, 7 and 12 ahead of the restart. The last runner at this point of the race was the Porsche 956 of Russell Kempnich, but the Australian had spent much of the race so far in the pits. The car would finish the race, albeit classified ninth, seven laps down.

The race had 38 minutes left to run when the Safety Car pitted and Gareth Evans timed things to perfection, pulling out almost three seconds over Steve Tandy on the restart lap. Paul Stubber saw an opportunity for advancement at the expense of Mike Donovan, but a good Sector 3 time kept the nimble and rapid Spice in fourth. Further back, Rousselot completed his attack on Merlin by taking seventh spot

72

The pit window opened just before Evans completed his 11th lap and the first to stop were France and Rickenbacher. Donovan, Stubber and Rousselot carried on their fight for (now) third for the time being, with the three cars being covered by less than two seconds. Evans completed a typically flawless stint after a dozen laps by pitting to hand over to Bob Berridge, while Tandy followed a few seconds later to hand his Nissan over to Joe Osborne in a very strong position. The wellpracticed Chamberlain-Synergy crew managed to turn the Mercedes around quicker than CGA Race Engineering did with the Nissan and so the gap between the two had grown slightly as they rejoined the race.

Mike Donovan now led the race and would continue to do so for a further two laps before pitting the Spice. The last to stop was Jean-Marc Merlin, with the #34 Porsche enjoying a brief moment in the limelight as the leader on Lap 15.

With all stops complete the order finally became clear with about 23 minutes remaining. Bob Berridge led in the Mercedes by 13 seconds from Joe Osborne in the Nissan, but then there was a huge gap of 47 seconds back to the third placed Pierre-Alain France in the #45 Porsche. After him came Mike Donovan (#111 Spice), Paul Stubber (#21 Veskanda), Eric Rickenbacher (#60 Cheetah), Jean-Marc Merlin (#34 Porsche), Pierre-Françoise Rousselot (#116 Spice), Emmanuel Collard (making his Group C debut having taken the #7 Porsche 962 over from Manuel Monterio), Adrian Watt (#164 Argo), Richard Bateman (#40 Spice), Russell Kempnich (#12 Porsche) and Robin Ward (#4 Lancia).

Ward had taken the LC2 over from Duncan McKay, whose own race had been a short one following a puncture on Lap 3; the blow-out happening at pretty much the fastest part of the circuit, requiring all of McKay’s skills to save the car; “I think I’m going to have to sort the laundry out!” he laughed later. The Lancia came to a halt at Turn 12 but, unusually, was recovered back to the pits. A new tyre was fitted, after which Ward brought the car back out and ran it to the finish. Unfortunately, he was by this point 11 laps down on the leader.

At the head of the field we now had the intriguing prospect of seeing the young and rapid Joe Osborne beginning his first Group C race in second place and with a moving target 13 seconds up the road; but even though Bob Berridge has, er, several years on Osborne, he has pace and experience aplenty and this was going to be a tough ask for the Nissan driver.

Indeed, Lap 17 saw the Mercedes’ lead go up to 14.539s as Berridge delivered what would stand as the fastest lap of the race – 1:49.657 – and it increased again by almost a second on the next lap. Osborne responded as best he could and the gap began to come down on Lap 19, but only by four-tenths, and only because the Mercedes driver was starting to have gear-selection difficulties.

As the fight for the lead intensified, further back in the field there was a great battle for fifth between the Veskanda and the Cheetah. Paul Stubber held the upper hand, but Eric Rickenbacher was just a quarter of a second behind and setting almost identical lap times.

Alas, the Veskanda slowed suddenly at the end of Lap 17 as mechanical gremlins struck and the Swiss racer was through and clear in fifth. Sadly, we also lost the Spice of Pierre-Françoise Rousselot at the same time with similar issues.

And there was a keen fight for third overall as the C2 leader, Mike Donovan, pushed the C1 Porsche of Pierre-Alain France hard. The gap was under two seconds on Lap 17, but France had a few crucial tenths in hand over his rival and the #45 began to edge away.

Osborne continued to trim parts of Berridge’s lead away, but he still had 14 seconds to find and only 14 minutes remaining on the clock; and when the Mercedes managed to pull out a tenth on the next (21st) lap despite its problems, it looked as though things had been settled.

But then, on Lap 23, the gap suddenly came down by more than a second and a half as Berridge’s laptime increased to 1:53.153. Was this the gearbox or traffic?

The answer came swiftly: “Car 31 stopped at T7”! Yes, he was in trouble; big trouble. The C31 had lost all gears – “It basically tried to select two gears at the same time; the internals are mashed!” – and a certain win had disappeared into the ether.

This dramatic change in fortunes gave Osborne a huge lead in the FROMA-liveried car and for the first time since getting in he allowed his pace to drop a little. This didn’t prevent him from lapping the field on Lap 26, and then two laps later he took the chequered flag to the delight of Steve Tandy and the team.

“That’s probably the best weekend of racing I’ve ever had,” said a beaming Joe Osborne. “The Nissan is just insane – a completely thoroughbred racing car! I tested the car at Donington back-to-back with my GT3 Porsche and the Porsche felt like a road car in comparison.

73

“The car just felt better and better with every session through the weekend; this was the first time it has run here but our engine guy in Japan gave us a great map and it felt perfect in the race. Steve had a great stint, and when Bob suddenly stopped it was just a case of bringing it home.

“The atmosphere in the paddock is really relaxed and friendly – so many people come up to you and say ‘well done!’ and mean it, rather than saying it through gritted teeth which is the norm elsewhere. I can’t wait to have another go at Imola!”

Pierre-Alain France had pulled out a reasonably comfortable gap over Mike Donovan by the end and claimed his first podium in the series.

“After the first trial at Spa - where I only raced for 20 minutes because I was also competing in the CER race with my Lola T70 - and the race at Le Mans, where I retired because of the rain and the tyres which were more than 20 years old, Le Castellet was the first race with the Porsche I've completed," said Pierre-Alain France. “As was the case at Le Mans, I was very surprised to do so well in the qualifying session, but I wasn't that confident of keeping the place during the race; although we'd installed a cooling system to stay as fit as possible.

"I won a place at the start and kept it to the flag in spite of the close attentions of [Mike Donovan's] Spice. I very much enjoyed this race in an extraordinary car, on a very safe and pleasant track, against excellent competition, and on a sunny day.

"I've had to wait a long, long time to reach more than 330 km/h, so I'd like to say thank you to the organisation that allows us to achieve our old dreams. I can't wait to join in again next season!"

Mike Donovan took his fourth C2 win of the season in the #111 Spice... ....while Eric Rickenbacher was probably the happiest man at the circuit after claiming his first podium finish after three seasons of Group C racing.

"After three years of hard work, we've finally earned the reward for my mechanic Uli Schüpbach and the team," said a delighted Eric. "I overdrove the car during qualifying and so only started tenth, but made up a couple of places at the start.

"Then the engine cut-out at the pitstop which dropped me behind the #45 Porsche, but I then caught up with Paul Stubber and had a hard but sportsman-like three-lap battle with him before overtaking in Sector 3.I then got the #34 Porsche before ending the race with a series of long, hot laps - it was about 65°C in the cockpit!

"So to finish third is a great feeling!"

And the sixth placed Jean-Marc Merlin had enjoyed himself too in his Porsche 962; "It is great to race such quick cars on the safest track in the world!"

Paul Ricard had been hard on the Group C field, but had still produced some great racing. More importantly, it had again been demonstrated that this is far from a bunch of old men tootling around in expensive toys, but is instead a serious and competitive racing series; and one that cannot be won simply by dropping a young ‘hotshoe’ or seasoned pro into the driver’s seat - just ask Nic Minassian, Emmanuel Collard or Joe Osborne.

The cars will now head across Europe for the final round at Imola on October 20th-21st, part of the Luigi Musso Historic Grand Prix.

74

Paul Ricard Round 6 5-7th October Circuit Length = 5.79 km Weather/Track: Dry & Sunny

POS

NO

CL

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME

1

27

C1

Tandy/Osborne

Nissan

R90CK

28

01:01:45

2

45

C1

France

Porsche

962C

27

01:01:52

3

111

C2

Donovan

Spice

SE88

27

4

60

C1

Rickenbacher

Cheetah

5

7

C1

Monterio/Collard

Porsche

6

34

C1

Merlin

7

164

C2

8

40

9 10

GAP

KPH

BEST

KPH

157.6

01:50.6

188.4

1 Lap

151.6

01:58.9

175.3

01:02:03

1 Lap

151.2

01:59.3

174.8

27

01:02:15

1 Lap

150.7

01:59.5

174.5

962

27

01:02:39

1 Lap

149.8

02:00.1

173.6

Porsche

962C

27

01:02:44

1 Lap

149.5

02:00.5

173.1

Watt

Argo

JM19C

26

01:02:17

2 Laps

145.1

02:06.1

165.3

C1

Bateman

Spice

SE90

26

01:02:34

2 Laps

144.4

02:06.0

165.5

12

C1

Kempnich

Spice

956

21

01:02:17

7 Laps

117.2

02:00.3

173.4

4

C1

McKay/Ward

Lancia

LC2

17

01:01:51

11 Laps

95.5

02:03.2

169.2

31

C1

Evans/Berridge

Mercedes

C11

23

51:49.5

01:49.7

190.1

116

C1

Rousselot/Descamps

Spice

SE89C

17

42:58.6

01:59.9

173.9

21

C1

Stubber

Veskanda

17

44:30.0

02:00.9

172.4

102

C2

Meyrick

Spice

SE89C

5

11:42.6

02:01.4

171.7

140

C2

Miles

Jaguar

XJR5

4

09:21.8

02:14.9

154.5

NOT CLASSIFIED

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

Race Report Imola The final round of the 2012 Group C Racing Championship was held in the historic surroundings of the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari – more commonly known as Imola – as part of the Luigi Musso Historic Gran Prix.

The previous round at Paul Ricard a fortnight earlier had unfortunately taken its toll on the expected entry, with several cars – including the Mercedes C11 of Bob Berridge and Gareth Evans – being unable to compete in Italy due to there being insufficient time to effect the necessary repairs (it is the intention of the championship co-ordinator, Zoe Copas, to avoid a similar scenario in 2013, if at all possible). Nevertheless, the championship also welcomed back other cars and drivers that had been unable to race in France due to other commitments.

The schedule at Imola allowed for plenty of track time for the Group C runners, with an hour of Free Practice on the Friday, two 45-minute Qualifying sessions on the Saturday followed by the 60-minute race on the Sunday. This gave a couple of the drivers the opportunity to test both of their cars before deciding on which one would take part in the race; Aaron Scott getting to play with Tommy Dreelan’s recently-acquired Leyton House-liveried 962 during the first Qualifying session while Dreelan himself focussed fully on his #170 Spice SE86.

Following his win at Paul Ricard, Steve Tandy again invited his British GT teammate Joe Osborne to join him in the #27 FROMA Nissan R90CK, and the yellow car would start the race from pole after a lap of 1:40.090 in the morning session.

Joining it on the front row was the Listerine Spice SE88 of Mike Donovan, who had achieved a best of 1:41.707, again in the first session. A 1:42.172 was enough to see Tommy Dreelan starting from third on the grid in the Spice, alongside Henrik Lindberg’s #33 Tic Tac-liveried Porsche 962 which had bounced back from its Silverstone suspension problems to set the fourth-fastest time at Imola.

Lindberg’s 1:44.189 was very nearly matched by both the #21 Veskanda of Paul Stubber and the #60 Cheetah of Eric Rickenbacher.... ....while Adrian Watt just edged Russell Kempnich to ensure that the #164 Argo JM19C would start seventh and The grid was completed by the #40 Spice SE90 of Richard Bateman and the #140 Jaguar XJR5 of Don Miles.

Conditions couldn’t have been better as the final race of the season began in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd, and the opening stages rewarded the spectators with some great action.

Steve Tandy held onto his lead after taking the rolling start, but Paul Stubber was determined to go out on a high and got everything right on the first lap; the red Veskanda passing three cars and challenging the Nissan for the lead. Mike Donovan dropped to third, while Henrik Lindberg passed Tommy Dreelan to stay fourth. the #12 Porsche 956 eighth.

As the lead quartet began to break away, places were being traded elsewhere in the field. Eric Rickenbacher had held onto his starting position, but within three laps had passed Dreelan’s Spice for fifth. Behind the green Cheetah, both Russell Kempnich and Richard Bateman (the latter in the #40 Spice) had gained a place on Adrian Watt and by Lap 6 the #12 Porsche was up into sixth.

Having been demoted at the start Donovan decided that this wasn’t good enough and immediately took the fight back to the Veskanda. On Lap 7 Stubber allowed him the space necessary and, wasting no opportunity, the Spice was through and back into second. Sadly though the Veskanda’s race was almost run and gearbox problems saw its season end after just nine laps. The unique Australian car and its ever-enthusiastic driver and crew had made a great impression throughout this first season and it is to be hoped that it is back for more in 2013.

98

The race continued apace, with Tandy and Donovan trading times to keep things tight at the front. Both drivers put in quick and consistent stints and there wasn’t much between them as the leader pitted on Lap 16 to hand over to Joe Osborne. Such had been the intensity of the fight that Donovan had set his fastest lap of the race – 1:42.190 – on the 15th lap.

Adrian Watt had been the first to pit on Lap 14, and a good stop enabled his Argo to stay ahead of the Jaguar of Don Miles (which made its stop on Lap 16). Tommy Dreelan handed the #170 Spice over to Aaron Scott on Lap 15, with Eric Rickenbacher also pitting that lap, while Henrik Lindberg stopped on Lap 16 and Richard Bateman on Lap 18.

The final two stoppers were the #12 Porsche of Russell Kempnich (Lap 19) and Mike Donovan, who held on until the end of Lap 20 before pitting.

Nothing untoward happened at any of the stops and the order after all were completed was 27, 111, 33, 60, 12, 170, 40, 164 and 140.

A great stop by his team meant that Donovan had actually resumed in the lead, but, with fresh blood in the Nissan, the yellow car soon went by and a reasonable gap began to grow between the top two cars for the first time in the race. Joe Osborne has become an immediate convert to the joys of Group C racing, but he was also about to experience the lows after the highs of Paul Ricard.

Having recently set the fastest lap of the race – 1:39.393 – he found his participation coming to a dramatic halt on Lap 28 as the R90CK suffered sudden crown and pinion failure. There was no way back from this and the Nissan ended its race in the pitlane. And there was more disappointment to follow for Steve Tandy as the retirement meant that he would be denied a top-three finish in the C1 Championship.

The Nissan’s retirement left Mike Donovan with a big lead, but it also spurred on Henrik Lindberg, as the Dane found himself leading C1.

Just prior to this Eric Rickenbacher had looked secure in fourth-place and would have inherited second in C1, but fuel pick-up issues on Lap 26 meant that the Ecurie Basilli Cheetah would soon become the race’s third retirement.

With such a big lead, it would have been reasonable to expect that Donovan would ease up in the #111 Spice, but he was enjoying himself too much and pushed on.

With two laps to go, however, disaster almost struck as a damper suddenly failed and the driver found himself facing the prospect of nursing an ailing car for the final ten kilometres.

His pace dropped immediately to 2:00.937 on Lap 31, but Donovan knew that even this was too quick and he was forced to slow even more. After what must have been an agonising further two minutes and 14 seconds, anxiety turned to elation as the Spice crossed the line to end a great season with an overall victory.

"What a fantastic end to a great season for Group C," beamed Donovan. "Imola is ideally suited to the cars and the organisers - and the weather - couldn't have been more welcoming.

"Everything went well for me and it was fun mixing it at the very front with the C1 cars, as at Donington earlier in the season. While I couldn't get near them on acceleration, some good 'tows' and the nimbleness of the Spice had me right with Steve Tandy at the pitstop.

"I chased as hard as I could after the stop and then, sadly, the Nissan retired leaving me, happily, in the overall lead again. The damper breaking two laps from the end was a huge scare and the flag was definitely a welcome sight!

"An overall win to end the season - what could be better than that?"

99

Henrik Lindberg was equally delighted as he crossed the line 63 seconds later to take the C1 victory.

"I'm delighted with the result," said the Dane. "We've made some big changes since Silverstone and the car went very well around here. It helped when the Nissan blew up, of course, but I was happy with my pace and that I finished on the lead lap.

"Imola is a fantastic track - you don't get the chance to race anti-clockwise very often - and everyone has really enjoyed. I hope we get the chance to come back next year.

"I really enjoy racing in Group C and will be taking in as many races next year as my business commitments allow; hopefully the whole season. I'll probably start the season in the Porsche and then switch to the Lancia later in the year."

Aaron Scott enjoyed a good run in the#170 Spice, moving up to third overall before the flag to take second in C2, while Russell Kempnich and Richard Bateman completed the C1 podium in fourth and fifth overall. Adrian Watt took third in C2 after a solid race in the Argo.

"I've loved racing at Imola," said Tommy Dreelan. "I've not been able to race much in Group C this year because of my other Historic racing commitments, but I can't wait for the new season to start.

"I've just bought a Porsche and am really looking forward to racing that, but the Spice is now part of the family so I'll still have that as well!"

The final finisher was Don Miles, who managed to take the flag despite his Jaguar ailing in the final few laps.

Imola turned out to be the perfect venue for the Group C racing season to end at, with the ambience of the place and the meeting complimenting well the friendly atmosphere in the paddock.

With all racing complete for another year, the final standings reveal that Gareth Evans (despite not racing at Imola) is the C1 Champion and the winner of the Mulsanne Cup after amassing 134 points; while trophies also go to runner-up Rupert Clevely (100 points) and Russell Kempnich (96).

The C2 title and Eau Rouge Cup go to Mike Donovan (168.5), while Don Miles (115) and Adrian Watt (102.5) also receive trophies. The awards will be presented at the Autosport International Show in January.

As another highly successful group C Racing season comes to an end, thoughts are already turning to 2013. The calendar will be released in the coming weeks, and the level of interest from teams and drivers strongly suggests that 2013 will be even better. A tantalising prospect indeed!

Imola images by Gruppo Peroni Race/Fotoforchini

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Imola Round 8 20-21st October Circuit Length = 4.91 km Weather/Track: Sunny/Dry POS

NO

CL

DRIVER

CAR

TIME

LAPS

1

111

C2

Donovan

Spice

SE88

1:01'05.355

32

2

33

C1

Lindberg

Porsche

962

1:02'09.181

32

3

170

C2

Dreelan/Scott

Spice

SE86

1:01'06.616

4

12

C1

Kempnich

Porsche

956

5

40

C1

Bateman

Spice

6

16

C2

Watt

7 140 NOT CLASSIFIED

C2

27

GAP

KPH

BEST

IN LAP

1'42.190

15

1'03.826

1'45.969

9

31

1 lap

1'44.955

21

1:01'18.901

31

1 lap

1'47.472

14

SE90

1:01'51.828

31

1 lap

1'48.568

16

Argo

JM19C

1:02'11.109

30

2 laps

1'52.539

12

Miles

Jaguar

XJR5

1:01'10.705

27

5 Laps

1'53.475

6

C1

Tandy/Osborne

Nissan

R90CK

51'10.031

27

5 laps

1'39.393

25

60

C1

Rickenbacher

Cheetah

51'38.645

26

6 laps

1'45.847

19

21

C1

Stubber

Veskanda

15'57.745

9

23 laps

1'44.365

5

27

C1

Osborne

Nissan

1'39.393

25

FASTEST LAP R90CK

101

177.803 kph

102

103

104

105

106

107

Group C 2012 Championship Results C1 Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 23 23 24 25 26 26 27 27 27

Driver EVANS CLEVELY KEMPNICH TANDY LINDBERG WILLS D'ANSEMBOURG REGOUT BERRIDGE STUBBER RICKENBACHER MINASSIAN OSBORNE BATEMAN ABRAHAMSSON MEYRICK MONTERIO FRANCE EYRE MERLIN GARROD BJERGLUND MCKAY WARD COLLARD KJALLGREN BROWN BELL MERCER GHIO FORT ROCHE

Gareth Rupert Russell Steve Henrik Roger Christophe Herve Bob Paul Eric Nic Joe Richard

Donington 12 28 16 2 16 n/a n/a n/a 28 23 14 n/a n/a n/a

Spa 33 20 10 19 10 n/a 22 22 n/a 0 12 n/a n/a n/a

LeMans 21 8 4 6 10 28 4 n/a 29 12 12 n/a n/a 2

Silverstone 62 44 26 32 14 44 42 42 n/a 18 n/a 44 n/a n/a

Paul Ricard 6 n/a 14 29 n/a n/a n/a n/a 6 4 19 n/a 29 12

Imola n/a n/a 26 6 29 n/a n/a n/a n/a 4 2 n/a 6 19

TOTAL 134 100 96 94 79 72 68 64 63 61 59 44 35 33

Kent Andy Manuel Pierre-Alain Richard Jean-Marc Peter Claus Duncan Robin Emmanuel Georg Zak Derek David Michel Laurent Chris

n/a 29 n/a n/a 2 n/a 2 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

n/a n/a 8 2 0 4 2 14 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

16 n/a 4 2 14 0 2 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a 9 4 n/a n/a n/a 0

14 n/a n/a n/a 7 n/a 14 n/a 4 4 n/a 11 n/a n/a 4 n/a n/a n/a

n/a n/a 16 22 0 18 n/a n/a 12 12 16 n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0 n/a

n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

30 29 28 26 23 22 20 18 16 16 16 11 9 4 4 0 0 0

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Group C 2012 Championship Results - C2 Position

Driver

Donington

Spa

LeMans

Silverstone

Paul Ricard

Imola

TOTAL

1

DONOVAN

Mike

33

29

4

53

33

16.5

168.5

2

MILES

Don

20

23

18

40

4

10

115

3

WATT

Adrian

4

4

23

34

26

11.5

102.5

4

MEYRICK

Peter

22

6

2

57

2

n/a

89

5

FAY

Jonathan

19

n/a

n/a

26

n/a

n/a

45

6

DOZIN

Thomas

n/a

22

16

n/a

0

n/a

38

6

CHESTER

Nick

n/a

n/a

n/a

38

n/a

n/a

38

7

DREELAN

Tommy

2

n/a

22

n/a

n/a

11

35

8

ROUSSELOT

Pierre-Francois

n/a

n/a

31

n/a

2

n/a

33

9

JAMAR

Eric

n/a

22

n/a

n/a

0

n/a

22

10

SCHLESINGER

Alain

n/a

16

2

n/a

n/a

n/a

18

10

DUCHENE

Thomas

n/a

16

2

n/a

n/a

n/a

18

10

LEGRAS

Jean

n/a

4

14

n/a

n/a

n/a

18

11

DE LATRE

Thierry

n/a

0

16

n/a

n/a

n/a

16

12

SCOTT

Aaron

2

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

11

13

13

MEYRICK

Andy

n/a

6

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

6

14

DANVIN

Nicolas

n/a

4

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

4

15

BROCKDORFF

Dan

n/a

2

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

2

15

KNIGHT

Trevor

2

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

2

109

THE CARS

Spice SE90 110

THE CARS

Spice SE89C 111

Spice SE89P 112

Spice SE88C 113

Spice SE88P 114

Spice SE88 115

Spice SE90C 116

Spice SE88 117

Spice SE90C 118

Spice SE90C 119

Spice SE89C 120

Spice SE88 121

Spice SE86 122

Spice SE89C 123

Lancia LC2 124

Lancia LC2 125

Lancia LC2 126

Lancia LC2 127

Sauber Mercedes C9 128

Mercedes C11 129

Mercedes C11 130

Mercedes C11 131

Nissan NPTI90 132

Nissan R88C 133

Nissan R90CK 134

Nissan R90CK 135

Nissan R90CK 136

Tiga GT287 137

Tiga GT286 138

Tiga GT287 139

Tiga GC287 140

Tiga GC285 141

Argo JM19C 142

Argo JM19C 143

Porsche 956 144

Porsche 962C 145

Porsche 962 146

Porsche 962C 147

Porsche 962C 148

Porsche 962C 149

Porsche 962C 150

Porsche 962C 151

Porsche 962 152

Porsche 962 153

Porsche 962 154

Porsche 962C 155

Jaguar XJR9 156

Jaguar XJR11 157

Jaguar XJR16 158

Jaguar XJR5 159

Aston Martin AMR1 160

March Porsche 34G 161

Veskanda 162

Cheetah G606 163

Courage C26S 164

Alba AR2 165

Gebhardt 166

ADA 167

Peugeot 905 168

Final Words..

It was a privilege to be part of the season, keeping the Group C legend alive and giving these fabulous cars the airing they so richly deserve. Even after all these years, the cars have proven that they represent a golden era of sports car racing, performing fantastically at the great circuits in Europe. At their spiritual home of Le Mans, both Mercedes ran at lap times that would place the cars in the midfield of the contemporary prototypes running in the 24hr race which started later on the Saturday. It was remarkable that the C9 achieved the greatest top speed of the entire weekend, beating even the 2012 LMP1 Audis and Nissans. The organisation of the Championship has been faultless and I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to be involved.

Gareth Evans - 2012 C1 Champion

" I get a huge thrill from lining up on the grid with these wonderful cars and the Spice is a delight to drive. Winning the Championship in my first full year in the category and becoming the first C2 entry ever to win a Group C race overall cap a year of great, close racing. Can't wait for Barcelona in April"

Mike Donovan – 2012 C2 Champion

I started racing because I was a fan of it first and when Bob contacted me to drive Group C at the Silverstone Classic it was a yes straight away. Thanks to Rupert and Bob I sampled both the Peugeot and the Lancia, just pure pleasure! The championship is friendly and competitive and I will come again if I get a chance.

Nicolas Minassian

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Poster Art Why not have your favourite Group C Car as a work of Art? We have produced an extensive range of Group C cars in a “Poster Art “ style which really shows off their liveries. A small selection is shown here and they are available in a wide range of formats including mounted prints, posters or promotional gifts. More information an ordering can be found at www.Historic-Racing.co.uk

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ISBN 978-0-9570868-2-1 Conceived & Produced by Jon Bunston & David Smith, Historic Racing Photography. Printed in UK by Butler Tanner Dennis Ltd First Published in UK in 2012 by Evado Ltd, 8 Manor Park, Great Somerford, SN15 5EQ, UK www.evado.co.uk For information on Group Racing contact www.groupcracing.com +44 (0)7824 393839 Grateful support from ZoÍ Copas with additional images from David Dykes, Andy Hawtin, Fabiola Forchini & Fabrice Bergenhuizen Cover image Andy Hawtin ,Race Reports by Mark Howson & supplied by www.dailysportscar.com Copyright Š 2012 Historic Racing Photography & individual photographers - www.HistoricF1.co.uk andyhawtin@fsmail.net www.fotoforchini.it/ Fabrice Bergenhuizen

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