Pole position: Graham in 1.41,3
Fastest lap:
Distance: 107 laps, 505 km
Average speed: 157,250 kmh
Weather:
Ruleset: Group 1 "Francorchamps"
Car info: 1975 Cars
A lot of the promise of the race was diminished when 13 of the 50 entries failed to turn up. The most disappointing non-arrival had to be the entire Autodelta team. Two more unexplained absentees were the Mons Racing Team Audi 80 GT’s, and the Team Tissot Avenger GT and Simca Rallye also failed to turn up. Despite these disappointments there was still a healthy entry of 37 cars out on the track when official practice began on Saturday morning, so there was still plenty to watch. As the first session was dry, most of the drivers wasted little time in getting down to some quick laps in the morning and right from the start it was Stuart Graham's purpose-built Faberge Camaro that set the pace. Knowing Stuart's reputation for building capable machinery, many people had expected the Camaro to be quicker than the rest - but three and a half seconds quicker?! That was the story at the end of the session, though, with Graham recording a 1.40,3 to claim pole position. Reasonably happy with the car's performance, Graham sat out most of the two hour afternoon session, in the pits, only going out in the last few minutes to bed in new brakes and scrub tyres in readiness for the race. With the Camaro's superior speed proved beyond doubt, Graham's problem for the race was going to be finding an optimum lap time that would balance speed and reliability so that he could finish the 500 kilometres still out in front. "It's going to be another conservation type race, but at a quicker pace", he commented, remembering last year's victory. He refused to be drawn into any kind of predictions, though: "We're being a bit cagey yet until we've done all our maths", he smiled. Careful calculations of lap times and fuel consumption would be on the menu for many people back at their hotels that night and, with the Camaro only being able to take on 15 gallons, fuel economy was going to be particularly cruel to the drivers of the American cars. It was very pleasing to see Andy Rouse's attractive Trophee de l'Avenir Triumph Dolomite Sprint bringing the name of British Leyland boldly back into international competition. What was even more pleasing was to see the car going so tremendously well that it claimed second fastest overall with a time of 1.44,75. The Dolomite gave no trouble at all during the morning, and in the afternoon session was taken up with crucial fuel tests. "It'll be OK tomorrow on two stops - we'll weaken it off a bit", commented Ralph Broad confidently. With the mixture as it was, the car appeared to have a range of about 100 miles on its 10,5-gallon tank. The race was 313 miles long, so they had around another 13 miles to find if they were to get away with two stops. It was going to be a close one. With the car being so new and relatively untried, the team were a little unwilling to expect it to last the distance. "The overdrive is the weak link", commented Rouse. "Do I foresee any problems? Yes - Stuart Graham!" Taking up the third front-row place was another British entry, the Camaro of Vince Woodman, Woodman went five-hundredths of a second quicker in the afternoon than the morning to claim the place in 1.45,52. Like Graham, he was back down to a 5.7-litre engine for this race and everything was well with the car except for a persistent fuel surge problem which was giving him a headache. The most fancied and feared European contender was the Luigi BMW CSi for Spa 24-Hour winners Jean Xhenceval and Hughes de Fierlant, Pierre Dieudonné was also down to drive the car but he would only be able to qualify it during the untimed Sunday session as he was busy racing his Formula 3 March at Oulton Park on Saturday. Like many of the foreign drivers, the Luigi men were complaining that the track was too bumpy and they had to soften everything up on the car to get it to handle at all well. The BMW wasn't going to need more than two refuelling stops in the race but team manager Jean-Mathieu Vassen was just a little peeved that refuelling had to be done from five-gallon churns instead of by the FIA gravity feed procedure that they were used to. He normally reckoned on just 14 seconds for a refuel and a driver change, but with the British system their stops were going to take at least a minute. What did he think of Stuart Graham's performance? "It's too fast. Maybe the Camaro will get problems with brakes, but I don't know..." Despite not having been to Silverstone before, Xhenceval was quickest in the car, recording a best lap of 1.45,96. "It's a circuit that's very easy to get to know, but difficult to go very fast on", he commented. "We hope that the Camaros can't keep going at that speed all through the race." Alongside Xhenceval on the second row was Tom Walkinshaw in the first of the Hermetite Trophee de l'Avenir Capris. Tom described his car's performance as "lousy" and, with a shortage of power a problem all day, an engine change was called for before the race. The second Hermetite Capri was causing less concern and Les Blackburn qualified it marginally behind Walkinshaw on the third row, Alistair Cowin's Camaro qualified seventh fastest, although that was with Richard Lloyd at the wheel to provide Cowin and co-driver Brian Pepper with that bit of extra incentive. In the afternoon the car's engine went flat and a dropped pushrod was diagnosed. Meanwhile Think Automotive, who prepared the General Relays-sponsored car, were already hard at work on Richard Lloyd's Simoniz car - the only Camaro running with a 7.4-litre engine, Lloyd had only got in six laps in the morning before the engine began to lose all its oil pressure above 4000 revs, so they were busy taking it apart to try and sort out the problem. Nevertheless, Lloyd's time of 1.48,54 still gave him a place on the fourth row. Just ahead of him on the grid was Barrie Williams' very nicely turned-out Auto Extra BMW CSi - another car making its race debut. The car was using the engine from Tony Lanfranchi's last year's Gp1 car with Weber carburettors bolted on, so it was rather down on power compared to the Luigi car with its sophisticated mechanical injection system, but Whizzo seemed to be enjoying himself and acquitted himself well in practice: "To go quicker you've got to talk with a broken English accent," he joked. René Tricot shared the fourth row with Lloyd in the first of the Opel Commodore GSE’s. He was to share the driving of the BP Belgium car with Patrick Nève, but until Nève arrived from the Oulton F3 race the business of qualifying the car was left in Tricot's hands. Next fastest was the first 2-litre car after Rouse, which was Roger Bell's Dolomite - over five seconds behind. Bell's car had a new engine to replace the one which The Guardian's Eric Dymock managed to drop a valve on at a recent press test day, but it was still all very much in British Group 1.5 trim and hardly to be criticised for failing to keep up with Special Tuning's latest toy. Another remarkable performance by a British driver saw Win Percy put his Samuri Toyota Celica alongside Bell on the grid, easily the fastest of the l600 cc class. "I didn't think we'd be anywhere in the hunt like this", said a slightly disbelieving Percy after practice. Admittedly he hadn't the Mons Audis or the Tissot Avenger to contend with, but his only slightly modified Southern Organs series car was still an amazing 4.5s faster than Harald Ertl's Postert Toyota Celica. Ertl was finding the car he was sharing with Hans Stuckenbrock much too stiff and hard and tending to switch suddenly from an understeer to an oversteer condition as it went through a corner. However, he was confident that their larger wheels and hard compound tyres, while not giving then the edge on Percy's car for speed, would give them none of the problems Percy might have to contend with during the long race. Brian Muir was to start alongside Percy in his usual Dolomite Sprint, a little surprised at being slower than Bell as the Weber carburettors fitted to his car had been expected to, give it an advantage over the works car with its SU’s. Next fastest was the Dutch Levi’s Racing Opel Commodore which should have been driven by Huub Vermeulen and Fred Frankenhout. However, they were contracted to drive their own national formula saloon cars in Zandvoort on Sunday, and so Helmut Kelleners and Albrecht Krebs were found as replacements. Krebs set the best time in practice with a 1.50,33, which put him alongside John Handley in his regular British Dealer Opel Team Commodore. Krebs' spent the morning being fitted with a new engine. Handley would be driving the race on his own and, having set his time in the morning, he spent much of the afternoon session doing fuel tests and practising pit stops, under the guidance of Tony Fall, who had assumed overall control of all the Opel entries - quite a problem as his 'team' spoke German, Dutch, Flemish, French and English! First on the seventh row of the grid was a Mk1 Escort entered by Tricentrol International for Alec Poole, Tony Brennan and Derek McMahon. The car had been bought new from Tricentrol and prepared specially for the event. Friday morning was the first time it turned a wheel and Poole was well pleased with its performance. His patron, Derek McMahon, seemed to be enjoying himself too: "I've just been round Silverstone for the first time and I've discovered a couple of corners I didn't know existed", he proclaimed as he stepped out of the car. Brian Cutting started alongside Poole in the second Samuri Toyota and that row was completed by Jody Carr and Arthur Collier in the Capri which Carr took on this year's Tour of Britain suitably modified for this event. John Hine sat alongside Marshall in his Adlards Capri and the row behind then consisted of Mike Smith, who'd been slightly faster than Barry Boult in Boult's Capri, John Markey, who was sharing his Arian Mazda RX-3 with Mazda PR-man David Palmer and then the Ertl/Stuckenbrock Toyota. Markey and Palmer had been to Zolder with their l'Avenir Mazda the week before and suffered a complete loss of oil pressure. Consequently its engine had been back to Weslake's for a hasty rebuild and wasn't giving as much power as they would have liked. After beginning practice with the five-speed box they changed to the four-speed close-ratio one and Markey set his best time of 1.54,01 during the second session. Eddy Joosen was slightly quicker than his Belgian compatriot "Marco" in their shared Opel Commodore and his best lap of 1.56,06 put him just ahead of Michel de Deyne's Alfa Romeo 1600 Junior on the grid. Hans Nowak brought the only Audi 80 GT to appear and qualified it next on the grid, sharing a row with Stan Clark, who was co-driving Eric Mandron's 1600 Alfa, and Cyd Williams, who again teamed up with Ken Coffey in the Escort they'd taken to Spa for the 24-Hours but had been unable to start through being on the reserve list. Nelio Brunetti's Alfa 1600 was next fastest, sharing the 12th row of the grid with the Shaun Jackson/Chris Craft Opel Commodore, which had spluttered round for a few laps before being brought in for an overnight engine change for one loaned by the Levi’s team. Michel Chapel was next on the grid in another 1600 Alfa and then came the first of the 1300 cc cars, the Fiat 128 of Fernand Neri. However, he was only one-hundredth of a second faster than Jon Dooley's McInnes Amcron Alfasud, which in turn was only a few tenths quicker than the Fiat 128 of championship leaders Ugo Meloni and Roger Berndtson. The 1300 Alfa Junior of Peter Hilliard and Leo Bertorelli sat alongside Berndtson on the grid, with John Myerscough starting from the back in the Westune Alfasud he was sharing with John Raffo. The only car which arrived for practice but failed to start the race was the Euro-handler Team Opel Manta, which Peter Hanson looked poised to do well with in the 2-litre class, particularly in the absence of the Autodelta Alfas. However, the car's Irmscher Tuning-prepared engine dropped a valve at 6000 revs after only three laps of practice and so Hanson went home very disappointed. THE RACE At ten minutes past two the green lights came on and 36 cars headed for Copse. Vince Woodman got there first with his Camaro ahead of Andy Rouse's Dolomite and Les Blackburn's Capri. When they'd all gone, Tom Walkinshaw's Capri remained on the grid with electrical problems and the leaders had done almost a lap before he got going. Woodman came into Woodcote for the first time with Stuart Graham right alongside him, but the VW Motors cars kept in front of the Faberge one through the chicane to register as the only car apart from Graham's to lead the race. Graham soon had Woodman weighed up and by the end of the second lap he had taken the lead and was already beginning to pull away. From then on no-one else got a look in as Stuart's Camaro ran completely according to plan for the remaining 105 laps. By the time Graham came in for his first routine refuelling stop at 31 laps he was a lap clear of everyone else and with the pit-stop all over in 49s, his lead remained perfectly secure. Lloyd's Camaro took third place off Rouse for a few laps, but its oil pressure problems recurred and the car retired after only seven laps. This left Rouse to chase Woodman and the agile Dolomite was soon challenging hard for second place. Unfortunately, the two cars touched as Rouse made his bid to get past and although the Camaro continued with no more than a dent in its door the Dolomite had to make a pit-stop to have some bodywork straightened out and a front wheel changed, which dropped it down to 24th place, two laps behind the leader. When Rouse came into the pits the centre of attention in the race became the battle for third place between Blackburn and Xhenceval. The Capri and the BMW proved terrific value as they scrambled for the same bit of road lap after lap at the chicane, but then things went a bit wrong on the 26th lap and Blackburn was forced to bounce heavily across the Woodcote kerbs. The jolting broke a wire somewhere and Blackburn stopped twice out on the circuit before he could coax the Capri back into action. There had been some even more frantic action going on behind these two as Brian Muir's Dolomite, Barrie Williams' BMW, Alec Poole's Escort and Albrecht Krebs' Opel duelled for fifth place. Williams caused plenty of consternation but little damage when he ran out of brakes and into the back of Muir's car, but the real accident came a couple of laps later when Krebs and Muir tangled at Stowe. The two cars dived into the catch fencing and Muir's race ended there and then, although Krebs struggled back to the pits minus a front tyre, with a damaged wheel and bodywork and a badly twisted steering arm. Woodman dropped behind Xhenceval with his first routine pit-stop at 28 laps, but Graham lasted another three laps before coming in for his fill-up. Xhenceval came in to take on fuel and hand over to Hughes de Fierlant right on schedule at 35 laps and the BMW went back out again in extra quick time, now firmly established in second place. They'd got the measure of everyone except Graham now and it was just going to be a case of sitting it out and hoping and waiting for the Camaro to drop out* With Woodman still third, Walkinshaw had fought right up through the field to fourth place, but then the starter motor wire that had kept him behind at the start broke off completely and Tom lost a lot of time at the side of the road doing a repair job on it. With the Capri temporarily out of action it was Roger Bell's Dolomite, leading the 2-litre class since Rouse's incident with Woodman, that took over fourth place overall. Behind him the Tricot Opel was fighting to stay ahead of Alec Poole's Escort, which was proving perhaps the biggest surprise of the race as it fought to take fifth place overall. These two moved up a place as Bell made what was thought to be a routine pit-stop. A lap later though, the Dolomite was back in the pits having started oiling up plugs - a problem that was to plague it for the rest of the race. Hardly had Bell arrived back than Rouse brought the l'Avenir car back into the pits too, trailing white smoke that turned out to be burning gearbox oil. As Rouse had feared, the overdrive was beginning to play up and causing the oil to overheat - a problem which was to afflict him for the rest of his race too. Ken Coffey and Cyd Williams finished close behind the Alfa to take a well-deserved 12th place and third in class with their Escort and then came the sole surviving Dolomite which Roger Bell and Jenny Birrell had spluttered round in to take 13th place. Brunetti's Alfa just took 14th place as it crossed the line alongside Peter Hilliard and Leo Bertorelli's 1300 Alfa, which took a clear class win to give British entries a clean sweep in the results. Jon Dooley's Alfasud dropped back with a chronic misfire due to a bent valve when well placed and so second in the class went to the Westune Alfasud, which just beat Neri and "Fifi" in the first Fiat 128. Fourth place in that class was good enough for Ugo Meloni and Roger Berndtson to share the Trophee de l'Avenir title after a successful year with their Fiat 128. |
Division 1-4
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Pos | Pos in class | # | Team / Entrant Car- Engine |
Drivers, Nationality | Engine vol. (cc) |
Engine Type |
Group | Distance, time |
Qualifying position | Qualifying time | Fastest lap | Reason out, remarks |
1 | 1 | 1 | Fabergé Racing Chevrolet Camaro Z28 |
Stuart Graham, GB |
5736 | V8 | Div. 4 | 107 laps, 3:12.38,83 | 1 | 1.41,30 | 1.43,25 | |
2 | 2 | 12 | Luigi Racing BMW 3.0 CSi |
Hughes de Fierlant, B Jean Xhenceval, B |
2985 | L6 | Div. 4 | 106 | 4 | 1.45,96 | ||
3 | 3 | 17 | Dealer Opel Team Opel Commodore GS/E |
John Handley, GB |
2784 | L6 | Div. 4 | 102 | 15 | |||
4 | 1 | 41 | Tricentrol International Ford Escort Mk.I RS 2000 |
Alec Poole, IRL Tony Brennan, IRL Derek McMahon, IRL |
1993 | L4 | Div. 3 | 102 | 16 | |||
5 | 1 | 55 | Samuri Racing with Toyota GB Toyota Celica GT |
Brian Cutting, GB Patrick Cobb, GB Win Percy, GB |
1588 | L4 | Div. 2 | 101 | 17 | 1.50,92 | ||
6 | 4 | 7 | Adlards of Brixton Ford Capri II 3.0 |
John Hine, GB Tony Pond, GB Jeremy Nightingale, GB |
2993 | V6 | Div. 4 | 100 | 20 | |||
7 | 5 | 11 | Auto Extra Projects Ltd BMW 3.0 CSi |
Barrie Williams, GB |
2985 | L6 | Div. 4 | 99 | 8 | 1.48,79 | Brakes | |
8 | 6 | 6 | Ford Capri 3000 GT |
Arthur Collier, IRL Jody Carr, GB |
2993 | V6 | Div. 4 | 99 | 18 | |||
9 | 7 | 16 | Juma Opel Commodore GS/E |
Eddy Joosen, B "Marco", B |
2784 | L6 | Div. 4 | 97 | 24 | 1.56,06 | ||
10 | 2 | 56 | Postert Toyota Team Toyota Celica GT |
Harald Ertl, A Hans Stukenbrock, D |
1588 | L4 | Div. 2 | 96 | 23 | |||
11 | 2 | 35 | Écurie Chardon des Dunes-Dragons Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV |
Eric Mandron, B Stan Clark, GB |
1962 | L4 | Div. 3 | 27 | ||||
12 | 3 | 42 | Ford Escort Mk.I RS 2000 |
Ken Coffey, GB Cyd Williams, GB |
1993 | L4 | Div. 3 | 28 | ||||
13 | 4 | 39 | Leyland Special Tuning Triumph Dolomite Sprint |
Roger Bell, GB Jenny Birrell, GB (Andy Rouse, GB) |
1998 | L4 | Div. 3 | 11 | ||||
14 | 3 | 58 | Ecurie Arc-en-Ciel Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior |
Nello Brunetti, B Michel Lauria, B |
1570 | L4 | Div. 2 | 29 | ||||
15 | 1 | 74 | Chartcastle Alfa Romeo 1300 GT Junior |
Peter Hilliard, GB Leo Bertorelli, GB |
1290 | L4 | Div. 1 | 92 | 35 | 2.07,43 | ||
16 | 2 | 75 | Westune Ltd Alfa Romeo Alfasud Ti |
John Myerscough, GB John Raffo, I |
1186 | B4 | Div. 1 | 36 | 2.10,01 | |||
17 | 3 | 73 | Fiat 128 coupé 1300 |
Fernand Néri, B Fernand "Fifi" Néri Jr, B |
1290 | L4 | Div. 1 | 32 | 2.05,66 | 2.02,64 | ||
18 | 4 | 72 | Renstal Excelsior Fiat 128 coupé 1300 |
Roger Berndtson, B Ugo Meloni, B |
1290 | L4 | Div. 1 | 34 | 2.06,02 | |||
NC | 59 | Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior |
Michel Chapel, B Jean-Pierre Magalhaes, B |
1570 | L4 | Div. 2 | 31 | Starter motor | ||||
DNF | 15 | BP Belgium Opel Commodore GS/E |
Patrick Nève, B René Tricot, B |
2784 | L6 | Div. 4 | 10 | Gearbox | ||||
DNF | 5 | Flowsheet Panels Ford Capri |
Barry Boult, GB Mike Smith, GB |
2993 | V6 | Div. 4 | 21 | |||||
DNF | 43 | Arian Mazda Savanna RX-3 |
John Markey, GB David Palmer, GB |
2 x 491 | R2 | Div. 4 | 22 | 1.54,01 | ||||
DNF | 57 | Novarobel Alfa Romeo belgium Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior |
Michel De Deyne, B Michel Noé, B Roland De Jamblinne, B |
1570 | L4 | Div. 2 | 25 | Piston | ||||
DNF | 53 | Abt Motorsport Audi 80 GT |
Hans-Joachim Nowak, D Johann Abt, D |
1588 | L4 | Div. 2 | 26 | |||||
DNF | 18 | Ottershaw Motors Opel Commodore GS/E |
Chris Craft, GB Shaun Jackson, GB |
2784 | L6 | Div. 4 | 30 | |||||
DNF | 21 | Dealer Team Vauxhall Vauxhall Firenza Magnum 2300 |
Gerry Marshall, GB |
2279 | L4 | Div. 4 | 19 | |||||
DNF | 3 | Think Automotive Chevrolet Camaro Z28 |
Alistar Corwin, GB Brian Pepper, GB (Richard Lloyd, GB) |
5736 | V8 | Div. 4 | 7 | 1.47,32 | Oil pressure | |||
DNF | 9 | Hermetite Products Ford Capri II 3.0 |
Holman “Les” Blackburn, GB (Tom Walkinshaw, GB) (Mike Crabtree, GB) |
2993 | V6 | Div. 4 | 6 | 1.46,98 | Electrics | |||
DNF | 76 | Macinnes Ameron Racing Team Alfa Romeo Alfasud Ti |
Jon Dooley, GB Rex Greenslade, GB |
1186 | B4 | Div. 1 | 33 | 2.05,67 | ||||
DNF | 54 | Samuri Racing with Toyota GB Toyota Celica GT |
Win Percy, GB Brian Cutting, GB (Patrick Cobb, GB) |
1588 | L4 | Div. 2 | 12 | Conrod | ||||
DNF | 8 | Hermetite Products Ford Capri II 3.0 |
Tom Walkinshaw, GB Holman “Les” Blackburn, GB Mike Crabtree, GB |
2993 | V6 | Div. 4 | 5 | 1.46,80 | Electrics | |||
DNF | 40 | Shellsport Triumph Dolomite Sprint |
Brian Muir, AUS |
1998 | L4 | Div. 3 | 13 | Accident | ||||
DNF | 14 | Dutch National Racing Team Opel Commodore GS/E |
Helmut Kelleners, D Albrecht Krebs, D |
2784 | L6 | Div. 4 | 14 | 1.50,33 | Accident | |||
DNF | 2 | Simoniz Racing Chevrolet Camaro Z28 |
Richard Lloyd, GB |
7443 | V8 | Div. 4 | 9 | 1.48,54 | Oil pressure | |||
DNF | 38 | Leyland Special Tuning Triumph Dolomite Sprint |
Andy Rouse, GB |
1998 | L4 | Div. 3 | 2 | 1.44,75 | 1.45,64 | Gearbox | ||
DNF | 4 | VMW Motors Chevrolet Camaro Z28 |
Vince Woodman, GB Jonathan Buncombe, GB |
5736 | V8 | Div. 4 | 3 | 1.45,52 | Clutch | |||
DNQ? | 52 | Mons Racing Team? Audi 80 GT |
Michel Dinant, B |
1588 | L4 | Div. 2 | ||||||
DNS | 44 | Irmscher Tuning/Ottershaw Motors Opel Manta GT/E |
Peter Hanson, GB |
1897 | L4 | Div. 3 | Four slow laps in practice, then towed away |