Spa Francorchamps - 29 May 2009

Sunny days at Spa should be made the most of and a strong grid of nearly 30 cars contested the second round of the 2009 SPEED Series as part of the Youngtimer meeting. In a marked contrast to Round 1 at Anglesey, bright sunshine greeted all on race day and both qualifying and the race were hot.

With track temperatures soaring, qualifying saw the Ligier of Jota Sport’s Sam Hancock and Simon Dolan take pole with a time nearly half a second quicker than series newcomers, Ian Ford and Ross Kaiser in their Norma M20F and the Barry Gates/Anthony Dunn Ligier in 3rd.

The CN cars from the SPEED series were joined by competitors from the Dutch Saker Sportscar series. The Saker is a solid built, pure racing car; the engine, gearbox and wheel bearings are original Subaru parts and the Saker Sportscar Challenge offers Saker owners the ideal playground where they can enjoy the pleasure of competing against each other. The cars looked good and proved reliable with Herbert Boender coming home first out of the strong Saker field.

With the race starting at 15.00hrs, there was drama in the pitlane when, with 5 minutes to go, both the Ford/Kaiser car and the If Motorsport prepared Ligier of Nick Adcock and Massimo Vignali developed problems. Ford had been short of gears during qualifying and the team decided to change them but once the box was put back together they found that there was no upshift through the paddles on the steering wheel and whilst the rest of the cars lined up for the green flag lap, the number 19 car was trapped in the pits. Meanwhile, the #8 Ligier of Adcock/Vignali wouldn’t start; an electrical problem saw the car stuttering in the pitlane and as the field rolled out on track Massimo Vignali was stranded in the pits. The car fired eventually and the marshals erroneously allowed him out onto the track which put the car half a lap down on the rest of the pack. It was to be just one of many woes to follow for the team.

At the first corner the affable Dolan, driving under The Drivers’ Club banner in 2009, lead the pack in but exited second as Dunn edged past. The Esprit Competition car, another newcomer to the series driven by Italian racers Raffaele Sanguilo and Giuseppe De Pasquale made the most of the rolling start and dived down the inside at La Source from back in 7th place on the grid and held a strong third for the first part of the race with the winner at Anglesey, the Counter Solutions Racing Juno of Richard Bernans and Rob Garofall in fourth.

The early shuffling of the order was exciting but with 3 hours of this demanding circuit ahead, everyone knew that the afternoon would test drivers, cars and teams to the limit and. In the early stages, it was cars that had shone at round 1. The TFL Racing Juno driven by Sarah Reader and Graham Fennymore suffered; approaching the Bus Stop on the green flag lap the paddle shift malfunctioned and Sarah was forced to switch to the manual shift mode whilst the rest of the pack shot off for the start and battling the issue throughout the race would see them finish back in 11th, a disappointing result.

Massimo Vignali was the first driver to pull out. On lap 8, having cruised past the pit lane at a low speed he exited La Source and, as the electrical gremlin that beset him at the start of the race returned, he pulled off on the outside of the corner. The marshals pushed the car to safety behind the crash barriers as Vignali tried desperately to restart the car but the alternator was defunct. The If Motorsport team examined all options but due to the location of the car on the outside of the circuit there was no way of getting a recovery vehicle to bring it back to the paddock. The team was left working on the car and hoping for a safety car period which would allow the car to be recovered. A sterling effort saw the car finally restart with just over 30 minutes of the race remaining but by then it was far too late.

Ford/Kaiser finally got the car going and posted some quick laps but were using the race as testing for the car once they started their race, which had promised much after a fast qualifying time. They completed just 23 laps and did not classify. Two other newcomers, Ian Simmonds and Phil Hall (Mansol Motorsport Ligier) also suffered; after happily enjoying their afternoon for 27 laps a piston in the engine broke. Their engine had only completed 4 hours of racing (usual life expectancy 100hrs +) but it was enough to end their participation. Soon to follow them out of the race were the two Xero Competition cars. First to go was the #7 Ligier driven by David Joseph and Joe Tuckey. Nine laps later the #6 car – winner of the Turtle Wax Ice Most Polished Performance Award for the best turned out team – retired with three wheels.

Back at the front, Dunn was pulling away with steady laps in the low 2 minute 30s. Dolan held a steady second until a puncture saw him leave the track, collect a considerable amount of gravel and return to the pits for work. Over 20 minutes of repairs saw the car drop down the order before Hancock took over, rescuing some honour by posting the fastest lap of the classified finishers in the race with a stunning 2:25.951. Despite the late pace, they finished 6th. The most impressive performance of the day came from the #18 Juno driven for the first time in SPEED by Andrew Derodra and Simon Mason. With no testing at the circuit before qualifying, the car started the race 16th but a steady driver from both pilots saw them climb through the pack and when the chequered flag fell found them 4th overall. It was a great performance and promises well for the future.

Not so lucky was the Esprit Competition team which spent over 30 minutes in the pits fixing a broken radiator putting the early front-runner out of the equation. They finished 11 laps behind the winner.

Elsewhere, RLR MSport’s second Ligier, driven by the Rachid Bouzouba/Phil Bennett pairing that had impressed at Anglesey with a fourth placed finish, was struggling. A temperature gauge was reported as showing a high engine temperature and the front splitter was broken. Mountune Engines checked the temperatures on the computer but diagnosed a faulty sensor and after some bodywork remodelling the car returned to the track where both drivers clocked steadily quick laps to finish 7th.

Hancock remained fast in the #47 car but some 5 laps behind the leader was always going to be tough to claw back. A 6th place finish with fastest lap was a good result given that the car was off the track during both qualifying and the race. Afterwards the team confirmed that they would be contesting all rounds of the season, a great commitment from a professional outfit.

The Satellite Racing team from Belgium had taken pole position at Anglesey but could only manage an 11th place start in Spa. A driver change saw Vincent Deschans sharing the drive with Christophe Burrick for this the team’s ‘home’ event. The pair were not the quickest during the race but proved that consistency and concentration can reap rewards as the brought the car home in a solid 5th place a lap behind another strong performer – the Atkins Motorsport #38 Juno.

Driven by Lee Atkins and James Swift, the car started its first SPEED Series event in 10th and held a consistently solid pace throughout without any major dramas. Keith Atkins could have hoped for a dream finish when the car ran second towards the closing stages but settled for a good 3rd place finish when the final stops were over.

At the sharp end, Dunn handed over to Gates after 42 laps and thereafter it was a case of maintaining a steady speed to fight off the spirited charge of Garofall who by now had taken over the Counter Solutions car. With a full tank of fuel, Garofall was averaging lap times around the 2:30.00 mark and gaining on Gates by about two seconds per lap. Sadly for him, the full tank didn’t last forever and, with just under a minute separating the cars and an hour to go, the car disappeared from sight. Despite having a reserve tank the car had run out of fuel a long way from home and Garofall had to crawl around the Ardennes track before finally stopping at the pit lane entrance. The team scrambled to get it back and refill it but by then their chance had realistically gone and it just needed Gates to get to the finish. The Swiss-based Brit was driving well though; he was even confident enough that with 10 minutes to go he felt able to radio to his RLR MSport team chief, Nick Reynolds, to report that the car was in the gravel. Fortunately for the suffering Reynolds it was a joke and as the flag dropped at the end of 3 hours, Gates finished his 70th lap with his arm held high to celebrate a first victory of the season for the team.

The next rounds of the series will be at the double-header 3 hour race events at Assen in Holland on 11/12 July.