Action at Estoril, Le Mans and Goodwood

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The Nolte Küchen NK HTGT is done for 2020, but other organisers can and fortunately still do organize races in their own countries. And if there is a chance to race somewhere, you can be sure that there are NK HTGT drivers present!
Quite a large Dutch delegation went to Portugal to participate in the Estoril Classic. The Estoril Classic is the annual event of Race Ready, the Portuguese historical organisation of Diogo Ferrão. Ferrão had invited Peter Auto to complete the program, which the French did with seven complete grids. Ferrão himself was responsible for the Iberian historic endurance championship, as well as the invitation race for F1 cars, which he is now organising for the third year in a row. Most of the Dutch could be found in the Iberian race, where they made it quite difficult for the locals. Only Olivier Tancogne’s GT40 was ahead of them, but Campagne and Kalff took a nice second place with the Corvette Grand Sport. Rhea Sautter and Andy Newall – also known for their regular NKHTGT participations – came seventh in their E-type, closely followed by Frans van Maarschalkerwaart, who had come to Estoril with his Shelby Mustang GT350. This was not the end of the story, because the top ten was completed by the Falcon of Martin Bijleveld/Jaap van der Ende and the Mustang of Max Boodie. Also Harmen van Putten and his Portuguese teammate Bernardo Sa Nogueira stayed ahead of a lot of Portuguese and Spaniards in their GT350 in 19th place.
Camagne and Kalff had also entered the Group C-races of Peter Auto, but the Spice-Chevy SE92C only managed to finish fourth in the first race. On Sunday, the duo recorded a DNF. Peter Auto-glory was in store for the three cars with which David Hart and Nicky Pastorelli had travelled to Portugal. With the Lola-Chevrolet T70 Mk3B they won the CER1-race and another win came in the Lister-Jaguar ‘Costin’. They almost scored three times: in the Sixties Endurance they missed the top prize by one second in their AC Cobra.

At the Motors Cup at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit Michiel Campagne, Max Boodie, Harmen van Putten and Jaap van der Ende participated (plus Hans and Carly Meskes in Formula Ford 1600 and 2000). It was good old Jaap van der Ende who took the top step of podium after a touring car class win in the Ford Falcon.

Finally there was the Goodwood SpeedWeek, without an audience but with a live stream and spectacular action. David and Olivier Hart did not make it to the finish in their respective races, but Hans Hugenholtz finished fourth with co-driver Dario Franchitti in the Sir Stirling Moss Trophy, with the Ferrari 250 GT SWB. Karsten Le Blanc and Christiaen van Lanschot finished in 13th place in the Austin Healey 3000 ‘DD 300’.

(pics: Carlo Senten, reports: Mattijs Diepraam)

 

Race report – Gamma Racing Day TT Circuit Assen

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A chaotic starting procedure of the first Nolte Küchen NK HTGT race led to a red flag situation. The second attempt was slightly less chaotic, only Martin Bijleveld and Egbert Kolvoort incurring a penalty for jumping the start. The Corvettes Grand Sport of Allard K. and Kaj Dahlbacka took off at the front, followed by Roeland Voerman (Corvette Stingray) who was soon put under pressure by Bob Stevens (Lotus Elan). When Stevens dropped back after a spin it was Tom Kuiper (Corvette Stingray) who took over the attack. Voerman then retired, after which there was a short safety car interlude. This became Dahlbacka’s downfall, het overtook a backmarker and was given a time penalty. This promoted Tom Kuiper to second. The Safety Car brought Bob Stevens within striking distance of Roelant de Waard (Shelby Mustang) and Jos Stevens (Lotus Elan). With a couple of nice overtaking manoeuvres he clawed his way back to fourth. Martin Bijleveld (Ford Falcon) was first of the touring cars from Rob Rappange (Mini Cooper). Sjoerd Peereboom won GTS11 in his MGB. In the “novice class” Ed van Dijk (Jaguar E-type) got the better of Hemmo Vriend (Ford Falcon) this time, while behind them Sandro Hubar drove a solid debut race in his Alfa Romeo GTA.

A grey morning with a very slight drizzle made the going treacherous for the Sunday race at the Assen TT track. Michiel Campagne powered away at the start in his Corvette Grand Sport, but Andy Newall (Jaguar E-type) used every last bit of grip he could find to pass him, the pair swapping positions several times. After a short Safety Car interlude to tow Kenneth Persson’s stranded GT40 away, the pair resumed battle and Newall managed to eke out a small gap. In third was Kaj Dahlbacka (Corvette Grand sport), while fourth was disputed by Tom Kuiper (Corvette Stingray) and Bob Stevens (Lotus Elan). Stevens needed several attempts before finally making a successful pass. Bas Jansen (Ford Mustang) won the touring car class from Roel Korsten (Mustang) and Jaap van der Ende (Ford Falcon), while Jasper Izaks was fastest of the Mini Coopers. Frans van Maarschalkerwaart (Shelby Mustang), Roelant de Waard (Shelby Mustang) and Armand Adriaans (Corvette) had a great scrap, which de Waard won in the end. GTS11 went to lucky Erwin van Lieshout (Porsche 911), after Sjoerd Peereboom spun his MGB.

All results: https://raceresults.nu/Results/organisator/2020?evenement=TT-Circuit+Assen&race=GAMMA+Racing+Day+2020

Results

NKHTGT Races Le Mans cancelled

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Dear all,

With pain in our hearts we have to inform you that the NKHTGT races on October 17 and 18, 2020 at Le Mans are cancelled. It is not possible for us to organize these races because the department of La Sarthe is classified ‘code red’ by the French government and the area is classified as ‘code orange’ by the Dutch government, which means that that only necessary trips to La Sarthe can be made. In the meantime, travelling through Belgium is becoming less and less obvious. This means that we have to cancel our races in the Motors Cup Le Mans. We’ve made good arrangements with HVM racing, the organizer of the event.

For (foreign) drivers who are not subject to these measures and who would like to race at Le Mans on October 17 and 18 can consider to enter the pre’66 races of the ASAVE, see https://www.hvmracing.fr/saison-2020/motors-cup-c-bugatti-le-mans-presentation-2020.

We are really sorry that we don’t have any better news at the moment. The good news though, is that we are working on the calendar for 2021, which promises a return to some well-known and much appreciated circuits and probably also a historic circuit that was not previously on our calendar, so let’s hope we can return to normal racing life soon.

We wish you all the best, stay healthy and safe!