Charade – what a brilliant racetrack!
Charade – what a brilliant racetrack!
At the end of qualifying, every single driver stepped out of the car with a broad smile on their face. After a drizzly morning the sun came out and the Charade track welcomed the SuperSixties drivers with dry tarmac, even if it was a bit oily in places. While most drivers set out to learn the track, Greg Carini in the Cooper S and Luc de Cock in the Lotus Elan used their local knowledge to launch themselves to the top of the timesheets. Next to get up to speed was Armand Adriaans in the Shelby Cobra. Later in the session Andy Newall set a 2:17,5 to claim pole in the Jaguar E-type he shares with Rhea Sautter. Kennet Persson in the Ford GT40 was expected to better that, but traffic on the narrow track and loads of yellow flags meant he had to settle for second, 0,7 seconds behind. Row two was claimed by Adriaans and De Cock, with Roelant de Waard in 5th in his Shelby GT350. Greg Carini and David Barrere had a great scrap in their Mini’s, using the full width of the track and four-wheel drifting through the corners to claim a brilliant 6th and 7th, fastest of all the touring cars. Peter Brouwer took 8th in his Lotus Elan, while Niek van Gils qualified his Lotus in 9th but decided to switch to his MGB for the races. That promoted Mark Dols (Marcos 1800) to 9th and SuperSixties debutant Malivaï Castelli (Lotus Elan) to 10th. There was be a record number of 9 MGB’s fighting for GST11 honours this weekend. Brian Lambert was fastest of them all, and also managed to outpace the single Porsche 911 in the class, driven by Erwin van Lieshout. Returning to the touring cars, there were more Mini’s in 3rd and 4th, Jasper Izaks ahead of Rob Rappange, with Hemmo Vriend only fifth due to a gearbox problem. His Ford Falcon was to have a fresh T10 fitted for the race. The Lotus Cortina contest was won by the smallest of margins by Magnus Lillerskog, from Raffin/Raffin. Would it be Sweden or France? Most talked about car in the paddock was definitely the Iso Rivolta IR300 of Rob Bergmans (welcome back Rob!), a rare beast indeed. Most unlucky driver was Oliver Douglas, who did not set a time at all in the Cobra Daytona.
Race 1: an exciting race with a confusing finish
Saturday’s SuperSixties race was very exciting to watch. So much so that the guy holding the “last lap” board was caught out and as a result the race finished one lap early.
Before that that there was a lot of great action. Kennet Persson led for the first few laps, with Armand Adriaans in pursuit. When the Ford GT40 hit a kerb, it dislodged a track rod and Kennet had to retire the car, handing the lead to the AC Cobra. Luc de Cock in the Lotus Elan, the Sautter/Newall E-type and Roelant de Waard were all close behind and in with a chance, although De Waard messed up when he came in too late for his stop. In the last few laps Luc de Cock was harrying Adriaans while Andy Newall was closing in. It could have been any of them but it was in fact De Cock who just nipped ahead of Adriaans when they passed the line. The bad news for the Belgian veteran racer was that in the final lap confusion the clerk of the course decided to red flag the race, which meant the result was declared after the previous lap. At that moment Adriaans was 0,19 seconds ahead. Luc did get to stand on the top step of the podium though. Newall/Sautter were classified third with Peter Brouwer in the Lotus Elan fourth. In fifth was the giant killing Mini of Greg Carini, who again had a good scrap with David Barrere before pulling away. At the finish the two Mini’s were split by Oliver Douglas in the Cobra Daytona, who had started from the back. The same went for the Deenik/Sinke Ford Falcon, up to 8th at the finish. Having collected a draconic 300 second penalty, Roelant de Waard dropped to 9th in the results. Rounding out the top-10 was none other than Mr. Iso Rivolta himself, Rob Bergmans. Yes, he has built a new one and it looks great! He also won the invitation class ahead of Bernd Horlacher (AH Sebring Sprite) and Frank Weidema (Mini Marcos). GTS11 saw Erwin van Lieshout in the lone Porsche 911 take on no less than 9 MGB’s. He had to give best to Brian Lambert, while Holger Felske finished second on the road but incurred a penalty which dropped him to fourth in class behind Antoine Darley and Basile Gronfier. Third in CT07 was Rob Rappange in the Mini, just ahead of Hemmo Vriend in his Ford Falcon, second in CT10. Sweden won the CT08 Lotus Cortina battle, Magnus Lillerskog driving a steady race and managing to keep the Raffin family behind him. Finally, in GTP<2500 there were no finishers, both Mark Dols in the Marcos 1800 and Nigel Winchester in the Ginetta G4R dropping out after 6 laps which was a shame as they were very close on laptimes. We would have to wait until Sunday to see who was fastest.
Race 2: Luc’s revenge
Luc de Cock made up for Saturday’s disappointment by scoring a resounding win in the second SuperSixties race at Charade. Armand Adriaans led away from the start in the Shelby Cobra. De Cock was on his tail the whole time and pounced on lap 4. He pulled out a comfortable lead, but then messed up his pitstop so he had to do it all over again. Some very quick laps soon brought the Cobra back in his sights. He wasted no time in passing and was 3 seconds ahead at the flag. Andy Newall (Jaguar E-type) snatched third from Roelant de Waard (Shelby GT350) on the final lap. Peter Brouwer held third initially in his Lotus Elan but lost ground after a spin. He finished 6th behind Oliver Douglas in the Cobra Daytona. Kennet Persson was another who held third for a while. Having started 32nd he lost a certain podium place when the throttle cable of his Ford GT40 broke. Bart Deenik had a great start in the Ford Falcon and was just behind David Barrere in the Cooper S but later in the race the French Mini racers Barrere and Carini again made the touring car class their own in 7th and 8th with Deenik/Sinke finishing 9th and Jasper Izaks an impressive 10th in his borrowed Cooper S. Magnus Lillerskog was one of several with a time penalty for a pitstop, but still won CT08, ahead of the other Lotus Cortina of the Raffin brothers. Mark Dols won the small GTP class in the Marcos 1800 ahead of Chas Mallard and Nigel Winchester in the Ginetta G4R, all of them happy to make it to the finish this time. Frank Weidema drove his Mini Marcos to a win in the invitation class. Finally there was high drama in the most hotly contested class, GTS11. Erwin van Lieshout was determined to beat the MGB’s and indeed managed to take the class lead in his Porsche 911. In doing so he overshot the pit window. This was rewarded with a 300 second penalty as per the regulations, so all his efforts had been in vain. Brian Lambert’s MGB suffered rear end damage in an unfortunate outbraking manoeuvre by another competitor, but he still brought it home to a class win. Holger Felske drove a faultless race and took second. The Darley/Gronfier MGB looked good for third in class until the gearbox broke. Through it all came Egbert Kolvoort to claim the trophy for third, with Fabienne Mütschler an excellent fourth in class.
Results: https://www.supersixtiesracing.com/results/
Full results (with a bit of navigating): https://www.its-results.com/hvm/2024/4c1cbcc0-a6c0-4004-9d02-8857b4de0932
More news from Charade in SuperSixties Magazine 2024#2, here: download magazine
The full unofficial not-a-championship ranking after 2 races: download ranking
