Author: the braking zone

35,000 fans have come through the gates at Silverstone, to watch a sports car race, a World Championship sports car race.  It’s been raining for a good chunk of the weekend at Silverstone, but, the rain has stopped, for the big race, which, as per usual, is 1,000 kilometers long.  Silverstone is Jaguar’s home track, as the cars are built and maintain in Kidlington, near Oxfordshire.  Mercedes, however, are fastest during qualifying.  Jean Louis Schlesser is on his fourth pole of 1988.  Schlesser believes the fuel consumption will work out for Mercedes, as he is visited by former World Rally Champion and Paris Dakar Rally winner, Ari Vatanen.

There are two Sauber Mercedes’ on the grid here at Silverstone.  One is the familiar car for Jochen Mass, Jean Louis Schlesser, and Mauro Baldi, #61.  The sister car, #62 will be driven by Mauro Baldi and Englishman James Weaver.  Jaguar #1 is on the outside front row with Martin Brundle and Eddie Cheever, both driving.  Cheever says the track will be a one groove race track.  He is confident having won two out of four races in 1988.  For the first time, Mercedes has doubled up.  Joest Racing Blaupunkt Porsche have two cars.  The #7 962 is set to be shared by Bob Wollek along with Briton David Hobbs and Frenchman Philipp Streiff.

Porsche Cars Great Britain are stepping up their support for the #14 Richard Lloyd Racing Porsche 962 GTi in the hands of Derek Bell and Tiff Needell.  Derek Bell is going to do his best driving the privateer Porsche.  1,000 kilometers is a long race.  The second Jaguar, #2 has Jan Lammers and Johnny Dumfries.  In the C2 class, the hometown heroes, with a Spice built and run at the circuit, are in pole position.  This is the Spice Ford Cosworth of Costas Los and Wayne Taylor.  Quickly, let’s look at the top ten qualifiers as the cars are ready to go, behind the Jaguar XJS safety car.

1. #61 Schlesser/Mass Sauber C9/88 Mercedes       Team Sauber Mercedes
2. #1 Cheever/Brundle Jaguar XJR9                           Silk Cut Jaguar
3. #62 Baldi/Weaver Sauber C9/88 Mercedes           Team Sauber Mercedes
4. #7 Wollek/Streiff/Hobbs Porsche 962C                  Blaupunkt Joest Racing GmbH
5. #14 Bell/Needell    Porsche 962C GTi                      Richard Lloyd Racing
6. #2 Lammers/Dumfries    Jaguar XJR9                     Silk Cut Jaguar
7. #10 Nissen/Grohs    Porsche 962C                            Porsche Kremer Racing
8. #8 Jelinski/Dickens/Winter Porsche 962C              Blaupunkt Joest Racing GmbH
9. #201 Kennedy/Terada/Katayama Mazda 767        Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.
10. #121 Los/Taylor Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth         P. Motorsport*

*GP Motorsport is on C2 pole.

The field follows behind the Jaguar XJ-S safety car.  A few IMSA Grand Touring Prototype spec cars are in the race here at Silverstone.  Costas Los has trouble already.  He is carrying the onboard camera in the Spice Cosworth C2 pole car and he’s stalled on the dummy grid.  His pit crew is pushing the car to the lane.  Now, could this be game over for the Spice?  We’ll see.  Now, the race has started as we’ve seen the issue for Los and company in the Spice, and for the first time really in 1988, we see all the top makes up there, scrapping for #1.  The Jaguars are in a fair old dust up with the Sauber Mercedes cars already!  The Joest Porsche’s are trying to stay with them.

Lap after lap in the opening stages of the motor race, it’s Eddie Cheever challenging Jean Louis Schlesser.  Costas Los is back on track with the Spice and this C1 battle looks really intriguing as Los fights his way through the field.  Sadly, Los is the quickest chap driving that Spice.  Wayne Taylor, who would go on to tremendous sports car success later in the 1990s in IMSA in the United States, he’s just getting his feet wet here, and is not as quick as Los.  But, man oh man, this lead battle is afoot in a huge way!  No quarter asked, and no quarter given between Jaguar and Mercedes.  It’s not just the V12 Jaguar vs. the turbo V8 Mercedes.  The Merc’s even battle each other.

Mauro Baldi goes around Schlesser and slams the door in his face.  Team boss Max Welti is going to let these boys have at it.  No team orders at Sauber Mercedes.  Whoops!  A couple of C2 cars have gone into the spin cycle and nearly got stuck in the gravel trap.  It’s without doubt game over for the #103 ADA Cosworth of Tom Dodd-Noble from England, Stefano Sebastiani of Italy, and Colin Pool of England.  Mauro Baldi has retaken the lead, but the #1 Jaguar, of Martin Brundle fights back hard, on the outside!  Baldi is doing his level best to give the Jaguar some argy bargy.  But, Martin Brundle isn’t buying it.  Poor old Baldi gets snookered by his team mate, and Jean Louis Schlesser goes right by.

Costas Los sees all this happening in front of him as he’s back on track with the Spice and probably can’t believe it.  Pretty close, eh?  Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek in the #7 Joest Porsche are the best placed 962 at the moment.  Once again, it’s get your back time, as Jean Louis Schlesser slides by Martin Brundle!  Oh man!  Yours truly is having a chuckle watching all this.  This is good stuff here!  This race is going to be won on pit strategy, and Mercedes are in the lane, ready for #61 who dives in.  Fuel, tires, a clean windscreen, and a driver change, are the order of the day.  Jochen Mass takes over, rumbling out of the pits.

Remember the chap who spun his C2 car at the start of the season before the lights went out at Jerez?  That’s Jean Pierre Frey.  The Swiss driver has a Lancia now, but he isn’t doing too much better.  Very expensive smoke is spewing out the back of the Lancia.  The engine is ka-blammo.  Au revoir, Jean Pierre.  Or should it be arriva derci, Lancia?  No real harm done to that very beautiful, very expensive Lancia.  More pit stops, as we see the second Sauber Mercedes in the lane, along with the Jaguar that pits from the race lead.

Eddie Cheever hands the car to Martin Brundle.  James Weaver should be getting into the Mercedes.  Jaguar beats Mercedes out of pit lane as Derek Bell and Tiff Needell pit as well.  They are fifth overall, as Eddie Cheever and Martin Brundle are looking for their hat trick here, at home.  Jaguar could have come away with a 1-2, but the sister car, the #2 with Jan Lammers at the controls, ran out of fuel.  Sauber Mercedes are 36 seconds behind the Jaguar.  The two Mercedes’ will finish second and third.  Derek Bell and Tiff Needell were disqualified for a weight infringement by the FISA stewards.

The Silverstone results are:

1. #1 Cheever/Brundle Jaguar XJR9                                                  Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #61 Schlesser/Mass Sauber C9/88 Mercedes                               Team Sauber Mercedes
3. #62 Baldi/Weaver Sauber C9/88 Mercedes                                  Team Sauber Mercedes
4. #7 Wollek/Streiff/Hobbs Porsche 962C                                         Blaupunkt-Joest Racing GmbH
5. #8 Jelinski/Dickens/Winter Porsche 962C                                     Blaupunkt-Joest Racing GmbH
6. #103 Thyrring/Coppelli Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth                  BP Spice Engineering*
7. #40 Salamin/Mundas/Cohen-Olivar Porsche 962C                      Swiss Team Salamin
8. #111 Spice/Bellm                 Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth             BP Spice Engineering
9. #201 Kennedy/Terada/Katayama Mazda 767                               Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.#
10. #109 Barberio/Veninata/Randaccio Tiga GC288 Ford Cosworth  Kelmar Racing

*=C2 winners

#=GTP winners

Next up, it is the greatest sports car race on the planet, the fabled 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France.

It’s one of the most legendary racing circuits in the world, and one of the most legendary races.  It’s the Monza 1,000 Kilometers at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.  Italy’s national park of speed is set to rock to the thunder of the Group C cars.  Mercedes has pole as Jochen  Mass rejoins Jean Louis Schlesser and Mauro Baldi.  Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek are second with the Joest Porsche followed by the first of the Brun Porsche’s for Oscar Larrauri and Massimo Sigala.  The quickest Jaguar is in fourth, car #1 of Martin Brundle and Eddie Cheever, with the sister car fifth of Jan Lammers and Johnny Dumfries.

Porsche round out the top places, except for Lancia, making it’s return to the World Sports Car Championship for the first time in almost two years.  Mussato Action Car has a newly modified Lancia LC2/88 with it’s twin turbocharged 3 liter Ferrari V8 for Italian’s Andrea de Cesaris and Bruno Giacomelli along with German Christian Danner.  It should be noted, Bruno Giacomelli will not drive the car in this race.

Green lights on, and we’re racing at Monza!  Mercedes on pole, leads into the first corner as of course, Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek qualified the Joest Porsche 962, car #7, second fastest.  The Porsche’s have found a turn of speed here at Monza that was totally unexpected.  The Porsche’s will surely give Silk Cut Jaguar and Sauber Mercedes a run for their money in this motor race.  Mercedes and Porsche here, look, are locked into a scintillating battle for P1 around Monza.  Klaus Ludwig is all over Jean Louis Schlesser like el cheapo suito here, but will his performance last?

Fuel economy is the name of the game in endurance sports car racing.  It seems Jaguar are in fuel conservation mode.  They are not up at the sharp end yet, scrapping away with the German cars.  Are these two blokes, Schlesser and Ludwig, using their fuel too soon, and too fast?  Porsche leading a WSC race used to be a familiar sight.  But, in 1988, would you believe, this is the first lead that the boys from Stuttgart have had all year?  Klaus Ludwig is putting a tremendous amount of daylight between himself, and the Mercedes.  Now, where, you may ask, are the Jaguars?

Again, the Jaguars are cruising.  They are behind, but going at a very conservative pace at the moment.  Klaus Ludwig, our leader, he has some argy bargy and shows the #123 Charles Ivey Racing Tiga Porsche the way not to go, forcing it’s driver, South Africa’s Wayne Taylor, off the road and into the kitty litter.  Taylor left the door open, but Ludwig just plainly slammed it in his face and he spun off.  Team boss Charles Ivey and British co-driver Tim Harvey, won’t be pleased about that I don’t think.  Mercedes hits the pit lane for the first time.  Jochen Mass takes over the car from Jean Louis Schlesser.  Sauber team boss Max Welti seems happy with things.

Massimo Sigala and Oscar Larrauri pit the Brun Porsche 962C from fifth overall.  Car #6 is having a good race.  Porsche #7 is now in the lane, under the professional and capable hands of Reinhold Joest and his team.  Whoops!  Other drivers are not being so professional, going off the circuit and dragging piles of gravel onto the road.  Car #109, the Tiga GC85 Ford Cosworth for Kelmar Racing is in strife.  That’s an all Italian driver lineup in their home race.  Pasquale Barberio is sharing with Vito Veninata and Ranieri Randaccio.  It’s their home circuit, but they need a map.

The track is over there, off the grass turn left then, turn right.  Martin Brundle in Jaguar #1 inherits the lead on the pit stop exchange.  Mercedes resume in second spot.  After the first round of pit stops, it is Porsche leading over Sauber Mercedes and Jaguar.  The Joest Porsche pitted from the lead and held their advantage.  Jaguar is running to a pace at the moment, hoping that the Porsche and Mercedes break.  They’re thinking “we aren’t going to get caught up in the mess of those leading blokes, and have our race ruined.  Let them play cat and mouse up front, and we’ll be in the pound seats when it comes time to get with the program towards the end of the race.”

Uh oh.  Things are not as rosy for Jaguar as they thought.  Johnny Dumfries spins out and fortunately gets the car pointed back in the right direction.  As we close in on the end of the Monza 1,000K’s the turbo cars have to back off a shade.  Martin Brundle and Eddie Cheever in the #1 Jaguar reclaim the lead.  For the most part, Jaguars are running on schedule, but then, there are problems for car #2.  The Mercedes spins off the road, and takes Jan Lammers with him in the process.  So, this puts a bit of a damper on the Jaguar challenge, but the #1 machine will still seal the deal and win here at Monza!

Martin Brundle and Eddie Cheever are your winners, a lap up on the slowing Mercedes of Jochen Mass, Mauro Baldi, and Jean Louis Schlesser.  The other car that figured prominently in the early stages, the #7 Porsche 962C of Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek, also had to slow to conserve fuel to the end of the motor race.  The Joest Blaupunkt Porsche can only muster a fifth place finish.  Here are the results.

1. #1 Brundle/Cheever Jaguar XJR9                                         Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #61 Schlesser/Baldi/Mass Sauber C9/88 Mercedes            Team Sauber Mercedes
3. #6 Larrauri/Sigala Porsche  962C                                          Brun Motorsport
4. #8 Jelinski/Winter Porsche 962C                                           Joest Racing
5. #7 Ludwig/Wollek Porsche 962C                                           Joest Racing
6. #10 Weidler/Giacomelli Porsche 962C                                 Porsche Kremer Racing
7. #13 Raphanel/Ravaglia Cougar C20B Porsche                    Primagaz Competition
8. #111 Bellm/Spice Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth                    Spice Engineering*
9. #40 Wood/Salamin Porsche 962C                                           Swiss Team Salamin
10. #103 Coppelli/Thyrring Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth          Spice Engineering

*=C2 class winners.

Spice Engineering also score a 1-2 in C2 at Monza.  Next up, is England’s most beloved motor racing circuit, Silverstone.  The race is less than a month away.

It’s a Saturday afternoon, in Madrid, and the Spaniards head for the stadium to see the bull fight.  Ole!  Ole!  Ole! they cheer, as the bullfighter tries his best to not get mauled.  The odds are almost certainly not on the side of the bull, but on occasion, he can make it one all.  Cuidado, torero!  Come Sunday, there’s a different kind of sport at the Jarama circuit.  Sports car racing, is what fans come to see.  Round two of the FIA World Sports Prototype Championship is on tap.  This is the first of two sprint races in the championship.  It will last a distance of 360 kilometers (225 miles).  The scheduled time is two and a half hours, and teams hope to make a single pit stop.

We saw a brilliant race at Jarama in 1987, and it looks as if the ’88 event will bring the action in spades as well.  Jean Louis Schlesser of France has put the #61 Sauber Mercedes on the pole.  Schlesser is a half a second quicker than the #2 Silk Cut Jaguar of Jan Lammers, sharing with Johnny Dumfries.  Jean Louis Schlesser says all is well.  People wondered if Sauber changed cars overnight, but Schlesser politely makes the statement, “no, we didn’t change cars, and we have the same one we qualified.”  He clarifies the team fixed a small bodywork damage issue on the car.

His Earlship, Johnny Dumfries says Jaguar can beat Mercedes, but that driving a Group C sports car at Jarama is like driving a truck around a go kart track.  He predicts Mercedes might have tire degradation issues.  Dumfries also says that yes, a rivalry is developing within the team, to a degree, but that the interest of the team will come first.  Eddie Cheever is third in the #1 Jaguar.  Cheever says Mercedes is really strong, and they are playing poker by claiming Jaguar could beat them.  Eddie Cheever had some slight argy bargy with Mauro Baldi heading for pit lane after qualifying, but hopes that no such fracas will go on in the race itself.

John Nielsen is third on the grid, and is lucky, as the Dane had a substantial wallop with the barrier during practice.  Nielsen says he was on his cool down lap, and he hit a pedestrian’s vehicle by mistake, doing severe damage to the road car, and the Jaguar sports car.  Nielsen does hope to contest the race despite the incident.  Oscar Larrauri has the quickest Porsche 962 with the #6 Repsol Brun racer he shares with Jesus Pareja, and at his elbow, is the #7 Joest 962 for Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek.  The Porsche’s have found a turn of speed at Jarama that they lacked at Jerez.

They are within a second of the pole sitter, the Sauber Mercedes.  The second Brun Porsche, car #5 of Uwe Schafer and Manuel Reuter is next on the grid, followed by the Weaver/Bell GTi Porsche.  But, the RLR entry is going to be scratched.  Derek Bell has the flu, and can’t race, and then, to add insult to injury, James Weaver stuffs the RLR Porsche into the barriers, crunching it, and causing it to be a non-starter.  Frank Jelinski and John Winter in the second Joest Blaupunkt Porsche will be promoted.  They finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway in Florida, in IMSA in the United States, the week before this race.

Tenth quickest, and making it’s debut in the 1988 WSC series is the Kremer Porsche 962C, car #10, in the hands of Dane Kris Nissen and German Volker Weidler.  Spice sweeps the top places in C2, with the quickest car being the #103 Ford Cosworth powered spice for Italian Almo Coppelli and Dane Thorkild Thyrring.  Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm start second in class as they are on the search for another C2 win.  At Jarama, the C2 cars are cornering as quickly as some of the C1 machines.  How about that!  Walter Brun and Massimo Sigala will start the #4 Porsche 962 13^th on the grid.

Third quickest in C2 is our pal, Costas Los, the Greek driver, with the 1987 spec Spice, the Dianetics liveried car he shares with Philippe de Henning.  Will Hoy from England and Norwegian Martin Schanche have the #117 Lucky Strike Argo Ford Cosworth next up on the C2 grid.  24 cars are set to take the start.  Here are the top qualifiers.

1. #61 Schlesser/Baldi Sauber C9/88 Mercedes                    Team Sauber Mercedes
2. #2 Lammers/Dumfries Jaguar XJR9                                   Silk Cut Jaguar
3. #1 Cheever/Brundle Jaguar XJR9                                        Silk Cut Jaguar
4. #3 Nielsen/Watson Jaguar XJR9                                          Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #6 Pareja/Larrauri Porsche 962C                                       Brun Motorsport
6. #7 Ludwig/Wollek Porsche 962C                                        Joest Racing
7. #5 Reuter/Schafer Porsche 962C                                        Brun Motorsport
8. #14 Weaver/Bell Porsche 962C GTi                                   Richard Lloyd Racing
9. #8 Jelinski/Winter Porsche 962C                                       Joest Racing
10. #10 Nissen/Weidler Porsche 962C                                    Porsche Kremer Racing

It is all C1 cars in the top ten, with the quickest C2 entry next on the grid, the Thyrring/Coppelli driven Spice factory car.  Eddie Cheever shows off the Jaguar, with its high downforce body and its massive 7.0 liter V12, and a modern computer that measures tire temperature and fuel consumption.  The Jaguar has a five speed gearbox and a carbon fiber monocoque chassis.  The downforce is limited, but is still there.  The car is not easy to drive, but it is fuel efficient, and it’s fast.

We are set to race at Jarama.  The rolling start is taking place, now.  The lights flash green, and away we go!  Jean Louis Schlesser and Mauro Baldi take the Mercedes into the lead.  Schlesser is starting the car.  Just two drivers at Mercedes for Jarama, no Jochen Mass.  The lights flash green, and we’re off!  Before we get into the race action, we must address the new points scoring system for the World Sports Car Championship for 1988.  The points system is based on a coefficient.  In a 1,000 kilometer race, the winner earns 40 points.  In a sprint race (such as the one we see here at Jarama), the winner is awarded only 20 points.  Multiply it by three for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the winner of Le Mans will earn 60 points.  This makes a race like Le Mans all the more important to go towards the drivers’, teams’ or manufacturers’ championship.  This seems fairer than the old system which allotted the same amount of points, no matter the distance of the race be it a long or short race.

Fuel allocation in C1 is 190 liters for a sprint race and 510 liters for a 1,000 kilometer event.  Now, we’ve been explaining these new rules the whole bloody time and haven’t paid attention to the motor race we have on hand, chaps.  Sauber Mercedes leads.  The Baldi/Schlesser entry is in front, but the Jaguars are pouring on the steam behind them.  Jan Lammers is all over the back of Jean Louis Schlesser, look.  Schlesser runs wide, and Lammers says “thanks for leaving the door open, mate” and steps right through.  This is some of the best racing we’ve seen in Group C for some years now.  When you bring multiple manufacturers to the table, this is what happens.  You get close, competitive, exciting racing.

In the early part of this motor race, Costas Los has a bit of an advantage over Gordon Spice in C2 as these two blokes fight it out for class honors.  It is pit stop time for Mercedes.  AEG Sauber Mercedes are banking on making two fuel stops in this race.  They are able to use softer compound tires and take on more fuel in the second stop they will make in the race.  Jan Lammers now leads a Jaguar 1-2-3 with Eddie Cheever second and John Nielsen in third.  Klaus Ludwig has the best of the Porsche’s, the Blaupunkt Joest #7 962 he shares with Bob Wollek.

But, their joy is short lived.  Ludwig and Wollek, on lap 62 of the motor race, they have their transmission pack up, and it’s game over for Joest Porsche.  Oscar Larrauri has the Repsol Brun Porsche 962C in sixth spot.  Jan Lammers brings the #2 Jaguar in for service from the lead.  He will step aside, and hand the car to the Earl, Johnny Dumfries for the next stint in the race.  Meanwhile, Mauro Baldi is no slouch and he’s gaining in the Sauber Mercedes all the time.  Eddie Cheever in the #1 Jaguar takes the race lead on the pit stop rotation with Baldi in second.  Jaguar #1 is in the lane, and Eddie Cheever hands over to Martin Brundle.  Baldi and Mercedes assume the lead.  But Brundle, he wants to chase after the Benz, and absolutely screams out of the pit lane, revving the V12 to the moon!

Fuel spilled in the lane and a mechanic was dazed when he was knocked over, but everything is clear sailing for Jaguar in their pursuit to catch Mercedes.  As we watch the Repsol Porsche, we fast forward to the second fuel stop for the Sauber Mercedes.  Mauro Baldi turns the car over to Jean Louis Schlesser to finish out the race here at Jarama.  Martin Brundle takes over the lead from team mate Johnny Dumfries.  It’s a Jaguar 1-2 as the Mercedes roars away from pit lane.  Now, Jean Louis Schlesser is loaded for bear here, because he has a lighter fuel load and is on qualifying tires from Michelin.  Can he make headway and catch the two Jaguar’s?

Mercedes cannot find the speed to overtake the Jaguars for the lead, however, Schlesser is gifted with second spot after Johnny Dumfries loops the Jaguar towards the end of the race.  Jaguar #1 with Eddie Cheever and Martin Brundle win at Jarama!  The Mercedes is second, only 20 seconds in-arrears of the Jaguar.  Here are the results.

1. #1 Cheever/Brundle Jaguar XJR9                               Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #61 Schlesser/Baldi Sauber C9/88 Mercedes            Team Sauber Mercedes
3. #3 Nielsen/Watson Jaguar XJR9                                   Silk Cut Jaguar
4. #5 Reuter/Schafer Porsche 962C                                  Brun Motorsport
5. #10 Nissen/Weidler Porsche 962C                               Porsche Kremer Racing
6. #6 Pareja/Larrauri Porsche 962C                                Brun Motorsport
7. #111 Spice/Bellm Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth         Spice Engineering*
8. #8 Jelinski/Winter Porsche 962C                                 Joest Racing
9. #4 Brun/Sigala Porsche  962C                                      Brun Motorsport
10. #107 Ballot-Lena/Ricci Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth  Chamberlain Engineering

So, Jaguar wins overall and in C2, the victory goes to the Spice Engineering car of Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm.  Next up, it’s the Monza 1,000 Kilometers in Monza, Italy at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, in less than a month.

For the 1988 season, it is once again, a battle between Jaguar, Mercedes, and Porsche for who will come out on top in Group C.  It is also, a year of some change, as there will be sprint races blended in with a lot of the endurance events, and there will be fewer 1,000 kilometer races on the calendar, but the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans still remains the centerpiece of the championship series itself.  1988 will see a two way fight, really, between the Silk Cut Jaguar squad, and Switzerland’s AEG Sauber Mercedes team.

It is a revival of sorts of the World Sports Car Championship.  For eight months, and eleven races, it is going to be a dogfight between Silk Cut Jaguar and AEG Sauber Mercedes.  It all begins, in Spain, in Andalusia at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit.  Sauber Mercedes look to be the team to beat even before a wheel has turned at Jerez.  Frenchman Jean Louis Schlesser, will share the car with Italy’s Mauro Baldi, and former Porsche factory driver, from West Germany, Jochen Mass, who is now signed on with Mercedes Benz.  Mass describes the car, with it’s 5.0 liter turbocharged V8 engine, connected to a Hewland transmission, and the fuel tank will carry 100 liters in most races.

Mercedes has a new braking system on the car, and the big V8 only revs to a redline between 6,800 and 7,000 RPM.  They have a low boost turbocharger on the car, and there is a push to pass button to increase the boost for five to ten seconds.  The top speed of the car is anywhere from 320-380 kilometers (200-240 miles per hour).  Jean Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass have pole position, and are two seconds quicker, at least than their nearest rival, the #1 V12 powered Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9 in the hands of Martin Brundle, from England, and American, Eddie Cheever.

Brundle says that the race is more important to Jaguar than qualifying.  Brundle is happy to race at Jerez even though it is a very demanding track.  TWR Jaguar is taking the challenge from Mercedes very seriously.  We have 800 kilometers (500 miles) ahead.  23 cars will start the race and here are the top qualifiers, including not only the C1 machines, but the first couple of the quickest C2 entrants.

1. #61 Schlesser/Baldi/Mass Sauber C9/88 Mercedes  Team Sauber Mercedes
2. #1 Brundle/Cheever Jaguar XJR9 Silk Cut Jaguar
3. #2 Lammers/Dumfries Jaguar XJR9 Silk Cut Jaguar
4. #3 Nielsen/Watson/Wallace Jaguar XJR9 Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #7 Ludwig/Wollek Porsche 962C Joest Racing
6. #6 Pareja/Brun Porsche 962C Brun Motorsport
7. #14 Weaver/Bell Porsche 962C GTi Richard Lloyd Racing
8. #8 Jelinski/Winter Porsche 962C Joest Racing
9. #111 Spice/Bellm Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth  Spice Engineering
10. #4 Sigala/Larrauri Porsche 962C Brun Motorsport

Oh dear.  We’ve got drama even before the race starts!  Jean Pierre Frey at the wheel of the #101 Dollop Racing Argo Motori Moderni has spun!  This car is powered by a small, turbocharged 2.0 liter V6 engine.  Switzerland’s Jean-Pierre Frey has spun off the circuit.  His co-driver for this race is Italian Nicola Marozzo.  This isn’t an issue, as the lights flash green.  Jean Louis Schlesser powers into the lead in the Mercedes, ahead of the Jaguar’s. What we can already see is that the all-conquering dominance of the Porsche’s, that has been present for years and years, it might be about to have a serious challenge, because the Mercedes and the Jaguar’s are already whistling off into the distance.

Now that there is no official factory Porsche team, Porsche’s hopes rest on Reinhold Joest’s team with cars #7 and #8.  Klaus Ludwig and Bob Wollek share #7, and in #8 is the tandem of Frank Jelinski and John Winter.  Derek Bell and James Weaver have the modified Richard Lloyd Racing Porsche 962, which is an unknown quantity at this stage.  Will the 962C GTi move it’s way into contention to challenge the Joest cars, the Jaguars, and the Mercedes?  Martin Brundle, for years a Formula 1 driver, has planned to go full on in sports cars driving for Jaguar in 1988.  Whoops!  We have a spinner, and it’s Jesus Pareja, the Spaniard in the #6 Repsol oil Porsche 962.

Meanwhile, look at Brundle!  He’s all over the Mercedes, squeezing inside the black bullet, onto the grass to go for the lead of the motor race here at Jerez!  In C2, it’s the usual story that is beginning to write another chapter, and that is, Spice is dominating the category so far here in Spain.  Pit stop time, and Mercedes are indeed into pit lane for fuel etc.  Jochen Mass continues to chase the Jaguar’s for the lead of the motor race as Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm are reinvigorated in the C2 class.  It’s hot work for the drivers, as Mauro Baldi, after his stint in the Mercedes, needs a cool drink and a bit of a rest.  Running second in C2 is our old pal, Costas Los, the Greek driver, piloting the #121 GP Motorsport Spice Cosworth, alongside Frenchman, Philippe de Henning.

The scrap at the front goes on, with the Mercedes as the meat in a Jaguar sandwich.  Or, if you prefer, it is the sausage within a bun, but topped with hot English mustard.  Well, hot English mustard ought to be blended into the Jaguar’s fuel if these chaps are going to catch the Mercedes today.  All is not well for the Coventry squad as the #3 XJR9, the Neilsen/Watson/Wallace entry, was barged off the road by a C2 machine.  Then compounding their misery, the gearbox packed up in the #2 Jan Lammers/Johnny Dumfries Silk Cut racer.  Jaguar’s misfortune is good news for Brun Porsche, and particularly the #4 entry of Walter Brun and Massimo Sigala.

Porsche reliability could be on the side of the Giuffanti liveried machine.  Mercedes goes to P1, flipping the script on Jaguar.  Oh dear.  More troubles for Jaguar!  We saw Lammers and Dumfries retire earlier.  Well, it’s now game over for Martin Brundle and Eddie Cheever.  Ditto for Lammers and Dumfries!  They’ve stopped on track.  Wow.  Jaguar will want to erase the 1988 season opener at Jerez from their memory bank!  They still have one bullet in the gun, and that’s the #3 John Watson, Andy Wallace, John Nielsen car.  Mercedes dominates!  They win, in Spain!

Here are the results.

1. #61 Schlesser/Baldi/Mass Sauber C9/88 Mercedes      Team Sauber Mercedes
2. #3 Nielsen/Watson/Wallace Jaguar XJR9                       Silk Cut Jaguar
3. #7 Ludwig/Wollek Porsche 962C                                     Joest Racing
4. #14 Weaver/Bell Porsche 962C GTi                                 Richard Lloyd Racing
5. #8 Jelinski/Winter Porsche 962C                                     Joest Racing
6. #5 Reuter/Schafer Porsche 962C                                     Brun Motorsport
7. #111 Spice/Bellm Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth             Spice Engineering*
8. #121 Los/de Hennning Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth   GP Motorsport
9. #40 Salamin/Calderari Porsche 962C                             Swiss Team Salamin
10. #107 Ballot-Lena/Ricci Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth    Chamberlain Engineering

The first race of ’88 is done and dusted.  Next up, in a week’s time, we stay in Spain and head for the Jarama circuit in San Sebastian, Spain.

The Japanese have their own Group C sports car series, and stay in their home country, rarely venturing outside of Japan to race against the rest of the world.  But, exceptions are made twice a year.  Once at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and another being today.  It is the finale of the 1987 World Sports CarChampionship, the Fuji 1,000 Kilometers at Fuji Speedway in Fuji, Japan.  Toyota and Nissan could give Porsche and Jaguar a run for their money because the Japanese cars are racing their fabulously powerful turbocharged engines.  Toyota has developed their own turbochargers for their 2.1 liter 4 cylinder engines, while Nissan uses twin IHI turbos on their 3.0 liter V8 power unit.

Mazda is represented by the factory Mazdaspeed cars, and their rotary engine is also installed in the MCS Guppy.  Crowds have flocked to Fuji in their thousands to witness the finale of the ’87 season.  The clash of two worlds will have 80,000 people viewing it live at the speedway.  The factory Nissan’s were expected to dominate qualifying.  But, an interesting twist develops as it is the 1986 March chassis Nissan R86V that is fastest, last year’s car.  This is the #28 Person’s Racing Team entry shared by Japanese driver Takao Wada, and Sweden’s Anders Olofsson.

Needless to say, the factory Nissan’s powered by their new V8 engines has been snookered, and they are none too happy about it, being beaten to the punch by the turbo V6 car.  The John Miligan run team will be a force to be reckoned with.  Olofsson says the car has worked great the whole weekend so far.  Porsche and Jaguar can’t compete with the 1,000 horsepower available to the Nissan in qualifying.  But, Olofsson is cautiously optimistic.  Nissan wants to beat Toyota.  Porsche and Jaguar are quick.  But Nissan’s target is their rival, Toyota.

Takao Wada is 200^ths of a second faster than the Toyota, the #36 Toyota Team Tom’s Toyota 87C with a Dome chassis, for Japan’s Masanori Sekiya, 1980 Formula 1 World Champion Alan Jones from Australia, and Brit Geoff Lees.  Jones has actually been driving the Toyota throughout 1987 in the Japanese Group C championship.  Tom’s Toyota also has a British team manager, John Wickham.  Toyota completes the dominance of the Japanese brands in qualifying with the Wacoal underwear sponsored #38 Dome Motorsport Dome 87C Toyota shared by American Ross Cheever, Eddie Cheever’s younger brother, and Sweden’s Eje Elgh.

Ross Cheever says he will do his best as will Eje Elgh.  Toyota still opts for a 2.1 liter twin turbocharged inline four cylinder.  This same motor would come to prominence in America in later years, dominating IMSA GTP in the early 1990s.  Mauro Baldi puts the Britten Lloyd Porsche 962C GTi on pole.  Baldi is sharing the #15 car with Mike Thackwell, who normally drives for Mercedes Benz.  Thackwell ran for Kouros Mercedes in Europe, Mercedes electing not to come to Japan for the finale.  Liqui Moly Porsche team manager Dave Price is confident.  Fuji is fast but easy on fuel according to Price.

David Price says his team might be able to beat Jaguar.  Kiwi Mike Thackwell has led four races for Mercedes, but has only been able to muster a best finish of seventh.  He wants more and better results than that, with the Porsche here at Fuji.  Thackwell is sharing the car with Mauro Baldi.  Fifth quickest is the #5 Jaguar XJR8 in the hands of Jan Lammers and John Watson.  Lammers and “Watty” have won twice at Jarama and Monza in ’87.  John Watson won this race for Porsche back in 1984.  There is a second chicane in the circuit.  Watson says the car is very good.  But, the weather will be a factor, and he thinks the Japanese cars are quick but could be short on fuel.  Fuji is a turbo circuit.  Jaguar has a race engine with 680 horsepower, while the turbo cars on high boost can run with 1,000 horsepower.  Maybe reliability will be on Jaguar’s side.  Brun Motorsport line up alongside Lammers in the Jaguar on row three of the starting grid.

Takefuji is sponsoring both of the Brun Porsche 962’s this weekend.  Car #1 for Jochen Mass and Oscar Larrauri, and car #2 for Spaniard Jesus Pareja along with German drivers Uwe Schafer and Manuel Reuter.  Mass has had a string of third and fourth places to his credit since the Porsche factory packed it up and left Group C at mid-season.  Kazuyoshi Hoshino starts seventh on the grid with the #23 Nissan Motorsports International Nissan R87E with the V8 turbo motor in the back.  He shares with fellow Japanese driver Kenji Takahashi and Brit Dave Scott.  The Nissan possesses blinding straightline speed here at Fuji with nearly 1,000 horsepower from the aforementioned V8 turbo lump.

The sister car #32 is alongside in the hands of Masahiro Hasemi and Aguri Suzuki.  The fastest Japanese entered Porsche is the #27 From A Racing 962C, co-driven by John Nielsen, who normally drives for Jaguar, and the Dane is sharing with Japan’s Hideki Okada.  An electrical problem means the car qualified towards the lower part of the top ten as Nielsen has a conversation with fellow Dane, Kris Nissen.  Nissen will be at the wheel of the #11 Leyton House Kremer Porsche 962C sharing with countryman Volker Weidler.  Raul Boesel, the new world champion is sharing Jaguar #4 with Johnny Dumfries.

Boesel was detained for two days at Tokyo airport for failing to produce the right visa.  Dumfries is confident.  He says the car can run consistent 1:22-1:23 laps on full tanks.  He will race for Jaguar in 1988.  80,000 people are here to see the race.  Dumfries ran the 1985 Fuji race that was hit by a typhoon.  Also, look for the #7 Joest Racing taka-Q Porsche 962 of Bob Wollek and Harald Grohs.  Hans Stuck is also listed on the car, but it remains to be seen if he will drive or not.  Weidler and Nissen are 12^th fastest, as team boss Erwin Kremer considers his chances in this race.

The sister Kremer car, #10, with Kenwood sponsorship has Austria’s Franz Konrad at the wheel of it, sharing with South Africa’s George Fouche.  They are 13^th fastest.  Brand nw is is the Vern Schuppan run Rothmans Porsche Team Schuppan Porsche 962C to be shared by Derek Bell and Geoff Brabham from Australia.  It’s a new car and a new team, and it’s Geoff Brabham’s first time in a Porsche.  Vern Schuppan is racing for a rival team.  Schuppan, the Australian, shares the #100 Trust Racing Porsche 962C with Japan’s Keiichi Suzuki, and Briton James Weaver.

Hans Stuck broke his wrist after tripping after the most recent race.  The Schuppan/Suzuki/Weaver car is behind the Bell/Brabham Porsche, but team manager Takahashi Nori is confident.  The second Brun Takefuji Porsche, #2 is 18^th overall in the hands of Jesus Pareja and Uwe Schafer.  Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez could win the C2 championship if they take victory here at Fuji.  Team boss Jeff Hazel says that they can win if they beat Ecosse and stay reliable.  Fermin Velez is unkindly called “vermin” by the team, but he’s a quick, responsible driver.  The SwiftAir Ecosse cars are ready for the challenge with their two car assault on the race.  Ray Mallock and David Leslie share #102, with #101 being driven by Mike Wilds and Marc Duez.

The 1986 teams’ champions lost out in the wet at Spa.  Splitting the field in C2 is the Duckham’s Tiga.  The Ford Denmark entry has Thorkild Thyrring and Peter Elgaard sharing the driving duties.  A turbocharged car has yet to win a race in C2.  Olio Fiat and Metaxa sponsor the #121 Cosmik GP Motorsport Tiga Ford Cosworth to be driven by Costas Los and British Touring Car Champion, Chris Hodgetts in his first drive in a C2 car.  On Sunday morning, it is time to race.  A huge field of 38 cars is assembled on the grid, the largest of the season outside the 48 car grid at Le Mans.

Nissan, Toyota on row one.  Toyota, Porsche on row two.  Jaguar and Porsche on row three, and a Nissan sweep of row four.  We have a 224 lap race ahead of us as the Fuji 1,000 Kilometers is set to begin.  There is a new chicane this year, after the first corner.  The weather at Fuji national park is perfect, but Ray Mallock is having ECU problems in the Ecosse.  He will have to start from pit lane.  As far as fuel allowance, it is 510 liters of fuel available to C1 cars, and 330 liters available to C2 machines.   The Nissan Mid 4 safety car moves to the pit lane, the lights turn green, and we’re away, racing at Fuji, in the final race of 1987.

Nissan, Toyota, and Porsche are the top three.  Jaguar has locked up the title, so they can showcase in front of the Japanese crowd that they are the best.  Takao Wada leads Geoff Lees with Jan Lammers in the Jaguar in third place.  Indeed, the Jaguar is able to challenge the turbo cars from here in Japan.  Raul Boesel passes Geoff Lees.  Mauro Baldi is fourth followed by Jochen Mass, Masahiro Hasemi, Volker Weidler, and the rest of the field.  The speeds are high and the action is fierce as Jan Lammers wants by Takao Wada.  Lammers leads, leaving Wada and Lees to fight for second spot.  There’s a premium on low drag down the straight, and the Toyota’s and Nissan’s get past the Jaguar after a few laps of hard racing.

Lammers, is staying with the leaders, but it is game over for Persons Nissan as the car has accident damage.  Toyota is still leading with Geoff Lees, Masanori Sekiya, and Alan Jones, but the two Jaguar’s are keeping up the pressure.  It’s Jan Lammers and John Watson followed by the sister car of Raul Boesel and Johnny Dumfries.  Just before halfway, the Lees/Sekiya/Jones Toyota is out with electrical problems, leaving the door open for Jaguar to run away with this race.  In C2, Spice are also dominant, seven laps up on Swiftair Ecosse who are being drubbed by their rivals.  Remember, Ray Mallock had an ECU issue on the grid, and Marc Duez in the sister car has had an ill handling car the whole race.

Spice makes their final pit stop, and they will win the teams’ title here at Fuji after clinching the driver’s title at Spa Francorchamps, last time out.  Bob Wollek is pushing the #8 Matsuda Porsche 962 sharing with Frank Jelinski and John Winter.  But, will the car finish?  There’s a problem with one of the valves in the engine.  Brun Porsche will finish fourth behind the two Jaguar’s and the Richard Lloyd Porsche.  The team is suffering from brake issues just as they did at the Nurburgring.  The 1987 season is almost over, Jan Lammers runs second in Jaguar #5.

Jochen Mass takes the Brun Porsche out for the final time.  Brun won the whole teams’ championship over the factory cars from Porsche and Jaguar here last year.  But not this year.  Swiftair Ecosse will score their seventh second place effort of 1987 as Spice Engineering will win C2.  Team mates Duez and Wilds are second in class on the same lap.  Chamberlain Spice are running fourth in C2.  The turbocharged Spice Hart is in the hands of South African Graham Duxbury sharing with Britain’s Ian Khan.  Thorkild Thyrring, the Dane, is fifth in C2 with the Tiga Ford Turbo Duckhams sponsored entry.  To the victor belong the spoils, though, and Jaguar is going to convincingly win here in Japan.

Jan Lammers and John Watson will score their third triumph of 1987.  The sun sets into the mountains here at Fuji, and this closes the book on the 1987 season.  Here are the final point standings.

C1 Drivers:

1. Raul Boesel 127 points
2. John Watson 102 points
3. Jan Lammers 102 points
4. Eddie Cheever 100 points
5. Derek Bell 99 points
6. Hans Stuck 99 points
7. Oscar Larrauri 69 points

C1 Trams:

1. Silk Cut Jaguar 178 points
2. Brun Motorsport 91 points
3. Porsche AG 74 points
4. Joest Racing 63 points
5. Britten Lloyd Racing 58 points

C2 Drivers:

1. Gordon Spice 140 points
2. Fermin Velez 140 points
3. Ray Mallock 115 points
4. David Leslie 115 points
5. Mike Wilds 73 points

C2 Teams:

1. Spice Engineering 170 points
2. Swiftair Ecosse 157 points
3. Kelmar Racing 49 points
4. Team Tiga Ford DK 46 points

We’ll see you, for more Group C thunder, in 1988.  So long, and take care, everybody.

We are ready for the final European outing of Group C 1987 at the fabulous Spa Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes forest of Belgium.  Drivers are preparing for this 1,000 kilometer motor race.  This is also the penultimate event of the 1987 championship.  Drivers prepare to start the race.  Some discuss their strategy, and others, are more introverted, alone with their thoughts about how they will perform in today’s contest.  Mercedes Benz is on their first pole of the year.  Mike Thackwell set the time in qualifying, and he is sharing the Sauber C9 with Jean Louis Schlesser and Henri Pescarolo.  Jonathan Palmer in the Porsche has other ideas.

The cars stream downhill and are ready for a start.  Green lights, on, and away we go!  Palmer jumps past Thackwell to take the lead into Eau Rouge for the first time of asking.  20,000 fans look on as 32 Group C and C2 cars attack Circuit de Spa Francorchamps.  Heading down the mountain, Mike Thackwell decides that now is the time, and he blows by Palmer and into the race lead. Two of the Jaguar’s follow.  Eddie Cheever is one, in the #4 car he shares with John Nielsen, and there is also the third Jaguar in tow, car #6, with Martin Brundle, Johnny Dumfries, and Raul Boesel on the drivers’ strength.

Then comes the #2 F.A.T. FATurbo Express Brun Porsche 962 of Jochen Mass and Oscar Larrauri.  Sparks fly from underneath the venture tunnels of these ground effects sports cars as they attack the circuit here at Spa.  In C2, Fermin Velez leads for Spice, and Will Hoy runs second in class in the Lucky Strike Argo.  Hoy shares with Martin Schanche and Velez with Gordon Spice.  These are two teams with what you might call in today’s parlance, Pro-Am driver lineups.  Jonathan Palmer has retaken the race lead.  Thackwell has a broken seat in the Mercedes and has to head for pit lane to have it repaired.  That can’t be comfortable, especially on a track like Spa Francorchamps with high speeds and high G Force loads.

This allows Jaguar #6 to pounce, as the pairing of Martin Brundle and Johnny Dumfries is closing in.  Brundle is applying the blowtorch to Mauro Baldi in the Liqui Moly Porsche right now.  But something is about to throw the cat among the pigeons here, as Mother Nature decides to dampen the race with rain.  Now, the Liqui Moly team just made a pit stop to put Johnny Palmer into the car, taking over from Mauro Baldi.  But, when the skies open, Palmer is on slicks, not wets.  So, the poor chap is caught between a rock and a hard place.  Silk Cut Jaguar has a strategy they hope will be a masterstroke.

Raul Boesel has been held back until the mid-point in the motor race (the 500 kilometer mark, or three hour mark depending on if you look at time or distance), and he can join whichever Jaguar happens to be leading the motor race.  Johnny Dumfries is in P1 and so, Boesel decides he will join the crew of the #6 Jaguar, their third car, which was also slated to have John Nielsen drive, but Nielsen’s services are not required.  He is driving the #4 Jaguar with Eddie Cheever.  If Boesel can stay on the road, he will be crowned the 1987 World Sports Car Drivers’ Champion with one race still to run.  The Brazilian must be super cautious, because as so often happens at Spa, it can be raining on one end of the track, and bone dry on the other end.  For Fermin Velez and Gordon Spice, they have the C2 race in their hands, and if they win today, they will take home the C2 drivers’ crown.  Fuel injection issues on the V12 engine held back Eddie Cheever and John Nielsen, but they are up to fourth overall now, to match their car number at Jaguar.

Jochen Mass and Oscar Larrauri are on the podium in third spot, but 1987 has just not been their year.  They’ve been the eternal bridesmaids all year having to settle for finishes in good placings, but no victories.  Hans Stuck and Derek Bell now have a slim chance of winning the championship, because their third team mate, Bob Wollek slid off the road in the #7 Rothmans Joest Racing Porsche 962C.  Wollek had quite the shunt with the barrier that lost the team three laps to pit and repair/change the nose.  Spice have the advantage in the wet in C2.  By the time this race is done and dusted, they will be six laps up on their competition in the category!  Think about that one, blokes.  That’s roughly, oh, a lap per hour.  What a pace!

Gordon Spice takes his third consecutive C2 championship, and Fermin Velez wins his first.  Raul Boesel drives the Jaguar over the finish line, and the Brazilian becomes the new champion in World Sports Car racing!  Jaguar wins the race and the championship, and just to prove the point, the sister car, #5 of Jan Lammers and John Watson finishes second here at the Spa 1,000 Kilometers.  Silk Cut Jaguar has won six of eight races run in 1987.  That’s a winning percentage of 75%.  Here are the results, from Spa.

1. #6 Brundle/Dumfries/Boesel Jaguar XJR-8        Silk Cut Jaguar*
2. #5 Lammers/Watson Jaguar XJR-8          Silk Cut Jaguar
3. #2 Mass/Larrauri Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
4. #4 Cheever/Nielsen Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #7 Stuck/Bell/Wollek Porsche 962C     Joest Racing
6. #8 Jelinski/Winter/Dickens Porsche 962C     Joest Racing
7. #61 Thackwell/Schlesser Sauber C9 Mercedes  Kouros Racing Team
8. #3 Pareja/Schafer Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
9. #72 Lassig/Yver/De Dryver Porsche 962C     Primagaz Competition
10. #111 Velez/Spice Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth  Spice Engineering**

*C1 Drivers Champion: Raul Boesel

**C2 Drivers Champions: Fermin Velez & Gordon Spice

The finale, is in Japan, at the Fuji 1,000 Kilometers at Fuji Speedway in the shadow of Mount Fuji, in two weeks.

From the Garden of England, we move to West Germany and the Rhine River as the new yet unloved Nurburgring plays host to the Group C cars once again.  Jaguar wants to take a broom, and make it a clean sweep against their rivals, Porsche and Mercedes, who are here in force for their home race in Deutschland.  Eddie Cheever is ready to go, and knows that if his team wins today, again, on home ground for Mercedes and Porsche, Jaguar is going to lock up the World Teams’ Championship.  Kouros Mercedes and privately entered Porsche’s are ready to take on the challenge, too.

But, this race gets off to a rocky start for Derek Bell.  Hans Stuck lost a wheel during qualifying, and the car doesn’t start on the grid, and has to be pushed to start before the formation lap.  Mauro Baldi’s Liqui Moly Porsche 962 #15, he is sharing again with Johnny Palmer, has to have an engine change before the morning warmup.  Will the new motor last the distance?  Green flag, and away we go!  We’re racing the Nurburgring 1,000 Kilometers!  More trouble for the Liqui Moly car.  There’s a loose exhaust on the car and Baldi is swamped by the field as the lights flash green.

Klaus Ludwig is the surprise race leader sharing the #9 Joest Racing Porsche 962C with Bob Wollek.  Ludwig leads over Eddie Cheever, Jochen Mass, Mike Thackwell, and Jan Lammers.  Klaus Ludwig is on a mission here.  He wants to do well at his home race.  Ludwig is pulling away from everyone else, perhaps on a Sunday drive.  Oh boy.  Look at that.  Some argy bargy between Thackwell’s Mercedes and Cheever’s Jaguar!  Gently, boys.  The factory cars are going at it hard.  Derek Bell is pressing his way through the field.  Remember now, the Rothmans colors are on the Joest Porsche.  This is no longer a factory backed car.

Klaus Ludwig is putting on a clinic at the moment, miles ahead of his competition.  Bernard De Dryver, the Belgian has taken the #72 Primagaz Competition Porsche 962C to eighth overall.  He is sharing with lady racer Cathy Muller of France, and German Jurgen Lassig, here at the Nurburgring.  Klaus Ludwig thought he’d have it all his own way, but as we can see, Mike Thackwell, he is catching the Porsche hand over fist, and has the two factory Jaguar’s in tow.  Cheever and Lammers are right with him.  Lammers, too, pulls out of his team mate’s slipstream, and passes him by.  Joest and Brun Porsche’s scrap for ninth, with Frank Jelinski in the Taka-Q liveried 962 gaining the place.  He is sharing with John Winter, his countryman, and with Sweden’s Stanley Dickens.

In C2, Will Hoy has the Schanche Racing Argo ahead of the Spice in the hands of Gordon Spice, and David Leslie in the #102 Ecosse he shares with Mike Wilds.  Reliability is still a big issue for the Argo.  Jan Lammers has stretched his lead over Eddie Cheever and into sixth spot overall comes the Joest Porsche with Frank Jelinski at the wheel of it.  Oh no!  Trouble for Jaguar.  Jan Lammers’ V12 motor has gone ka-blammo!  Lammers is out even before his team mate John Watson has his first stint in the motor race.  TWR Jaguar cannot be happy about this.

Klaus Ludwig leads, and Mike Thackwell in the thundering V8 Mercedes is now second.  What a gorgeous race car it is.  Poor old Derek Bell, he is going to be lapped even before the first pit stops for fuel commence as Eddie Cheever in the sole remaining Jaguar is bearing down on him.  Jaguar is still in the fight with just one hour on the board even though they are down to a single bullet in the gun.  Pit stop time for Cheever, and Raul Boesel takes over as fuel is added and tires are changed.  Jaguar is quietly confident that they can beat the Germans on their home turf.  With the Sauber Mercedes losing spots, and the fact that the Joest Porsche of Ludwig is jammed in third gear, this could be a Sunday school picnic for the boys from Coventry.

Hans Stuck is gaining ground in the #7 Joest Porsche after taking over from Derek Bell.  Stuck makes light work of the #121 Cosmic GP Motorsports, Metaxa Tiga.  The Ford Cosworth powered C2 racer has Greece’s Costas Los and Britain’s Dudley Wood sharing the driving chores.  Hans Stuck is promoted to third as new leader, Mike Thackwell runs into transmission issues.  The Sauber Mercedes is jammed in third gear.  Game over as the German cars are running into problems.  Jochen Mass and Oscar Larrauri inherit a final podium place in the #2 lui/Eterna Brun Motorsport 962.  Jaguar, Eddie Cheever, and Raul Boesel have taken firm control of this race, leading by a country mile.

Third place man in C2, Costas Los, moves over and politely lets Hans Stuck through.  Stuck is trying as hard as ever to catch Jochen Mass, but Jaguar is the star of the day here at Nurburgring, and they’ve left the German brands dumbfounded on their home track.  Metaxa Tiga makes their last pit stop.  Team manager Keith Green is certain his calculations are correct that they can make it on fuel.  Spice lead C2 with Swiftair Ecosse second in class.  The Los/Wood car is catching up, fast.  Rothmans Joest Porsche inherits second when the Brun car has to retire with a broken brake line.  They are still three laps in arrears of Jaguar.

Costas Los and Dudley Wood are going to inherit the win in C2 after the leading Spice is disqualified by the stewards.  The team tried to bump start the car in pit lane when the motor wouldn’t fire up, and according to the rules, that is forbidden.  Also, with just three laps remaining, Swiftair Ecosse runs out of fuel.  Meanwhile, Jaguar can celebrate!  Not only have they scored their sixth win of 1987, they’ve also sealed up the 1987 World Sports Car Championship!  It’s win number one in C2 for Cosmic GP Motorsport and driver’s Costas Los and Dudley Wood!  Jaguar are on top of the world in Deutschland.  Let’s take a look at the results.

1. #4 Cheever/Boesel Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #7 Bell/Stuck Porsche 962C     Joest Racing
3. #2 Mass/Larrauri Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
4. #8 Jelinski/Winter/Dickens Porsche 962C  Joest Racing
5. #15 Baldi/Palmer Porsche 962C     Britten – Lloyd Racing
6. #3 Kaufmann/Hunkeler/Pareja Porsche 962C  Brun Motorsport
7. #72 Lassig/Muller/de Dryver Porsche 962C  Primagaz Competition
8. #31 Dauer/Grohs Porsche 962C   Dauer Racing
9. #121 Los/Wood Tiga GC287 Ford Cosworth  Cosmic GP Motorsport*
10. #106 Barberio/Veninata/Randaccio Tiga GC85 Ford Cosworth  Kelmar Racing

*C2 winners

With two races to go and the teams’ title in the bag, Jaguar has to focus on the driver’s championship.  Here are the teams’ points.

C1

1. Silk Cut Jaguar 138 points*
2. Porsche AG 74 points
3. Brun Motorsport 69 points
4. Joest Racing 47 points
5. Britten Lloyd Racing 46 points
6. Kremer Porsche 41 points

Any one of four drivers can go for the title.  Here are the driver’s points in C1.

1. Raul Boesel 110 points
2. Derek Bell 99 points
3. Hans Stuck 99 points
4. Eddie Cheever 90 points
5. Jan Lammers 67 points
6. John Watson 67 points

In the C2 teams’ battle, Spice and Ecosse are fighting again, only three points apart.

1. Spice Engineering 130 points
2. Swiftair Ecosse 127 points
3. Kelmar Racing 43 points
4. Team Tiga Ford 38 points

The C2 drivers’ standings look like this.

1. Gordon Spice 130 points
2. Fermin Velez 130 points
3. Ray Mallock 115 points
4. David Leslie 115 points
5. Mike Wilds 46 points

Next up, the Ardennes forest in Belgium for the Spa 1,000 Kilometers, in two weeks.

The focus now shifts to the attractive raceway in Kent, England, known as Brands Hatch, for the second and final British round of the ’87 WSC season.  Last year, in 1986, Mauro Baldi and Bob Wollek were victorious for Porsche and Richard Lloyd Racing.  Now, some major developments have taken place since the Norisring sprint races last time out.  The Porsche factory has withdrawn from Group C for the remainder of the 1987 campaign!  This means that the points leaders, and Le Mans winners, Hans Stuck and Derek Bell, are left out in the cold, without a drive.

Fortunately, for Bell and Stuck, they are picked up by Joest Racing at Brands Hatch, and the team’s #7 machine will run in Rothmans colors, but with AutoGlass and Gemini Oils sponsorship.  It’s an all Jaguar front row with the Joest car, third.  Green light, and away we go!  We’re racing at Brands Hatch!  35,000 fans have packed Brands Hatch in anticipation of seeing their home team take it all.  Eddie Cheever is racing in Formula 1 in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim this weekend.  So, Dane John Nielsen is the second driver, partnering Raul Boesel.

The cars plunge down Hailwood’s Hill for the first time.  Jan Lammers leads Mauro Baldi, Raul Boesel, and Hans Stuck.  Tiff Needell leads in C2, again with the Nicholson tuned Ford Cosworth 3.3 liter V8 in the back of it.  Needell is sharing with fellow Brit Ian Harrower.  Jochen Mass has brought the #2 Torno Brun Porsche up to fifth spot.  He is sharing that particular Porsche 962 with Oscar Larrauri.  Meanwhile in C2, Tiff Needell is putting some daylight between himself and Gordon Spice.  The main scrap of the race is on in earnest, though.  Raul Boesel and Mauro Baldi are going at it, hammer and tongs, folks!  It’s Porsche vs. Jaguar!

On the main straight, Boesel tries to move in on Baldi to make a pass.  Baldi is having none of it, slamming the door in Boesel’s face, and Boesel spins the Jaguar into Druids!  Boesel gathers it up, but has to head for pit lane with flat spotted tires.  But, Baldi continues on his merry way, unscathed, in second place.  In C2, it’s all about Swiftair Ecosse.  Ray Mallock is leading Mike Wilds, and surely, their respective co-drivers, Marc Duez, and David Leslie, love it!  It looks like Mallock and Wilds are about to get into some argy bargy.  Gently, boys!  Rule #1 in racing is, never, ever take your team mate out.  So, just be careful.  Raul Boesel has made his way to pit lane to repair the Jaguar after his off.  Meanwhile, the sister #5 Jaguar with Jan Lammers at the controls, the Dutchman wants by Tiff Needell, still leading C2, before he’s slated to hand the car to co-driver, John Watson.

Boesel rejoins the race, but he can’t help thinking, “dang it!  I’ve ruined my own race!”  Jochen Mass inherits fourth, and this becomes third as Jan Lammers is back in pit lane.  The #5 Jaguar has a wheel bearing failure.  Boesel is about to get the lucky dog here, as it were, when Rudi Seher smashes the URD at Paddock Hill Bend.  For Seher, and team mates Hellmut Mundas, and British guest team mate Sean Walker, it is game over.  We can see that the car is heavily damaged, destroying the tire wall, and this brings out the safety car.  Now, Boesel has unlapped himself.  That lucky dog worked, and he’s back into the fight.

Mauro Baldi still leads this motor race as he pits for service and a driver change, handing the Liqui Moly #14 Porsche over to Johnny Dumfries.  Jaguar #5 is held by a marshal at the end of pit lane so the safety car crocodile can play through.  Dumfries is now right behind Boesel.  It’s the battle between the Brazilian and the Scottish Earl.  Mallock and Leslie have inherited second in C2 behind Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez after the initial class leader, the Needell/Harrower ADA, has run into a litany of mechanical problems.  This race is almost over.  Johnny Dumfries regains the lead, but it’s short lived as Jaguar is going to win in Britain again, with Raul Boesel and John Nielsen!

After five and a half hours of racing, Jaguar’s margin of victory is over a minute.  Let’s check the top ten places.

1. #4 Boesel/Nielsen Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #15 Baldi/Dumfries Porsche 962C     Liqui Moly Equipe/BLR
3. #5 Lammers/Watson Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
4. #7 Stuck/Bell Porsche 962C     Joest Racing
5. #2 Mass/Larrauri Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
6. #10 Nissen/Weidler Porsche 962C     Porsche Kremer Racing
7. #102 Mallock/Leslie Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth     SwiftAir Ecosse*
8. #111 Spice/Velez Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth         Spice Engineering
9. #1T Pareja/Brun Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
10. #101 Duez/Wilds Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth         SwiftAir Ecosse

*C2 winners

Mallock and Leslie win in C2.  A great effort, too, by their team car to finish tenth overall, and also that of the Brun Motorsport Porsche for Jesus Pareja and Walter Brun, who used a spare car for this race.  For Raul Boesel and John Nielsen, celebration time, and especially for Nielsen, because he becomes the first ever Danish driver to win a FISA sanctioned race of any kind.  Ecosse goes first and third in C2 after Spice had to deal with a dead battery on the car.

From the longest race of the year, to the shortest, and from the French countryside, to the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, we travel to the Norisring for the annual “Super Sprint” race.  There are two 180 kilometer (120 mile) races, to take place on “the magic roundabout”.  73,000 fans pack the decaying Nazi Party rally grounds, to see the fight between Porsche and Jaguar.  Mercedes, once again, is the wildcard for these races, as they have been at varying points of the season so far.  Less the 2.5is formed up behind the Porsche 959 safety car.  Before we race, let’s have a look at the grid.

1. #17 Stuck/Bell Porsche 962C     Porsche AG
2. #7 Ludwig/Wollek Porsche 962C     Blaupunkt-Joest Racing
3. #61 Thackwell/Reuter Sauber C9 Mercedes  Formel Rennsportclub
4. #4 Cheever/Boesel Jaguar XJR8  Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #1 Brun/Pareja/Schafer Porsche 962C Brun Motorsport*
6. #10 Weidler/Nissen Porsche 962C  Porsche Kremer Racing
7. #5 Lammers/Watson Jaguar XJR8  Silk Cut Jaguar
8. #3 Larrauri/Mass/Pareja Porsche 962C  Brun Motorsport*
9. #15 Baldi/Palmer Porsche 962C  Liqui Moly Equipe
10. #2 Mass/Larrauri/Sigala Porsche 962C Brun Motorsport*
11. #8 Winter/Dickens/van der Merwe Porsche 962C Joest Racing*
12. #14 Konrad/Giacomelli/de Cesaris Porsche 962C Mussato Action Car*
13. #31 Dauer/Dumfries Porsche 962C Victor-Dauer Racing
14. #9 Ludwig/Jelinski Porsche 962C Blaupunkt Joest Racing
15. #72 Lassig/Yver Porsche 962C Primagaz Competition
16. #117 Hoy/Schanche Argo JM19B Zakspeed  Schanche Racing
17. #111 Velez/Spice Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth Spice Engineering
18. #112 Bellm/Adams Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth Spice Engineering
19. #34 Lechner/Franzmeier Porsche 962C Walter Lechner Racing
20. #114 Thyrring/Sheldon Tiga GC287 Ford Cosworth Tiga Ford DK
21. #104 Seher/Mundas URD C81/2 BMW URD Juniorenteam
22. #106 GLellini/Randaccio Tiga GC85 Ford Cosworth Kelmar Racing
23. #119 Becker/Cordlandwehr Lola T600 BMW  Karl-Heinz Becker
24. #102 Mallock/Leslie/Wilds Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth Swiftair Ecurie Ecosse*
25. #101 Percy/Wilds Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth Swiftair Ecurie Ecosse*
26. #103 Wilson/Bartlett Bardon DB1/2 Ford Cosworth John Bartlett Racing
27. #121 Los/Wood Tiga GC287 Ford Cosworth P. Motorsport#
28. #200 Manthey/Heinzelmann Argo JM19 Porsche Dahm Cars Racing%

*Denotes the car was disqualified for starting illegally, both Swiftair Ecosse cars.

% denotes the car didn’t qualify for the races.

Bob Wollek and Hans Stuck share the front row.  It’s Blaupunkt/Joest vs. the factory, with sponsorship for this race from Dunlop tires and Shell Oil.  Mercedes and Jaguar, are then followed by Kremer Porsche and Brun Porsche.  Will Hoy is on C2 pole as the West German flag waves, and we are racing at Norisring!  This is heat one, and Bob Wollek takes the race lead straight away.  On the run to turn one, Mike Thackwell goes around Hans Stuck.  Cheever, Larrauri, and Walter Brun follow, along with Mauro Baldi.  Fermin Velez is fifth in C2, down the order in the division.  This is not like him.  He’s normally towards the front end of the grid.

Mike Thackwell is giving Bob Wollek a tough run for his money, taking the lead of the motor race on the start/finish straightaway.  The big turbo V8 in the Mercedes is the engine to have.  Stuck takes aim at Wollek, look.  This is home territory for both, as Wollek is an Alsatian Frenchman, from Strasbourg, and Stuck is a native Bavarian.  Eddie Cheever and Oscar Larrauri, the two of them, are scrapping away for the fourth spot.  Stuck is still hounding Wollek, and the battle is simmering too, between Mauro Baldi and Jochen Mass.  Jan Lammers follows in the Jaguar, with a keen eye on all of this action.

Larrauri biffs Stuck off the road in the Grundig hairpin, and both cars slide in, locked together.  A livid Stuck, loses time trying to find reverse after his punter, continues on in the race.  A moment of argy bargy between the two Porsche pilots.  Wollek, Cheever, and Baldi are all moving up because of Stuck and Larrauri’s dust up.  Jochen Mass runs fifth.  Baldi then puts the Richard Lloyd Porsche into third place.  The Jaguar’s have to fight amongst themselves for fourth place.  It’s Eddie Cheever vs. Jan Lammers.  Mike Thackwell is passed by Bob Wollek, and now, the Englishman is falling into the clutches of Baldi as well.

Mauro Baldi dives for second, and Cheever is also right there, as is Hans Stuck who recovered from the earlier Larrauri shemozzle.  Ray Bellm and Spice are going to win in C2.  Mike Thackwell is soon to stop.  He is dealing with heat exhaustion which is no fun for a racing driver.  The Mercedes team doctors are sure to look after him and make sure he gets proper fluids, as the Mauro Baldi and Bob Wollek story continues to be written.  Stuck is third, but the complexion of the race will change when Wollek’s gas tank runs on empty.  Mauro Baldi wins!  Hans Stuck and Frank Jelinski complete the podium, and in C2, Ray Bellm is headed for the win.

Now, we move to the second race, with the second listed drivers in the cars.  Klaus Ludwig leads Johnny Palmer, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, and Kris Nissen.  Swiftair Ecosse takes the C2 lead with the #102 car, David Leslie at the controls.  Ludwig, Mass, Palmer, and Bell are the top four.  Bell has to finish in second in this race to get the overall win at Norisring.  The V12 Jaguar’s howl past the tribune grandstands, and after Eddie Cheever had fuel issues, Raul Boesel takes over the #4.  For the sister #5, it’s game over.  A broken driveshaft sidelines Jan Lammers and John Watson.  Bell is on a mission, taking third place away from Mass.

Ludwig leads followed by Palmer, Bell, Boesel, Mass, and in C2, the battle is for second between Fermin Velez and Nick Adams in the Spice’s.  Palmer is putting daylight between himself and Bell.  Raul Boesel is catching the factory Porsche.  But none of this scrapping matters to Klaus Ludwig.  He’s ahead by a country mile.  Ditto for David Leslie, who is well clear of the tussle for second in C2 among the Spices.  In the overall standings, Raul Boesel puts himself ahead of Derek Bell.  Never saw that coming.  He gets by Palmer, and now, he’s going to chase down Ludwig.  Leading by a country mile?  Uh… I don’t think so.  Message to Klaus Ludwig… push, push, push, Boesel is coming, and fast.  One Jaguar, two Porsche’s, three phenomenal drivers.  Jochen Mass has had to relinquish the chase as he languishes in fifth.  More passing, as Derek Bell goes back by Johnny Palmer.  Bell runs into mechanical/electrical issues just before the end of the race.  A broken flywheel has left him sans electronics in the 962.  It’s game over for the five-time Le Mans winner.

Palmer will finish third, which is all he needs after Baldi won the first race.  Klaus Ludwig wins race two at Norisring followed by Boesel in the Jaguar.  Spice and Velez take their fifth 1987 victory, with second in both races.  Let’s look at the combined top ten from the Norisring Super Sprint.

1. #15 Baldi//Palmer Porsche 962C GTi      Liqui Moly Equipe
2. #3 Larrauri/Mass Porsche 962C              Brun Motorsport
3. #8 Winter/Dickens Porsche 962C             Joest Racing
4. #4 Cheever/Boesel Jaguar XJR8                                Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #72 Lassig/Yver Porsche 962C              Primagaz Competition
6. #111 Ve;lez/Spice Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth  Spice Engineering*
7. #102 Mallock/Leslie Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth  Swiftair Ecurie Ecosse
8. #112 Bellm/Adams Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth   Spice Engineering
9. #106 Gellini/Randaccio Tiga GC285 Ford Cosworth  Kelmar Racing
10. #1 Brun/Pareja Porsche 962C  Brun Motorsport

The next race is the Brands Hatch 1,000 Kilometers in Kent, England, in a shade less than a month.  We are well into the second half of the 1987 WSC campaign.

It’s June in northwestern France once again, and that can only mean one thing, the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, a motor race in it’s 55^th renewal in 1987.  More than 200,000 fans have packed the grandstands around Circuit de la Sarthe to see if Jaguar can win Le Mans for the first time in 30 years.  But, to pull it off, they’ll have to overcome heavy competition from rivals Mercedes and Porsche.  On the pole, is the #18 Rothmans Porsche 962 being started by Frenchman Bob Wollek who has yet to win this race overall.  His co-drivers are veteran German driver Jochen Mass, and 1983 overall Le Mans winner, Vern Schuppan, from Australia.  Three Jaguars are set to bring the heat to Stuttgart, though.

Car #4 has a driving squad of Eddie Cheever, Raul Boesel, and Jan Lammers, the Dutchman, sharing with the American and the Brazilian.  In car #5 the driver lineup is has Brits John Watson and Win Percy along with Jan Lammers.  Reserve driver Armin Hahne of Germany is ready, but not expected to step into the car.  The third car, #6 has Armin Hahne as a reserve as well, along with Dane John Nielsen and Britain’s Martin Brundle.  48 cars are set to start.  Let’s have a look at the top qualifying places, the top ten.

1. #18 Wollek/Mass/Schuppan Porsche 962C     Porsche AG
2. #17 Stuck/Bell/Holbert Porsche 962C     Porsche AG
3. #4 Cheever/Boesel/Lammers Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
4. #6 Brundle/Nielsen/Hahne Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #5 Lammers/Percy/Watson Jaguar XJR-8       Silk Cut Jaguar
6. #13 Raphanel/Regout/Courage Cougar C20 Porsche Primagaz Competition
7. #62 Dumfries/Ganassi/Thackwell Sauber C9 Mercedes Kouros Racing
8. #61 Thackwell/Pescarolo/Okada Sauber C9 Mercedes  Kouros Racing
9. #7 van der Merwe/Robinson/Hobbs Porsche 962C Joest Racing
10. #15 Palmer/Weaver/Cobb Porsche 962C GTi Equipe Liqui Moly

We’re ready to start a race that has been declared wet.  It’s the first wet Le Mans since 1980 when the French Rondeau team won.  It’s lights out, and away we go!  Le Mans 1987, is on.  It’s the Rothmans Porsche’s that lead over the Jaguar’s headed for the Dunlop esses for the first time.  Hans Stuck leads Jochen Mass, Martin Brundle, Eddie Cheever, and Jan Lammers.  One of the Mercedes’ is also trying to make a move under the Dunlop bridge for the first time, as we see the action from the camera car, another Rothmans liveried entry of which there are four.  This is the #3 Brun Porsche 962C with an all-Canadian lineup.  Bill Adam starts the car, sharing with Scott Goodyear, who would later find success in IndyCar racing, and Richard Spenard.

The cars scream down the Mulsanne straight for the first time at 230+ miles an hour!  Talk about fast!  Late starters are released from pit lane, for a full 48 car field.  One of those late comers looks to be the #114 Tiga GC287 Ford Cosworth for Tiga Ford Denmark.  Regular driver Thorkild Thyrring is joined at Le Mans by Brits Ian Harrower and John Sheldon for this race.  Hard to tell who the other late starter is.  Rain makes the going treacherous especially at 200+ miles an hour on the Mulsanne.  Gently, boys.  The conditions are slick out there, so slick that marshals are posting local yellow flags meaning, danger, no overtaking.

The battle is afoot at the front no matter what.  It’s Porsche, Jaguar, and Mercedes, in a scrap for who is best, here at Le Mans.  Porsche has dominated.  Mercedes is looking for their first win since 1952, and Jaguar, their first since 1957, as documented a little earlier on.  Into Mulsanne corner for the first time the order is still Hans Stuck, Jochen Mass, Martin Brundle, and Eddie Cheever.  The turbocharged cars are more suited to this sweeping, long and fast circuit laid out on public roads it seems, even though the normally aspirated V12 Jaguar’s do have horsepower in boatloads.  Brundle follows the leaders as do Thackwell in fourth spot, and Cheever fifth.  One of the great things to do is stand with your back turned to the track, and guess who is going by, by the engine note.  A screaming V12, a sonorous turbo Flat 6, or a thunderous, rumbling turbo V8… they are all here.  Mechanical diversity in sports car racing, is something.

Conditions are still slippery, and at this time, into Mulsanne corner, no one knows that better than South African driver George Fouche at the wheel of the #11 Leyton House liveried Kremer Porsche 962C he is sharing with countryman Wayne Taylor, and Austrian driver, Franz Konrad.  Fouche gets a little tail happy in Mulsanne but keeps on trucking.  Jochen Mass has taken the lead from Hans Stuck.  Early on in this race, Rothmans Porsche could be playing a tortoise and hare game, or, it could be a case of “hey, I led for a while, why don’t you have a turn at the front, sunshine.”  They pass the all-Canadian Brun entry carrying the onboard camera.  Bill Adam is at the wheel of it, still.

Joest Porsche, factory Toyota, Kremer Porsche, factory Porsche, factory Jaguar, factory Porsche.  Variety is the essence of Le Mans.  Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda, are all here representing Japan.  The factory Toyota’s have former F1 World Champion Alan Jones (from Australia), sharing with Sweden’s Eje Elgh, and Britain’s Geoff Lees in their first car, #36, and the sister Toyota 87C (#37) is in the hands of Britain’s Tiff Needell, and Japanese drivers Masanori Sekiya, and Kaoru Hoshino.  Sekiya, would go on to be on a winning team at Le Mans in the 1990s, in ’95, with the McLaren F1 GTR.

Porsche also have their four wheel drive Group B 961 supercar based on the new for 1987 and very limited edition 959 road car.  Rene Metge has started the car, the Frenchman sharing with Canadian Kees Nierop and Switzerland’s Claude Haldi.  The 961 is running the same engine as the factory 962s are.  The twin turbo, 2.7 liter flat six.  The track is dry now and thus, many cars have headed for pit lane to change to slick tires, but this is causing confusion not just for the fans, but also for the lap scorers and timekeepers doing their jobs at various marshal’s posts around the circuit.  Worse, there’s something wrong with the chemistry of the fuel supplied to the teams.

It is causing burned pistons, particularly in the Porsche’s.  Joest, Kremer, and the second Rothmans factory car, the #18 car of Jochen Mass and company, have already had gremlins with their cars due to the fuel.  Porsche mechanics have changed a microchip in the sister #17 machine, the Bell/Stuck/Holbert car.  This is the same team that won Le Mans last year, in 1986.  Bell is on a drive for his fifth win at Le Mans.  TWR Jaguar #4 is in the lane now, and Raul Boesel will take over from Jan Lammers and start his stint here at Le Mans in the early evening.

It’s three against one.  Three Jaguar’s vs. one lone factory Porsche.  It’s three Spitfires, vs. one Messerschmitt.  This will go on, through the dark of night, but Kouros Mercedes won’t be so lucky.  Both of their cars will drop out of the race overnight.  The Johnny Dumfries, Chip Ganassi, Mike Thackwell #62 entry breaks a gearbox, and a severely punctured tire derails the hopes of the #61 Mike Thackwell, Henri Pescarolo, Hideki Okada entry.  No fifth win for “Le Grand Pesca” who has become a legend of Le Mans, with four overall victories.  He is currently tied with Derek Bell, and Bell, is going for his fifth here at Le Mans ’87.

The #61 Mercedes rumbles away from pit lane after service, but as mentioned earlier, the car won’t last the distance, sadly.  Brundle and Nielsen have the third Jaguar, car #6, in fourth overall.  Again Armin Hahne was listed on this car as well.  But, as we’ll see, the Jaguar’s will also run into trouble later on, at least some of them.  Evening comes, and with it, bon viveur for the spectators.  Good food and wine are always a part of a race like Le Mans.  Eat, drink, be merry, and watch sports car racing.  It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?  No letup in the scrap at the front.  A Porsche engineer has described it just as yours truly did, above.  It’s truly one Messerschmitt against three Spitfires.  Even late night rain won’t spoil this fair old dust up.  Derek Bell and John Nielsen, especially, they are running Harry Flatters out there, dicing for the lead of this motor race.

Darkness has come.  But, the spectators forego their warm beds.  They want to stay up and watch the drama unfold.  Caffeine, alcohol, and adrenaline, will fuel their passion, surely, throughout the hours of darkness here in France.  All through the night, the TWR Jaguar crews work to keep their charges at peak form.  But, at 3:00 A.M. (a time, between night and morning, where this always seems to happen at Le Mans), disaster strikes the #5 Jaguar with Win Percy at the controls.  A blown tire sends Percy on a horrifying, cartwheeling ride, down the Mulsanne straight at 350 kilometers per hour (219 miles per hour!)  Let’s hope Win Percy is OK after this horrific high speed acrobatic tumble!

Percy walks away unhurt, with only tarmac marks on his crash helmet.  Thank goodness!  The accident deploys the safety cars, but the overall complexion of the race remains consistent.  Two more Jaguars are continuing to chase down the sole Rothmans Porsche still in this race, in the lead.  We haven’t talked at all about the C2 category, but Spice are leading.  Spice Engineering with their #111 Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth, now running in silver, yellow, and black Dianetique colors, is shared by Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez along with Frenchman Philippe de Henning.  Swiftair Ecosse, they are second and third.

Their cars are being shared by the following drivers.  #101 has Mike Wilds as lead driver, and the Englishman is joined by American IMSA pilots Craig Carter and Andy Petery, while in the sister #102 Ecosse Ford Cosworth, Belgian Marc Duez is sharing with Brits David Leslie and Ray Mallock.  Dawn comes to Le Mans, but it isn’t really a rosy glow this year.  There’s fog at Mulsanne corner.  The Rothmans Porsche 961 supercar is still leading Group B as we ride aboard.  It is being passed by the Chamberlain Engineering Spice Hart #27 with Nick Adams, Richard Jones, and Graham Duxbury sharing the driving chores.  The Jaguar’s continue leading the sole Rothmans Porsche, now in the hands of Al Holbert.  Rene Metge in the 961 supercar passes, as Holbert heads for routine refueling in the pit lane.  So, the order is now Cheever, Stuck, and Brundle, and each of them pits promptly at 8AM.  But, there’s trouble again for Jaguar.  It’s game over for the #6 car with a blown head gasket and cracked cylinder head on the V12.

That evens the odds.  It’s one Porsche vs. one Jaguar to the end of Le Mans.  But, the finish comes too soon for the beautiful Porsche 961.  It is crashed by Canadian driver Kees Nierop.  Something broke mechanically on the car.  Nierop spins, and, wallop!  He’s hit the barrier.  But the drama is not over.  Something seized in the transmission.  He makes his way back to pit lane, the steering somewhat out.  But, he’s got bigger trouble than just the steering.  The car is on fire, and the pit crew is seeing this on their bank of monitors in the lane, but Nierop may not realize it.  Porsche team manager Peter Falk gets on the radio to tell Nierop, “get out of the car, it’s on fire!”  Nierop scrambles away.

The onboard camera continues recording, eerily, as dense smoke fills the cockpit.  But that camera won’t be recording too much longer.  It melts in the blaze, and so does the car.  It’s burned out, and it’s game over for the 961 Porsche team.  Gordon Spice, meanwhile, anticipates a win at Le Mans.  “I think at this moment in time we’re a little bit ahead”, he says, and explains their rivals in C2 are running into mechanical troubles.  We’re closing in on the finish of Le Mans.  A travel stained #17 Porsche 962 makes it’s final pit stop, as a weary Peter Falk looks on.  The surviving Jaguar, the #4 entry of Eddie Cheever, Jan Lammers, and Raul Boesel, has holed it’s transmission casing, and the repairs cause the car to lose 30 laps.

They will recover to fifth place overall and finish there.  Primagaz Racing is doing well in second and third.  Jurgen Lassig of Germany, Pierre Yver of France, and Bernard de Dryver of Belgium pilot the #72 Porsche, and the Cougar of course has another all-French lineup of Yves Courage, Pierre Henri Raphanel, and Herve Regout.  Regout, check that, is Belgian as is de Dryver in the Porsche.  But this year at Le Mans, it is all Rothmans Porsche, and win number five for Derek Bell!  He, Hans Stuck, and Al Holbert, can celebrate their second straight win driving together!

#17 Stuck/Bell/Holbert                  Rothmans Porsche 962

The Brits lost their Jaguar victory, but they have Derek Bell to cheer for.  Here are the Le Mans 24 Hours results.

1. #17 Stuck/Bell/Holbert Porsche 962C     Porsche AG
2. #72 Lassig/Yver/De Dryver Porsche 962C     Primagaz Competition
3. #13 Raphanel/Regout/Courage Cougar C20 Porsche  Primagaz Competition
4. #11 Fouche/Konrad/Taylor Porsche 962C    Porsche Kremer Racing
5. #4 Cheever/Boesel/Lammers Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
6. #111 Spice/Velez/de Henning Spice SE86C Cosworth  Spice Engineering Ltd.*
7. #202 Kennedy/Dieudonne/Galvin Mazda 757   MazdaSpeed Co. Ltd. **
8. #102 Duez/Mallock/Leslie Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth   Swiftair-Ecurie Ecosse
9. #121 Wood/Los/Hessert Tiga GC286 Ford Cosworth  Comsik-G.P. Motorsport
10. #114 Thyrring/Harrower/Sheldon Tiga GC287 Ford Cosworth  Tiga Ford DK

*=C2 winners

**=IMSA winners

Let’s look at the points after Le Mans.

C1 Drivers:

1. Derek Bell 74 points
2. Hans Stuck 74 points
3. Eddie Cheever 60 points
4. Raul Boesel 60 points
5. John Watson 55 points
6. Jan Lammers 55 points

C2 Drivers:

1. Gordon Spice 95 points
2. Fermin Velez 95 points
3. Ray Mallock 80 points
4. David Leslie 80 points
5. Costas Los 24 points
6. Rudi Seher 24 points

C1 Teams:

1. Silk Cut Jaguar 88 points
2. Porsche AG 74 points
3. Kremer Porsche   35 points
4. Brun Motorsport 34 points

C2 Teams:

1. Spice Engineering 95 points
2. SwiftAir Ecosse 80 points
3. URD Junior Team 24 points

Next up, it’s back to sprint racing, with the Norisring 200 Kilometers in Nuremberg, Germany, two weeks after Le Mans.  We are set to begin in earnest, the second half of the 1987 WSC season.