Author: the braking zone

The world’s fastest Formula 1 circuit plays host once again to sports cars, and Jaguar looks to repeat their 1986 victory in the green fields of Jolly Old, among the Norman churches.  The turbocharged cars have the upper hand over the V12s on this fast circuit, with not only Porsche, but the elephant in the room, is Mercedes, making their first appearance of the ’87 campaign.  Some notable cars did not make the race at Silverstone.  Neither of the Joest Porsche’s are here and there was supposed to be a new Lamborghini Countach QVX built by Tiga as a C1 car with a 5.7 liter V12.  But that car didn’t show up.

Neither did a proposed Tiga C1 car with a turbocharged version of the 3.3 liter Ford Cosworth V8 for James Weaver and Tim Lee-Davey, both Brits.  Weaver ended up driving in Richard Cleare’s #21 March 85G Porsche, alongside Cleare, and Andrew Gilbert-Scott.  It’s an all British squad in that automobile.  We’re ready to race at Silverstone, with a front row of Hans Stuck in the Porsche, and at his elbow, the V8 thunder of the #61 Sauber C9 Mercedes in the hands of Brit Mike Thackwell and four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Frenchman Henri Pescarolo.

Mercedes and Porsche topped everyone else in qualifying.  How will the race come out?  We’re about to find out.  It’s lights out, and we’re racing in England!  26 C1 and C2 cars are unleashed on this airfield circuit.  Mercedes takes the lead here at Silverstone!  Don’t forget, Pescarolo and Thackwell won that bizarre race in soggy conditions at the Nurburgring last year.  The order is Mike Thackwell, Hans Stuck, Jan Lammers, and Eddie Cheever.  Gordon Spice leads C2 already.  Mercedes have barged in, and they’ve upset the apple cart here, thundering away from Porsche and Jaguar.

A third Jaguar is also in this race, car #6 running in low downforce trim for the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month.  Martin Brundle is sharing with John Nielsen in the #6 automobile.  The order remains Thackwell, Stuck, Cheever, and the Mercedes is schooling everybody else right now on the ultra-fast Silverstone circuit.  In the meantime, the Jaguar’s have pounced on a drowsy Hans Stuck as he loses a spot to them both, in the blink of an eye.  Now, in C2, Spice still lead.  But it isn’t the factory car.  It isn’t the Danone yogurt, REDEX, Holt’s machine driven by Spice and Velez.

Instead, it is the #127 Hart powered Chamberlain Engineering Spice of Nick Adams in his home race, and South African Graham Duxbury.  You haven’t missed much at the front.  Thackwell, Cheever, Lammers, and Stuck are at the top of the tree, as Stuck struggles to stay with the V8s and V12s.  The Porsche turbo flat six in the 962 is being outgunned today.  Spice is all over Nick Adams like old el cheapo suito here, but it isn’t working so far.  Mike Wilds has put the Swiftair Ecosse into third in class.  That is the #101 car he is sharing this weekend with Scottish Earl Johnny Dumfries.

Cheever is making inroads on the Mercedes while Hans Stuck is waiting and watching, biding his time.  The Mercedes is carving through the back markers like the proverbial hot knife through butter, but Cheever is closing, and fast.  Stuck is fourth, coming out of the newly revamped/added Woodcote chicane, a feature of Silverstone that the drivers dislike greatly.  On lap 16, Cheever makes his move on the Benz of Thackwell, and the 23,000 fans here at Silverstone go berserk!  Jonathan Palmer has the Liqui Moly Porsche, car #15, in fifth spot.  But don’t get too excited, as soon after this, he and Mauro Baldi would be out of the motor race with fuel injection gremlins.

Funny enough, Johnny Palmer is actually running quicker than Hans Stuck while the car lasts.  Jaguar #4 is in the pit lane for its first stop.  It’s routine service and there is a driver change.  Raul Boesel takes over for Eddie Cheever.  Service from TWR is spot on, and they’re keen to win in front of their home crowd.  Jan Lammers follow suit, pitting on the next lap, handing the car to John Watson.  Jaguar are running 1-2 after the Mercedes Benz went out with broken suspension.  Game over for Henri Pescarolo and Mike Thackwell.

Formation flying as John Watson leads Raul Boesel.  The Jaguars are invincible on their home turf.  Derek Bell has the #17 Autoglass Porsche 962 in third place.  Martin Brundle has brought the third Jaguar he shares with John Nielsen to fourth, but that will be short lived as the V12 engine is kaput later on.  After a thrilling battle in C2, Swiftair Ecosse will win the class, overhauling the Spice team, and Ray Mallock and David Leslie will be the victorious drivers.  But, just before the end of the motor race, things have gone pear shaped for Oscar Larrauri.  He’s smashed his Porsche 962 into the barriers, big style!  Ker-runch!

Larrauri’s Porsche collided with one of the C2 machines and there’s debris all over the front straightaway.  Cheever also has a near miss with a slower car, and he was jolly lucky to avoid any argy bargy there!  We see the first safety car of the 1987 Group C season while the wreckage is cleaned up.  Cheever had a VERY close shave with the already smashed Porsche 962!  Yikes!  Green light, again, and it’s a two horse race between Cheever and Lammers to the checkers.  The Swiftair Ecosse’s are one lap apart with the Spice as the meat in the sandwich, but that will remain the status quo to the end of the race.  After five hours and three minutes, it’s Jaguar winning, with Cheever and Boesel crossing the finish line first.

Jan Lammers and John Watson finish second, and in third, the #17 Rothmans Porsche of Hans Stuck and Derek Bell.  It is four out of four, for Jaguar.  Each of their drivers has tasted the champagne already this year.

1. #4 Cheever/Boesel Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #5 Lammers/Watson Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
3. #17 Bell/Stuck Porsche 962C     Rothmans Porsche
4. #18 Mass/Wollek Porsche 962C     Rothmans Porsche
5. #1 Brun/Schaefer/Pareja Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
6. #102 Mallock/Leslie* Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth  Swiftair Ecosse
7. #111 Spice/Velez Spice SE86c Ford Cosworth  Spice Engineeering
8. #101 Wilds/Dumfries Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth  Swiftair Ecosse
9. #21 Weaver/Gilbert-Scott/Cleare March 85G Porsche  Richard Cleare Racing
10. #106 Randaccio/Barberio/Gellini Tiga GC85 Ford Cosworth  Kelmar

Next up, it’s the biggest race of the year, the 55^th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

We are at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, in Monza, Italy, the home Italian motor racing, for round three of the 1987 World Sports Car Championship.  The Porsche vs. Jaguar scrap is set to continue.  It’s German turbo power vs. British V12s.  Swiftair Ecosse is looking to depose Spice and get their first win in Group C2.  A fly in the ointment could be the oh so often mentioned Martin Schanche Lucky Strike Argo Zakspeed.    Don’t underestimate Thorkild Thyrring in the factory Tiga Ford either.  Once again, the Dane is sharing with Sweden’s Leif Lindstrom in the Duckhams sponsored car.

Reigning World Sports Car teams’ champions Brun Motorsport have not found form in 1987 yet.  Jaguar seems to have all the ingredients right now.  Speed, reliability, and confidence are the keys to racing, and they have each of these in spades.  Rothmans Porsche wants to win, so much so that Chief Executive Schutz and Race Director Dr. Bott have come to Monza.  21 cars are entered this weekend for the Monza 1,000 Kilometers, the Trofeo Filippo Carraciola.  Jaguar are going for the hat trick here at Monza.  Will they get it?  Hans Stuck will make sure they don’t do that.  Dudley Wood, Raul Boesel, Martino Finotto, Maurizio Gellini, Stanley Dickens, Gianfranco Brancatelli, Ray Mallock, Jan Lammers, Rudi Seher, Frank Jelinski, Piercarlo Ghinzani, and more, go out to qualify as the marshals take a piece of paper from scrutineering that said you passed, off the windscreen of each car before they can go out.

We have a new entry, too, car #127 in the C2 class.  This is the Chamberlain Engineering Spice powered by a Hart engine, a four cylinder unit built by the legendary Brian Hart, and equipped with one Holset turbocharger, for Costas Los, Britain’s Nick Adams, and South Africa’s Graham Duxbury.  Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez have the #111 Danone Spice.  Stuck claims pole position and shares his optimism with Dr. Bott.  Stuck is again sharing with Derek Bell, and as always, here at Monza, tires will be critical.  Porsche and Jaguar both rely on the Kevlar walled Dunlop Denlok tires.

The factory 962 Porsche’s are running 3.0 liter turbocharged flat six engines.  Rothmans Porsche has to make up ground to Jaguar, having finished second and third in the two Spanish races to open the season.  Hans Stuck is quickest in practice and feels good about things, but they will use the regular gearbox.  The pistons for hydraulic pressure in the semiautomatic gearbox are in need of reliability.  The Porsche brass will see how hard the Rothmans team works.  Oscar Larrauri though, he has spoiled both Jaguar and Porsche’s party, by putting the privateer Gaggia, Guffanti, Brun Porsche 962 at the sharp end of the grid.

So, the Argentinian ace will have something to say once this motor race gets underway.  He is sharing with team and car owner Walter Brun.  Larrauri is a fast driver, who is a former Formula 3 single seater champion.  Bob Wollek and Jochen Mass will start the #18 Porsche in third place.  Car chiefs Roland Kusmal and Walter Najer confer with team manager Peter Falk and Jochen Mass.  Rothmans Porsche are delighted with first and third fastest times.  Tom Walkinshaw and Ron Elkins at Silk Cut Jaguar are not concerned, because without turbo power, they can’t match Porsche during qualifying, despite the displacement advantage of their giant V12’s.

The Jaguar’s qualify fourth and fifth on the grid.  Lammers and Watson are ahead of the sister car of Raul Boesel and Dane John Nielsen.  What the Jaguar’s lack without a turbo, they make up for in grip on the road, and low end torque from their 7 liter V12s.  John Nielsen is filling in (alongside Raul Boesel) for Eddie Cheever, who is racing Formula 1 for Arrows Megatron in the opening event of the 1987 Formula 1 World Championship at Jacarepagua  in Brazil.  Boesel sets quick time for the #4 Jaguar, 400ths of a second off of the sister car.  How close do you like it?

Boesel has done extremely well transitioning from IndyCar racing to sports cars.  He already has one win under his belt, and he is confident.  He knows Jaguar has good backing and is very happy and impressed with the team.  Joest Racing maintains their good track record, having won two consecutive Le Mans 24 Hour races in 1984 and ’85.  Joest also beat Rothmans Porsche here at Monza in 1983.  Klaus Ludwig of West Germany, and Piercarlo Ghinzani share the driving duties in the #7 Joest Racing Porsche 962.  Reinhold Joest is running his cars without factory assistance.  Ghinzani qualifies sixth fastest.  Bruno Giacomelli is the comedian on his team, joining fellow Italian Mauro Baldi aboard the #15 Britten – Lloyd Racing Porsche 962C.

The car has its honeycomb monocoque chassis, and separate rear wing.   Gianfranco Brancatelli has qualified eighth in the #2 Torno Brun Porsche 962C he shares with Massimo Sigala.  Brun have experienced blown engines this weekend.  Brancatelli says that the fuel regulations for commercial fuel, cause the customer Porsche engines to destruct themselves.  Brancatelli says, “I blew the engine after five laps, had no chance to use qualifying tires, and was slower.  Our practice engine was a bigger 3.2 liter unit.”  Brun is the only squad on the C1 grid to use Michelin tires rather than the almost standard Dunlop Denlok rubber.  The second Joest Porsche 962C is the #8 Sachs liveried car for West German’s Klaus Ludwig and John Winter, and Sweden’s Stanley Dickens.

Yves Courage has brought out his 1987 spec Cougar Group C racer for the first time with a Porsche 962 lump in the back of it.  What is the lump, you ask?  That’s the engine.  The Cougar C20 is being shared by Belgian Herve Regout and Frenchman Joel Gouhier.  Will Hoy takes pole with the Zakspeed powered Argo sharing with Martin Schanche.  The car has a definite horsepower advantage over it’s rivals from Ecosse and Spice.  Martino Finotto, the Italian, is racing for the first time in 1987 with his Alba Carma, sharing with countrymen Ruggero Melgrati and Pietro Silva.

Fermin Velez has the Danone yogurt Spice qualified third on the C2 grid.  The customer Spice which is in Metaxa Brandy livery, for Costas, Nick Adams, and Graham Duxbury.  The car still runs fourth quickest despite the mechanical issues. Luigi “Gigi” Taverna of Italy, is fifth fastest in C2 in his #116 Alba Ford Cosworth sharing with fellow Italian’s Pasquale Barberio and Oscar Berselli.  Like most C2 cars, the Giordano wine sponsored entry runs on Avon tires.  Also, look out for car #106 in C2.  This is the Tiga Ford Cosworth that won the 1985 championship in the hands of Spice Engineering, and is now in Kelmar Racing colors for the all Italian team of Maurizio Gellini, Ranieri Randaccio, and Vito Veninata.

For France, ALD present their #177 ALD 02 powered by the BMW 3.5 liter M88 inline six cylinder normally aspirated motor, in the hands of an all French lineup.  Gerard Tremblay sharing with Dominique Lacaud, and Jacques Heuclin.  Just 300ths of a second behind is the #101 SwiftAir Ecosse, the Mallock/Leslie car, as that driving duo look to score their first C2 win of ’87, here at Monza.  These guys have come in second to Spice in the first two races, sponsored by the little British post office, Royal Mail.  Team boss Richard Williams is overseeing the operations this weekend along with the drivers.

The West German URD Junior Team with car #104 had rear bodywork blow off the car and had to pull an all-nighter to ready their car for the race, which will be driven by the German trio of Hellmut Mundas, Rudi Seher, and Dieter Heinzelmann.  The Lucas sponsored Tiga, car #190 owned by Roy Baker is back, with Brit Val Mussetti and Frenchman Rudi Thomann at the wheel of it.  Two other listed drivers never got into the car, including Australian Michael Hall and Briton David Andrews.  Thorkild Thyrring was down the order in qualifying as the Ford powered Tiga was dealing with a persistent misfire.

Charles Ivey Racing’s Porsche 962 powered Tiga, #123, can’t set a time due to a cold engine.  Mark Newby and Dudley Wood will have their work cut out in this race.  Duncan Bain is back, making his first 1987 appearance with the new Dune Motorsport Tiga GC287 with the Rover 3.2 liter normally aspirated V6 powering it.  Bain is sharing with Aussie Neil Crang.  This engine was good enough to give Ecurie Ecosse the 1986 C2 championship, but Austin Rover Group pulled the plug on their factory effort at the end of last year.

Jaguar is sponsoring this race at Monza.  Is that a good omen for them?  We have Chamber of Commerce weather blessing us here at this most revered circuit at Monza, on Sunday morning prior to the start of the Monza 1,000 Kilometers.  The Tifosi are here to cheer on the Italian drivers.  Here’s the top qualifying places.

1. #17 Stuck/Bell Porsche 962C     Rothmans Porsche
2. #1 Larrauri/Brun Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
3. #18 Wollek/Mass Porsche 962C     Rothmans Porsche
4. #5 Lammers/Watson Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #4 Boesel/Nielsen Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
6. #7 Ghinzani/Ludwig Porsche 962C     Joest Racing
7. #15 Baldi/Giacomelli Porsche 962C     Britten-Lloyd Racing
8. #2 Brancatelli/Sigala Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
9. #3 Jelinski/Pareja/Larrauri Porsche 962C  Brun Motorsport
10. #8 Ludwig/Winter/Dickens Porsche 962C  Joest Racing

Here’s the top ten in C2.

1. #117 Hoy/Schanche Argo JM19B Zakspeed   Team Lucky Strike Schanche
2. #130 Finotto/Melgrati/Silva Alba AR6 Carma       Alba Carma
3. #111 Velez/Spice Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth  Spice Engineering
4. #127 Adams/Los/Duxbury Spice SE86C Hart  Chamberlain Engineering
5. #116 Berselli/Barberio/Taverna Alba AR3 Ford Cosworth  Techno Racing
6. #106 Veninata/Randaccio/Gellini Tiga GC85 Ford Cosworth  Kelmar Racing
7. #177 Tremblay/Lacaud/Heuclin ALD 02 BMW Automobiles Louis Descartes
8. #101 Mallock/Leslie Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth  Ecurie Ecosse
9. #104 Mundas/Seher/Heinzelmann URD C81/2 BMW URD Junior Team
10. #190 Musetti/Thomann Tiga GC286 Ford Cosworth  Roy Baker Racing

The field forms up behind the Jaguar safety car, going through the Parabolica.  We’re racing at Monza!  Porsche and Jaguar pick up their battle once again.  Velez takes the C2 lead.  Will Hoy stalled the Argo on the grid as the cars were coming to the green light.  Thorkild Thyrring has no more electrical gremlins to worry about in the Tiga.  Jaguar and Rothmans Porsche are locked into a serious battle, and the privateer teams will have to pick up the scraps.  Hans Stuck has put a tremendous amount of daylight between himself and the Jaguars already.

Klaus Ludwig in the Joest Taka-Q Porsche is best of the rest at the moment.  This is Joest’s first 1987 WSC race.  John Nielsen once again, is sharing with Raul Boesel.  Eddie Cheever is racing the Formula 1 season opener at Jacarepagua in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.  Velez is harrying the Spice through Monza’s tight chicanes to keep his pace in C2.  Thorkild Thyrring is up to third in C2 as well.  After stalling on the grid, Will Hoy, the fastest qualifier in C2 is down the order.  Stuck leads as Jan Lammers is pressurizing team mate Raul Boesel for second place.  Klaus Ludwig is also in this scrum.  Bob Wollek gets passed for third as they slide through the daunting and fabulous Parabolica.

Boesel snags the lead away from Stuck.  These boys are running this race like a ten lap dash for cash on a Saturday night at your local short track, than they are a 6 hour enduro.  Pit stop time, albeit unscheduled, for Stuck, with a punctured Dunlop tire.  Bob Wollek assumes the lead having taken both Jaguar’s in one fell swoop.  Jan Lammers runs ahead of Raul Boesel.  Stuck heads back into the race.  Jaguar #5 is now in the lane for service.  It’s game over for Klaus Ludwig and Piercarlo Ghinzani as Joest Porsche #7’s engine went bang.  In the meantime, it’s Fermin Velez and Spice heading the field in C2.

The #18 Wollek/Mass Porsche 962C is out of the race as well.  The turbo has mysteriously swallowed a stone, put the Frenchman and the German out, and the two Jaguars assume the lead, battling each other.  Lammers sweeps past Nielsen.  Derek Bell is still third with the delayed sole Rothmans Porsche in the race.  Frank Jelinski holds fourth spot in the #3 Fortuna Brun Porsche he shares with Jesus Pareja and Oscar Larrauri.  Germany’s Uwe Schafer is listed as a reserve driver who is not needed.

Spice reigns supreme in the C2 stakes at the present time.  But, there’s another plot twist.  It’s raining in the closing stages here at Monza, and so, the wet tires will have to come out.  Jan Lammers pits from the lead.  Hans Stuck also pits from third.  Both Hans Stuck and Jan Lammers, are rainmeisters.  Fermin Velez makes it back to pit lane despite spinning out in the wet on slick tires.  Raul Boesel is not so lucky.  He slides off the road and into the gravel trap before he can get the second place Jaguar to the lane for service.  Be that as it may, it’s another win for Silk Cut Jaguar, their third of the season, and the second for Jan Lammers and John Watson.

Velez and Spice take the hat trick, winning three straight races in C2.  Hans Stuck and Derek Bell come back, luckily, to finish in second spot.  Frank Jelinski and Jesus Pareja score Brun’s best result of 1987 so far, finishing on the podium in third.  Jaguar has dominated the first three races and has a convincing teams’ championship lead.  Let’s look at the standings.

1. Silk Cut Jaguar 60 points
2. Rothmans Porsche 42 points
3. Brun Motorsports 26 points
4. Kremer Porsche 25 points

Here too, are the driver’s championship points, tallied up after Monza.

1. Derek Bell 42 points
2. Hans Stuck 42 points
3. Jan Lammers 40 points
4. John Watson 40 points
5. Raul Boesel 32 points
6. Eddie Cheever 32 points
7. Kris Nissen 25 points
8. Volker Wiedler 25 points
9. Jesus Pareja 24 points

Here are the teams’ points in C2, where Spice is already dominant.

1. Spice Engineering 60 points
2. Swiftair Ecosse 45 points
3. URD Junior Team 20 points
4. Team Tiga Ford 12 points
5. RBR Tiga Team 12 points

Here’s what the C2 driver’s points look like.

1. Gordon Spice 60 points
2. Fermin Velez 60 points
3. Ray Mallock 45 points
4. David Leslie 45 points
5. Rudi Seher 20 points
6. Helmut Hundas 20 points

The next race is the Silverstone 1,000 Kilometers at the famous Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, England, in a month.

This is the first 1,000 kilometer race of the season.  We’ve moved south, to the sherry city of Jerez, where this great Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit hosts round two of the championship.

Jerez is the most modern of the race tracks the Group C cars will run on all year.  Jaguar won last time out, but Porsche has thrown a punch this time, as Hans Stuck scores pole for the Jerez 1,000 kilometers.  One car will not qualify here in Spain.  That’s the #103 John Bartlett Racing Bardon DB1/2 Cosworth C2 entry that was to be shared by Briton Val Mussetti, Max Cohen-Olivar (one of the few racing drivers to hail from Morocco), and Sweden’s Kenneth Leim.  Once again, the Rothmans Porsche’s are using the automatic PDK transmissions that allow shifting gears without coming off the throttle, via a double clutch system.  But, these units remain unproven.

Stuck and Bell have pole thanks to a record lap by Stuck at Jerez of 170 kilometers an hour (106.25 miles per hour).  Bell is in charge of setting the Porsche 962 up for the race, and as per usual, 1,000 kilometers (625 miles), will have to be run on a maximum fuel allowance of 510 liters.  Hans Stuck says that having the pole is good, but to win will be tough.  Stuck knows the Jaguar’s have more fuel.  Everything is longer, and more difficult.  Stuck is confident.  The opposition of the Jaguar’s is going to be tough.  Bell knows most of the Jaguar drivers will be competitive, but he is not sure how competitive John Watson will be.

Now, Eddie Cheever, somehow, some way, has been fined for a legal technicality, having forgotten to sign on with the FISA organizers for the race, and has been fined $5,000.  Jaguar have been fined $3,000 because of the miscue.  Plus, Cheever’s qualifying time was disallowed.  Now if that’s not a bummer, yours truly doesn’t know what is.  The vacant slot was taken up by team mates Jan Lammers and John Watson.  Lammers is only 8/10ths of a second behind Hans Stuck.  So, the battle between the Porsche 962C and the Jaguar XJR8 resumes, in earnest.

Jan Lammers and John Watson compare notes while the mechanics work on the race car, both the chassis, and the howling 7 liter V12 engine.  John Watson says the race at Jerez will be three times harder to win because of the race being three times the distance.  Don’t run into trouble.  The race will be physically tough.  Watson says of his championship battle with Bell “at the moment, we are best of enemies, so we’ll continue that way, jokingly of course.”  Many a true word is spoken in jest.  That’s a lesson to any aspiring racing drivers out there.  Jochen Mass is making his first start of 1987 in WSC.  He will share the sister #18 Rothmans Porsche 962C with Frenchman Bob Wollek.

Mass won the Sebring 12 Hours in IMSA in ’87 driving alongside IndyCar veteran Bobby Rahal in the Bruce Leven owned Bayside Disposal Racing/Budweiser Porsche 962.  Mass and Wollek are also running a PDK gearbox in their 962, but they have the larger 3 liter flat six turbo engine, and post third fastest on the timesheets.  Mass and Wollek were fast in 1986, but they dealt with unreliability for the whole season and that’s why they were rarely heard from.  Eddie Cheever and Raul Boesel will start alongside the Mass/Wollek Porsche.  Onlookers observe the Jaguar being set up by it’s designer, Tony Southgate, and chief team engineer, Alasdair McQueen.  Denmark’s John Nielsen is getting his first look and hands on experience with the new XJR8 as he will drive it later in the year.

Eddie Cheever crashed the car heavily on Saturday, but it is fixed now.  A motor racing journalist makes the claim Cheever is a controversial driver and he refutes the statement.  “That was a low punch”, Cheever said.  “I was not a controversial driver.  I was involved in someone else’s scrap.  I forgot to sign on this year.  Everything is settled, but Raul and I will do well.  No comment on the fines.  It takes me a long time to make $5,000.  I would have been very disappointed if I couldn’t race this year, as my championship hopes would have been thrown out the window.  The race will be hard.  We have a good chance to win.”

Cheever was fortunate to start, and the stewards wanted to exclude him.  Derek Bell believes this sign on penalty is rubbish.  It’s outrageous.  To fine someone for something puerile that is down to the administration of the circuit, is totally uncalled for.  Please sign on, or you won’t be allowed to practice.  Don’t go out to practice until you’ve shown the paperwork.  There is a piece of paper you hand out the door of the car before you go out to practice, to a marshal.  It should be done everywhere in the world, but if we are trying to make sports car racing strong, we have a governing body treating us like schoolkids, which is ridiculous.  It’s hard to find people to talk to in Europe.  We have Pierre Aumonier in Europe, and John Bishop who runs IMSA in the U.S. who we can sit down and have conversations with.  But, 45 year old men are not to be treated like schoolkids.  Fines just put up barriers between the drivers and teams, and the governing body.”

Every single team manager had to sign a petition to FISA to let Eddie Cheever race.  Now that this triviality is out of the way, we get on with the job of racing at Jerez.  Brun Motorsport, who won the World Team’s Championship in 1986 have their #3 Fortuna Porsche 962C on the third row of the grid.  The drivers are familiar, the 1986 Jerez race winners, Spaniard Jesus Pareja, and Argentine Oscar Larrauri.  Larrauri is the quickest customer Porsche driver at Jerez.  Larrauri says “I need more power to go faster.”

Larrauri and Pareja start alongside the Liqui Moly #14 Porsche of Mauro Baldi and Johnny Palmer.  The 962 Lloyd is running has a British Thompson chassis, and an extra front wing incorporated by Lloyd’s designer, Nigel Stroud.  Dr. Palmer is all smiles as he awaits his turn in the car in practice, while the mechanics adjust the car.  A separate rear wing distinguishes this car from the factory cars.  For Walter Brun and Frank Jelinski, they are in trouble.  They broke the gearbox oil pump in the morning warmup and will have to hurry to get the new one installed as the cars are lining up on the grid, ready to race at Jerez.

The third Brun Porsche 962C has the Italian duo, aforementioned, of Massimo Sigala and Gianfranco Brancatelli.  Brun is running Michelin tires on their Porsche’s.  Their car is sponsored by Torno.  Kris Nissen will start the #10 Kremer Porsche 962.  Just as it was last time out, the second Kremer Porsche, #11 is in Marlboro/Phillip Morris tobacco colors for Spaniards Emilio de Villota and Paco Romero.  On C2 pole, is Martin Schanche, the Norwegian in his Lucky Strike cigarettes sponsored Argo Zakspeed with Britain’s Will Hoy.  They’ve fixed their car in six days and had to make a 3,000 mile round trip from Spain, to England, and back to Spain, but they are here, ready to race.

This is Will Hoy’s first time racing at Jerez.  It’ll be an endurance test indeed.  Hoy ran a record 1:39 lap.  Danone Spice with Cosworth power, they are a second down on the Zakspeed propelled Argo.  With his victory last time out at Jarama along with Gordon Spice, Fermin Velez has established himself as someone to watch, in C2.  He would go on in later years to race Ferrari 333SP’s in IMSA World Sports Car open cockpit competition, and into IndyCar racing.  Swiftair Ecosse is third fastest at Jerez with David Leslie and Ray Mallock sharing the driving chores.

Mallock designed and built the car, and debriefs about lap times with his wife, Sue, who also serves as timekeeper for the team.  Scotsman David Leslie is also expected to perform well as the car is on the grid.  That car will have competition from the likes of the factory Tiga for Team Tiga Ford Denmark, alongside.  Car #114 being shared by Dane Thorkild Thyrring and Swede Leif Lindstrom, has power from the Ford Cosworth BDT-E 2.1 liter turbo four cylinder engine.

Costas Los starts the #198 Cosmik Roy Baker Racing Tiga Ford Cosworth, using the Cosworth DFL 3.3 liter V8.  The Greek driver is sharing with Italian veteran Pasquale Barberio.  But one team will not start this race after a litany of problems.  That is the #103 John Bartlett Racing Bardon DB1/2 Cosworth.  We’ve mentioned them already.  The Musetti/Cohen-Olivar/Leim team will not take part in the Jerez race.  There is little likelihood of unrest, but the Spanish police have their weapons concealed just in case, at Jerez, just as they did at Jarama.

Shortly before the start here in Spain, Jaguar has a problem with one of their cars, like Brun did earlier.  John Watson spun the car in the morning warmup, engaging reverse while still moving.  This caused the transmission to go ka-blammo.  TWR Jaguar has one hour to change the box, and they do it.  Jerez, the pride of the sherry hills, was built by the city in one year, with aid of the Spanish government.  The cars roll on their formation lap, and now, they are on the front straight as we look for a start.  It’s lights out, and away we go!

All eyes are on the first turn.  Can Jaguar get through cleanly without repeating their 1986 disaster?  Yes.  In fact, Hans Stuck leads over Jan Lammers, Jochen Mass, and Eddie Cheever.  It’s Porsche, Jaguar, Porsche, Jaguar through the opening corners.  The C2 drivers want to go for it and try to challenge the C1 cars.  Settle down, lads.  We still have six hours to run.  The order remains the same with Johnny Palmer now fifth in the #14 Porsche, the Richard Lloyd Liqui Moly Porsche.  Palmer has the only privateer car in the top five behind the Porsche and Jaguar factory racers.  It’s these same five drivers who are giving us a show at the front so far, at Jerez.

Fermin Velez has put the Danone yogurt Spice out front in C2.  Velez, from Barcelona, is at home in the Spice car and on this circuit.  Ray Mallock is working hard to defend Swiftair Ecosse’s 1986 C2 team’s title, especially with the Spice giving him fits.  He will have to go for it in a mega way if he wants to catch Velez.  Jan Lammers is set to make his first pit stop, but he only has three wheels on his wagon.  Deary me.  There’s the Jaguar, where’s the wheel?  So, Jaguar have one bullet in the gun, at least temporarily, to go after the Porsche’s.  Eddie Cheever is doing just that, trying to make a move on Jochen Mass.  If this were modern team radio, the crew chief would be saying, “keep pushing, keep pushing”, and Cheever may pull a Kimi Raikkonen and say “leave me alone, I know what I’m doing!”

Its game over for Johnny Palmer and company as the driveshaft is busted on his Porsche 962.  This is a bumpy track, Jerez, so mechanical parts and pieces will take a lot of abuse.  Jaguar have replaced a failed wheel bearing on the #5 car, and Jan Lammers, the Dutchman, is back in the fight.  Pit stop time now for the sister Jaguar, car #4, as Cheever hands the car to Brazilian team mate, Raul Boesel.  Boesel rejoins, maintaining third place.  Rothmans Porsche is also in the lane with car #17.  Derek Bell replaces Hans Stuck behind the wheel for this stint.  But, he loses time in the lane with the replacement of a broken turbo boost control.

Bob Wollek inherits the lead in the #18, the second factory Porsche he shares with Jochen Mass and runs ahead of both Boesel and Lammers in the Jaguar’s.  Jaguar #5 has already lost several laps.  Spice pits, and Gordon Spice takes over the car, with crew chief Jeff Hazel looking after the proceedings.  Will Hoy is delayed with a broken intercooler on the Lucky Strike Shanche Argo Zakspeed.  Meanwhile, now in fourth place is the #10 Kremer Porsche 962 with German Volker Weidler at the wheel of it.  Spice again lead C2 from SwiftAir Ecosse and Ray Mallock who is still driving.  Meanwhile, Raul Boesel catches and passes Bob Wollek for the lead of the motor race.

Weidler is running his own race while Derek Bell has brought the #17 Rothmans Porsche back up to third spot.  Massimo Sigala has the #2 Brun Porsche 962C running fifth.  All change at the front.  Eddie Cheever has retaken the lead for Jaguar, as both Rothmans Porsche’s run into mechanical issues.  Derek Bell is third, but dealing with a faulty transmission and no fourth gear.  Bob Wollek is out of the race with a busted driveshaft.  It is game over for he and Jochen Mass.  Cheever has a collision with a C2 car the win at Jerez!

1. #4 Cheever/Boesel Jaguar XJR8                                        Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #10 Weidler/Nissen Porsche 962C                                   Kremer Porsche
3. #17 Stuck/Bell Porsche 962C                                             Rothmans Porsche
4. #111 Spice/Velez Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth               Spice Engineering
5. #101 Leslie/Mallock Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth         Ecurie Ecosse
6. #2 Sigala/Brancatelli Porsche 962C                      Brun Motorsport
7. #3 Pareja/Larrauri/Brun Porsche 962C               Brun Motorsport
8. #11 de Villota/Romero Porsche 962C                   Kremer Porsche Racing
9. #198 Barberio/Los Tiga GC286 Ford Cosworth  Cosmik Roy Baker Racing
10. #18 Mass/Wollek Porsche 962C                             Rothmans Porsche

The 1987 World Sports Car Championship would continue a trend that began in the latter half of 1986.  Jaguar and Porsche would continue to battle, but there was a new sheriff in town, in WSC.  March in Madrid, as the 1987 campaign for the World Sports Car Championship gets underway in earnest, in Spain.  This will be a campaign that will run all the way through late September in Japan.

41,000 eager spectators await the start of the season, as Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes, and others, are set to do battle with the latest, great iterations of their sleek, powerful, speedy Group C prototype machines.  Silk Cut Jaguar, after being snookered for the drivers’ and teams’ championships in 1986, they are out to earn those crowns fair and square this time.  We are ready to race at Jarama, and guess what?  The Jaguars are right across the front row of this 17 car field for the season opener.  On the pole is the #4 Jaguar XJR-8 in the hands of American Eddie Cheever and Brazilian Raul Boesel.  Flanking them on the front row, is their team car, the #5 Jaguar shared by Dutchman Jan Lammers, and new recruit to the team, Northern Ireland’s John Watson, a five-time race winner in Formula 1.

The cars come off the final corner here at Jarama, Tunel, the 13^th turn, and we’re ready for a start!  Green lights, on!  Away we go!  The Jaguar’s are showing their fangs immediately, leading right off the start of the motor race.  Hans Stuck gets bogged down on the grid in the single factory Porsche 962, car #17 he is sharing with Derek Bell.  They are running too rich a fuel mixture at the start.  Jaguar’s out front at this stage.  Eddie Cheever leads the way over Jan Lammers.  In third spot, Italian Mauro Baldi at the wheel of the #15 Britten-Lloyd Racing Liqui Moly Porsche 962C GTi, sharing with Britain’s Dr. Jonathan Palmer, who we haven’t seen as frequently in Group C in the last couple years.

The Group C2 cars come up behind their bigger, more powerful C1 brethren.  SwiftAir Ecosse are just as eager to beat the Spice Engineering team, as Jaguar are to beat Porsche this year.  Rivalries are already developing.  The chaps from Coventry, in England, have not won since their home race at Silverstone, last year, their only win of 1986.  So, they are out in force in ’87 and want to be at or near the top of the tree.  The beautiful Jaguar’s with their 7 liter, 2 valve Single Overhead Cam V12 engines are the only atmospheric cars entered, the only cars that do not run turbochargers.  The C2 battles continue where they left off in ’86, but there are new contenders as well, such as the #123 Charles Ivey Racing Tiga Porsche.

The Ivey owned car is running a variant on the 935/962 2.7 liter flat six motor with a single turbocharger.  Brits Dudley Wood and Mark Newby will share the driving chores.  Jaguar are not just leading, they are whistling off into the distance.  Mauro Baldi has his hands full with some of the other Porsche’s.  He has the #3 Fortuna liveried Brun Porsche 962C of Oscar Larrauri and Jesus Pareja, as well as the aforementioned Rothmans racer, right up his tailpipe.  Stuck is up to fourth, charging after his delay.  Eddie Cheever, who comes out of Formula 1, and would later be very successful in IndyCar, eventually winning the Indianapolis 500, the Jaguar chassis suits his driving style to a T.

For Spaniard Fermin Velez, he has had a great start to ’87, leading the C2 division in the factory Spice Engineering Spice Cosworth that he shares with car builder/team owner, Gordon Spice.  This year, they have Danone yogurt sponsorship.  Spice lost the C2 championship cup by a mere two points last year.  They want to be competitive in ’87.  Meanwhile, we’ve had position swaps as Oscar Larrauri has gone around Jan Lammers, and Hans Stuck is also waiting for his opportunity to apply the blowtorch and pass the Dutchman.  “The Flying Dutchman” will keep the Bavarian Bandit, Hans Stuck, at bay, as the Jaguars have instant power from their monstrous V12 engines compared to the turbo Porsche’s which have to spool up before… zing!, you have all the power you’d ever want.

For Hans Stuck, 1987 will be his best chance yet to go for the driver’s title.  His co-driver, Derek Bell won it in 1986, but now they are chasing it together.  Pit stop time at the mid-point in this motor race, and Jan Lammers hands the car over to John Watson to take it to the finish.  This race after all, is a sprint.  It’s 360 kilometers (225 miles).  The sister Jaguar, car #4 in the hands of Brazilian Raul Boesel and Eddie Cheever, has been delayed with an oil leak.  Hans Stuck, meanwhile, has made his way to second overall.  Despite the oil issues, and an early visit to the pit lane, Raul Boesel has now managed to take the lead of this motor race.

Likewise for the factory Porsche, its pit stop time and Derek Bell takes over behind the wheel.  But, it’s been all Jaguar so far, and they resume their 1-2 formation.  Bell goes back out on track, as John Watson passes the Porsche which is still trundling down pit lane.  Watson is running second in his first race for Silk Cut Jaguar.  But, Derek Bell demotes Watson to third spot.  The Liqui Moly Porsche #14 is now fourth, as they’ve made a pit stop, and Johnny Palmer has taken over from Mauro Baldi.  Boesel had to have a second stop for a splash and a dash.  Derek Bell and John Watson have been friends for a long time, and are neighbors in Sussex, England, but they are fierce rivals on the sports car racing circuit.  Porsche team manager Peter Falk has calculated the fuel mileage, predicting that Porsche can win this sprint race.

But, Porsche missed one thing.  John Watson is a tenacious driver, and he goes around the Porsche, taking the big cat to the win, in Spain!  He wins over Bell by just two seconds.  Oscar Larrauri and Jesus Pareja will finish sixth for Brun in their 962C.  Swiftair Ecosse will come second in the C2 class as the Ecosse was not quick enough to challenge the Danone Spice.  Volker Weidler of Germany has the #10 Kremer Porsche Racing Porsche 962C.  The German shares with Dane Kris Nissen, and they are hot on the heels of the #2 Brun Porsche 962C in the hands of the Italian duo of Massimo Sigala and Gianfranco Brancatelli.

Poor Jonathan Palmer!  The Liqui Moly Porsche blows a tire, and stops on the front straight.  Palmer and Baldi can only muster an eighth place finish.  It’s going to be a win for Jaguar here at Jarama, as John Watson and Jan Lammers triumph.  The earlier argy bargy between Palmer and Watson is evident on the Jaguar’s fender skirt and that’s probably the cause of Palmer’s flat tire as well.  Bell can’t close the gap and he’ll settle for second behind Watson.  Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez are your C2 winners.

1. #5 Lammers/Watson Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
2. #17 Stuck/Bell Porsche 962C     Rothmans Porsche
3. #4 Cheever/Boesel Jaguar XJR8         Silk Cut Jaguar
4. #10 Weidler/Nissen Porsche 962C     Kremer Porsche Racing
5. #3 Larrauri/Pareja Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
6. #2 Sigala/Brancatelli Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
7. #1 Jelinski/Brun                                 Porsche 962C     Brun Motorsport
8. #15 Baldi/Palmer Porsche 962C     Britten-Lloyd Racing
9. #111 Velez/Spice Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth   Spice Engineering*
10. #11 de Villota/Romero Porsche 962C     Porsche Kremer Racing

*C2 winning team

You will notice the C2 winners finishing in the top ten.  Next up, the WSC stays in Spain, and heads to Jerez de la Frontera circuit, the next weekend.

86,000 spectators have come to Fuji Speedway in the shadow of the majestic Mount Fuji, to see the championship battle, where not only will that be settled, but also, the best from Europe are set to take on the Japanese Group C teams.  This race, held in the Mount Fuji national park, sees the biggest field of the year of Group C cars outside of Le Mans.  40 cars will start, mostly Group C and Group C2, save for two GTX class Mazda RX-7s.  Brun Motorsport claim the front row of the Fuji grid.  No Lancia and no Mercedes here in Japan.

Oscar Larrauri has scored the fourth consecutive pole for Brun Motorsport, with Frank Jelinski at his elbow.  Brun make a perfect start.  Henri Pescarolo is driving one of the Rothmans Porsche’s, car #2, which he shares in this race with American Al Holbert.  If Brun can finish first or second, they win the teams’ title.  On the other hand, if Silk Cut Jaguar go 1-2, they win it.  If neither Brun nor Jaguar score points, then Rothmans Porsche keeps their crown.  Those are the permutations.  It’s lights out, and away we go!

Henri Pescarolo is in the midfield right now in the #2 Porsche.  The Brun Porsche’s are on rails already as even Hans Stuck can’t keep up with them.  Larrauri is driving the Fortuna liveried car while Jelinski is in the Porsche with Memorex colors.  Henri “Pepsi Cola” Pescarolo, tails a battle for tenth spot.  “Le Grand Pesca” is scrapping with the Jaguar with Jan Lammers at the wheel of it.  Jelinski leads from Oscar Larrauri, Hans Stuck, Paolo Barilla, and Mauro Baldi.  A few laps later, Mauro Baldi makes his way to third, to a podium place.

There is a monster size battle for eighth spot between nine different cars!  Larrauri retakes P1.  Team orders?  What team orders?  Throw them out the window.  It’s the final race of the year.  Go all out!  Disaster for Hans Stuck!  The left rear wheel is smashed to bits after argy bargy with a C2 racer!  Stuck limps to pit lane. David Andrews in the #98 Roy Baker Racing Tiga, spins the car up onto the curbs.  He’s sharing with Duncan Bain for this race, in the first of two cars for the team, the sister car being shared by Bain, car owner Roy Baker, and Rudi Thomann.  It’s a scrap between two Brits and a Frenchman.

Andrews is stuck, bringing out the safety car.  Joest Porsche now lead after an early stop for fresh tires and fuel.  Piercarlo Ghinzani at the controls of car #7 he is sharing with fellow Italian, Paolo Barilla.  Jesus Pareja is giving it everything at the wheel of the Brun Porsche in second spot.  Old no. 7 just keeps on trucking.  Stuck has replaced the damaged wheel on the #1 Porsche and has to make up for lost time.  There’s a problem of a more serious nature for Henri Pescarolo and Al Holbert in the sister Rothmans Porsche!  The car is on fire!  Brun continue to run second and third.  Derek Warwick brings the #51 Jaguar to the lane for service, sharing with Eddie Cheever, after the two have been separated on the TWR Jaguar squad since Le Mans on the first weekend in June.

Paolo Barilla is a lap up on his competition, and looks to be taking the Porsche 956 to victory in what will be its final world championship race.  Now that the 962 is here, the 956 is obsolete, having been around since 1982.  Suddenly, Derek Warwick has split the two Brun Porsche’s and is right at the sharp end of the field.  Derek Bell pits for service and to hand over to Hans Stuck.  Something is wrong, however, with the Rothmans Porsche.  As Stuck tries to accelerate out of the pits, the driveshaft breaks.  Derek Bell says his hopes of a championship are basically gone.  Bell blasts Porsche for trying to develop the car in a race in which they are going for the championship calling it “a bloody joke.”

Porsche are set to lose the teams’ title to Brun, and the driver’s championship to Warwick.  After Nissan blew everyone away in the typhoon here at Fuji last year, the Japanese makes don’t even get a look in.  It’s a Porsche vs. Jaguar race.  Actually, what might turn out to be a Porsche benefit, as one of the oldest cars in the race leads right now.  Warwick inherits second as Jesus Pareja is slowing with bodywork damage and brake problems on the Fortuna Porsche.  In his first ever C1 race, Sweden’s Stanley Dickens is partnering Frank Jelinski and is fourth in the overall.  Great effort!

Dickens goes one better, sweeping past the ailing Fortuna Porsche for third and a spot on the podium.  Dickens is able to hold off the second Jaguar.  Piercarlo Ghinzani is putting a lap on the second place Spice in C2.  Dickens goes around the C2 leading Ecosse of Ray Mallock and Marc Duez.  Jean Louis Schlesser has not had a good race, after going 15 laps down due to an early hub failure on the Jaguar.  But, his team mate is in better shape.  If he holds down second spot, Derek Warwick will become the 1986 World Sports Car Champion.

Joest leads.  Brun are third.  Paolo Barilla and Piercarlo Ghinzani win the Fuji 1,000 Kilometers, and the curtain falls on the 1986 World Sports Car Championship.  Derek Warwick is champion with a second place finish.  Oh my!  Wait.  There’s been a change.  The timekeepers admit they were wrong.  Joest’s moment of glory is Jaguar’s waterloo.  The timekeepers made a mistake, and they credited the Jaguar with one lap too many.  Derek Warwick and company will be crushed!  Brun Motorsports are the World Sports Car Champions for 1986!

Ecosse win their fourth straight race, and are the world champs in C2.  They are the teams world champs in C2.  Meanwhile, Derek Bell can actually be happy again.  Late at night in his hotel, Bell learns that he, and he alone, is the World Sports Car Champion!  Poor old Derek Warwick must be absolutely gutted.  Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm are C2 champions.  Here are the results of the Fuji 1,000 Kilometers.

C1

1. #7 Barilla/Ghinzani taka-Q, New Man Porsche 956B
2. #19 Jelinski/Dickens Memorex Brun Porsche 956
3. #51 Cheever/Warwick Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-6
4. #10 Wiedler/Giacomelli Porsche Kremer Racing Porsche 962C
5. #8 Nissen/Winter/Grohs Joest Racing Porsche 956
6. #60 Schuppan/Fouche/Suzuki Trust Racing Team Porsche 956

C2

1. #79 Mallock/Duez/Leslie Ecurie Ecosse ARG V6
2. #70 Spice/Bellm Konami Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth
3. #89 Schanche/Kleppe Schanche Team Argo JM19 Zakspeed

C1 Teams Championship

1. Brun Motorsport 52 points
2. Joest Racing 48 points
3. Rothmans Porsche 47 points
4. Silk Cut Jaguar 47 points

C2 Teams Championship

1. Ecurie Ecosse 70 points
2. Spice Engineering 68 points
3. ADA Engineering 64 points

1986 was a great year, with Spa providing it’s best ever event, while Jo Gartner’s death at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was a true tragedy and a sad page in the black book of racing.  A different team won each championship race.  The customer Porsche’s finally took on the factory and beat Zuffenhausen.    Above all, as we will see, it was Derek Bell’s year, as we look at the final driver’s championship standings in C1.

1. Derek Bell 82 points
2. Hans Stuck 82 points
3. Derek Warwick 81 points
4. Frank Jelinski 74 points
5. Eddie Cheever 61 points

Here are the C2 drivers’ points, finalized.

1. Gordon Spice 99 points
2. Ray Bellm 99 points
3. Ray Mallock    80 points
4. Ian Harrower 79 points
5. Evan Clements 79 points

Derek Bell has taken his fourth Le Mans crown and his second world championship.  A deserving champion he is indeed.  We’ll see you, for more Group C action in 1987.  So long, everyone.

The weather is better, as we return to Spa Francorchamps in the Ardennes forest of Belgium, although three days of rain preceded the racing action.  Thierry Boutsen, is once again, your pole sitter for this race.  He and Frank Jelinski are running the car as #17 this weekend.  This is Brun Motorsport’s third pole in a row, a tribute to their much missed driver, Stefan Bellof, who died here at Spa, in 1985 in that horrifying accident in Eau Rouge.  The Spa 1,000 Kilometers could be the race of the year.  Qualifying has never been closer.  Rothmans Porsche are rebuilt after the Nurburgring fracas, and we’re set to race at Spa.  It’s green flag, and we’re off and racing!

The huge field of 33 cars pours into Eau Rouge for the first time.  Thierry Boutsen leads on his home track followed by Derek Bell, Eddie Cheever, Jochen Mass, Derek Warwick, and Mauro Baldi.  Alba leads C2 with the #83 Luigi Taverna Techno Racing Alba AR3 Ford Cosworth out front.  Former Lancia driver Piercarlo Ghinzani is at the controls, sharing with fellow Italian’s Luigi Taverna (the car and team owner), and Gianpiero Lauro.  Tiga, Spice, and Ecosse follow in the C2 division.

Up the hill they go, on the Kemmel straightaway for the first time.  Derek Bell goes for a pass for the lead.  Boutsen slams the door in his face, fending him off.  Jochen Mass in the sister Rothmans Porsche gets by Eddie Cheever’s Jaguar.  Jaguar is not having the race they want, as Mauro Baldi also passes Derek Warwick.  Alba remains the C2 leader.  Through the Bus Stop chicane (a corner that has been heavily reconfigured over the last few years), it is Brun Porsche, Rothmans Porsche, Liqui Moly Porsche, 1-2-3.  The 15,000 fans in attendance at Spa love this.

This is the best drive we’ve seen from Derek Bell all year.  Seven cars are absolutely glued together on this legendary race course, which used to be some eight miles long.  Mauro Baldi goes for third passing Jochen Mass and does so.  The scrap at the front is still steaming along.  Bell, determined to pass Boutsen.  Now, this could be a three way battle as Mauro Baldi begins to close up ever so slightly, sharing the Liqui Moly Porsche with James Weaver.  Baldi finally makes it past Derek Bell.  Even a four-time Le Mans winner is no match for the little Italian.  He’s flying!

It’s a replay of Brands Hatch.  Mauro Baldi has taken the lead away from Thierry Boutsen, and Boutsen will have to be content to run second for a bit.  Eddie Cheever powers the V12 Jaguar through the daunting Eau Rouge.  What a lovely engine note from the V12!  Baldi is in the pit lane for his first scheduled stop, and this hands the lead back to Thierry Boutsen.  To the Richard Lloyd team’s horror, there is no fuel coming from the gantry above their pit box.  Something is wrong with the gravity feed fuel system.  Team manager Keith Green rushes to free the jammed fuel meter.

All of Baldi’s hard scrapping to gain places, is for naught, as Boutsen’s lead has ballooned to quite the margin.  The #2 Rothmans Porsche is second, now with Hans Stuck at the wheel of it, replacing Derek Bell for this stint.  The fight is on all through the field, as Oscar Larrauri nearly barges Mike Thackwell’s Mercedes out of the way.  Boutsen is in the pit lane for service, but will do a double stint, choosing not to hand over to Frank Jelinski.  This hands a brief lead to Hans Stuck.  Boutsen flies out of pit lane, in hot pursuit of the Rothmans Porsche while Derek Warwick holds third in the Jaguar.

Soon, the Brun Porsche is back in front, Boutsen about to pit.  Now, he does, and hands the car to the young German, Frank Jelinski for the next stint.  Hans Stuck retakes the race lead.  Klaus Ludwig and Paolo Barilla driving the Blaupunkt Autohifi Joest Racing Porsche 956B are now in second.  Derek Warwick remains third, while the sister #51 Jaguar of Cheever and Jean Louis Schlesser is slowed by punctured tires.  Jelinski remains in the lead, in front of a quality, competitive field here at Spa.

Ludwig leads the Warwick/Lammers Jaguar, ahead of the Stuck/Bell Porsche.  Jelinski consolidates his lead and keeps right on top of the fuel schedule, to a T.  In the meantime, there’s a scrap for third as Jan Lammers wants by Klaus Ludwig.  The rapid Dutchman, hounding the German.  Eddie Cheever is fifth in the sister Jaguar.  Henri Pescarolo and Mike Thackwell are in sixth place, giving a good run for Mercedes, and of course this is the car and driver lineup that won the most recent race at the Nurburgring.

Oh dear!  Another tire lets go for Jean Louis Schlesser.  He is in the lane and the Jaguar mechanics tend to the car and the flattened tire.  Thierry Boutsen catches up on Henri Pescarolo, catching the four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner completely off guard, and Pescarolo indulges in a bit of autocross through the Bus Stop.  But, he keeps on going, the big V8 in the back of the Mercedes thundering once again.  Derek Warwick takes over the #51 jaguar but is held in pit lane by the marshals.  Derek Bell makes a scheduled stop in the Rothmans Porsche, car #1.  However, the PDK gearbox has trouble selecting a forward gear so Bell can exit the lane.

Co-driver Hans Stuck has a funny quote about that whole situation.  “Derek (Bell) is now world champion in backwards driving!”  We are into the final minutes and laps of this enthralling six hour motor race at Spa Francorchamps with Thierry Boutsen, the Belgian still leading.  Derek Bell remains second despite having to throw the Porsche in reverse after his pit stop, but Derek Warwick is closing all the time.  The top three are covered by a blanket after nearly six hours of hard racing.  Warwick is inspired, passing Bell down the mountain through Malmedy, Stavelot, and Pouhon.  Just two laps remain in the race!

Bell’s Porsche is running out of fuel.  He could be on fumes.  Boutsen takes the Jaguar on the inside through the Bus Stop on the penultimate lap!  Only one lap remains of this fabulous Spa Francorchamps track.  It truly is one of the palaces of speed in Europe along with Monza, Le Mans, Brands Hatch and so many more.  Boutsen is coming out of the La Source hairpin onto the main straight with Warwick charging, 100 meters behind!  Who will it be, as we begin the final lap?  Place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen.  Will it be Boutsen and Porsche?  Will it be Warwick and Jaguar?

Ten seconds.  The margin is closing.  Five seconds.  Through the Bus Stop for the final time and Thierry Boutsen has a problem!  He’s now on fumes.  Will there be enough left in the tank to get him home?  He has just yards to go before the checkered flag!  Warwick makes one last bold move!  Will it be enough?  Who’s going to win the Spa 1,000 Kilometers?  Man oh man!  Out of La Source for the final time, and both the Porsche and the Jaguar have run completely dry.  No more fuel in either of their tanks!  Who is going to coast across the line first?  Boutsen makes it!  He’s just 8/10ths of a second ahead of Warwick, the closest finish in World Sports Car Championship history, second only, probably to the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Boutsen wins at home.  Jelinski wins recognition.  The German driver is now on the map.  Sports car team owners in Europe, and the U.S., look for this guy.  He’s a quick one.  Here are the results.

1. #17 Boutsen/Jelinski Jagermeister Brun Motorsport Porsche 962C
2. #52 Warwick/Lammers Silk Cut Jaguar XJR6
3. #1 Bell/Stuck Rothmans Porsche 962C
4. #7 Ludwig/Barilla Blaupunkt Autohifi Joest Porsche 956
5. #51 Cheever/Schlesser Silk Cut Jaguar XJR6
6. #61 Thackwell/Pescarolo Kouros Racing Sauber C8 Mercedes

Ecurie Ecosse wins again in C2 taking the hat trick, their third consecutive win, with Ray Mallock and Marc Duez.

1. #79 Mallock/Duez Ecurie Ecosse Ecosse C286 Rover
2. #70 Spice/Bellm Spice Engineering Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth
3. #75 Harrower/Clements D.A. Enginering Gebhardt JC843 Ford Cosworth

Here are the points with just one race to go in the season.

C1

1. Derek Bell 82 points
2. Hans Stuck 82 points
3. Derek Warwick 69 points
4. Frank Jelinski 59 points
5. Eddie Cheever 49 points
6. Oscar Larrauri 46 points
7. Jesus Pareja 46 points

Here are the teams’ points.

1. Rothmans Porsche 47 points
2. Brun Motorsport 37 points
3. Silk Cut Jaguar Team 35 points
4. Danone Porsche 30 points
5. Kouros Mercedes 29 points
6. Liqui Moly Equipe 28 points
7. Joest Racing 28 points

Here are the points for the C2 teams as Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm are again C2 driver’s champions.

1. ADA Engineering 54 points
2. Spice Engineering 53 points
3. Ecurie Ecosse 50 points

One race left in 1986, and only Derek Warwick can beat Derek Bell to the drivers’ championship.  It’s going to come down to the wire at the Fuji 1,000 Kilometers in Fuji, Japan.

Three weeks pass, and what a difference.  After the heat and sunshine in Spain, the contrast is the cold rain and mist of the Eiffel Mountains of Germany, and the Nurburgring.  The once great German speed palace is now a modern autodrome loved by few.  14,000 spectators will be here to see a world class sports car race.  This is the third round of the World Sports Car Teams Championship.  But, what we are going to see today is a soggy, rain soaked race. It’s absolutely pouring.  The cars are lined up in formation behind the Jaguar safety car.  Brun are on pole.  But, it’s Rothmans Porsche who want the win here on their home track.

We’re underway at the Nurburgring, in a total deluge.  Hans Stuck takes the lead into the first turn, while Mike Thackwell is off the road in the Mercedes already.  Mauro Baldi has also found himself beached on a curb after spinning off.  Stuck, the rainmeister, is sailing away from everyone else as Thierry Boutsen fights off the challenge of Derek Warwick in the Jaguar.  Incredibly, this is the first wet race of the 1986 WSC season.  Mike Thackwell, despite his earlier off course excursion, is coming to the fore in the Mercedes.

He has pushed the big V8 powered Sauber C8 up to fourth overall.  The heavy Swiss car is reveling in these atrocious conditions.  Jochen Mass sharing with Bob Wollek in the second #2 Rothmans Porsche 962 finds these conditions to be too wet.  However, Thackwell seems to be doing just fine.  He’s passed Derek Warwick in the Jaguar, and is now working on catching Thierry Boutsen.  But, as they say, catching is one thing, passing is another.  Will the grunt of the Mercedes allow Thackwell to make quick work of Boutsen and get around him for the lead?  Whoops!  Jochen Mass has spun off the road in the aforementioned #2 Porsche.  Thankfully, after a spin into the scenery, he’s able to get back in the race without whacking the wall.

Thierry Boutsen, though, the Belgian ace is having no fun, because not only has Mike Thackwell deposed of him, but so has Derek Warwick in the Jaguar.  Oh boy!  It’s not clear sailing for Warwick either.  He slides off the road onto the wet grass and has to restart his quest to catch the Benz.  Others follow suit as the rain gets worse, and soon, the Nurburgring is littered with busted up, abandoned Group C cars who have declared it game over and have had their races ruined.  Among them, shockingly, the C2 dominating Spice.  It might be game over for Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm on this day.

They will come back to finish seventh overall, but with crash damage.  Now, the marshals have done the wise thing here, to call out the safety cars.  But, be that as it may, there’s yet another carambolage at the first corner.  Now, as the safety car crocodile runs off laps, the rain only gets worse and even crawling around the circuit, there’s a traffic jam that is going to cause people to check up, and cause carnage!  All the blokes down the order are checking up, and slamming right into each other.  Another Group C demolition derby!

The chaps at the back of the field, they can’t see the yellow flags.  It’s game over for both James Weaver and Mauro Baldi.  Both of them crash.  Baldi, was sharing the #14 Liqui Moly Porsche 956 with German Klaus Niedwiedz, and James Weaver was in the #10 Kremer Porsche 962C with former factory Lancia driver, Alessandro Nannini of Italy.  Then, it’s disaster for Rothmans Porsche in the spray!  Hans Stuck gets a head of steam, and clobbers the back of Jochen Mass at 160 miles an hour!  Ker-runch!  Both factory Rothmans 962s are destroyed!

No wheels for Stuck, as he’s come to rest while the remainder of the crocodile passes by the mangled wreckage of the factory Porsche.  The Rothmans team is wiped out in one fell swoop!  Mass and Stuck are two lucky blokes indeed, not to have been hurt in that shemozzle.  Marshals have red flagged the motor race.  Stuck is still trying to make sense of what happened.  He can’t believe what he’s just been through.  Stuck says “the Mercedes was behind me, I was going past a car I lapped, and all of a sudden, whoosh!  Like a rocket, he just came up on me.  Believe me, there was no yellow flag.  In the driver’s briefing they said when the safety car is on track, the yellow light is flashing.  But there was no yellow flag.”  Derek Bell concurs with his co-driver saying “ah, the light was showing, but there was no flag.”

The race is delayed for two hours to clean up the accident, and restarted.  At the restart, Mercedes and Jaguar head for the front.  The Porsche teams are refusing to race, and claim the track conditions here at the Nurburgring are far too dangerous.  It’s Mike Thackwell in the Mercedes, followed by Eddie Cheever in the Jaguar, and the John Fitzpatrick Racing Porsche, car #33 of Fermin Velez and Emilio de Villota.  The Mercedes cruises away, while Warwick keeps him in what sight he has.  The Porsche teams give an impromptu press conference to explain their actions, and meanwhile, the #53 Jaguar is out of the motor race.  This is that Gianfranco Brancatelli, Jan Lammers, Derek Warwick car.  Warwick took the lead on a drying track, but the car is out due to a burst oil pipe.  The sister #51 Jaguar with Eddie Cheever at the controls, retired earlier on.

That was the car he shared with Hans Heyer and Jean Louis Schlesser.  Mercedes then, are the lucky ones, scoring their first sports car racing win in 34 years, since Le Mans, 1952!  It’s been a long time coming!  Herzliche Gluckwunsche, Mercedes!  Mauro Baldi and Klaus Niedzwiedz finish second for Liqui Moly Porsche.  It’s a great day for race sponsors Kouros, since they also sponsor the Mercedes.  But, it’s a dark weekend for sports car racing because of the atrocious weather and the wrecks in the race.  Here are the results.

1. #61 Thackwell/Pescarolo      Kouros Racing Team Sauber C8 Mercedes
2. #14 Baldi/Niedzwiedz            Liqui Moly Porsche 956
3. #33 de Villota/Velez                John Fitzpatrick Racing Porsche 956B
4. #9 Lassig/Ballabio/Grohs      Obermaier Racing/Topolino Porsche 956

In C2, Ecurie Ecosse win again.  David Leslie did not drive in this race.  Ray Mallock shared the car with Marc Duez, the Belgian rally and race driver.

#79         Mallock/Duez                    Ecurie Ecosse C286 Rover

The results of C2:

1. #79 Mallock/Duez                    Ecurie Ecosse C286 Rover
2. #74 Lechner/Franzemeier    Gebhardt Motorsport Gebhardt JC853 Ford Cosworth
3. #70 Bellm/Spice                        Spice Engineering Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth
4. #75 Harrower/Clements       ADA Engineering Gebhardt JC843 Ford Cosworth

None of the point leaders finished at Nurburgring.  So, the C1 points table remains relatively unchanged, while the championship battle in C2 will come down between ADA and Spice.

C1

1. Derek Bell 70 points
2. Hans Stuck 70 points
3. Derek Warwick 54 points
4. Oscar Larrauri 46 points
5. Jesus Pareja 46 points
6. Eddie Cheever 41 points

C2

1. Ray Bellm 81 points
2. Gordon Spice 81 points
3. Ian Harrower 57 points
4. Evan Clements 57 points
5. Pasquale Barberio 52 points
6. John Winter 43 points

Here are the teams’ championship points.

C1

1. Rothmans Porsche 35 points
2. Danone Porsche 30 points
3. Liqui Moly Porsche 27 points
4. Kouros Mercedes 23 points
5. Silk Cut Jaguar 20 points

C2

1. ADA Engineering 42 points
2. Spice Engineering 38 points
3. Jens Winther 33 points
4. Ecurie Ecosse 30 points

Next up, the Spa 1,000 Kilometers at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.

We move from the confusion of Brands Hatch, to the heat and steamy conditions of Andalusia in southern Spain.  In a land of castles and vineyards, it is time for another sprint race for the World Sports Car Championship.  It’s the Jerez 360 Kilometers.  So, this event will encompass 360 kilometers (225 miles).  This is the first sports car race in Spain, as Jerez is a brand new circuit.  Frank Jelinski scores his first career pole sharing with Walter Brun in the #17 Brun Motorsports Porsche 962.

It’s lights out, and away we go!  Now, the entire Silk Cut Jaguar team, they shoot to the front past the Brun Porsche’s but headed for the first corner, they’ve crashed!  A 1-2-3 turns into a crash, bang, wallop!  This has to be embarrassing for Jaguar because based on qualifying, it looked like they’d dominate here in Spain.  Jaguar’s misfortune is another driver’s good luck, as Oscar Larrauri moves the #17 Fortuna liveried Porsche 962 into the lead.  Now, Gianfranco Brancatelli has recovered the #53 Jaguar XJR6 he shares with Jean Louis Schlesser.  He’s back on the track, going for it.

Did I say, recovered?  Not quite.  Just behind Brancatelli is Fermin Velez, the Spaniard in his home race, starting the car that countryman Emilio de Villota will take over a bit later on.  Brancatelli is in a heap of trouble, as Walter Brun is looking for a way past the sister Jaguar in the hands of Eddie Cheever.  Cheever also has crash damage.  TWR Jaguar is not having a good race here in Spain so far to say the least.  Derek Warwick, for his over exuberance, has to be kicking himself.  Walter Brun is looking for third spot.  He wants it, and at the moment, Tiff Needell has the spot in the #66 Cosmic Racing March 84G Porsche, he is sharing in this race with Costas Los.

Finally, Warwick is able to plow his way out of the gravel trap, losing the right rear wheel spat off the Jaguar in the process.  Walter Brun is third, and he’s gaining ground, trying to make it a Fortuna Porsche 1-2.  After his mistake, Derek Warwick has to realize he must drive more cautiously for the rest of this motor race.  Don’t try to sling down the inside of someone because you could pay a bigger price than you already have.  It is pit stop time for the sister Jaguar.  Fuel, tires, and a driver change as Brancatelli hands over to Schlesser.  Derek Warwick says that the Brun car slowed, then Brancatelli dove inside, and Warwick thought he had an easy pass, and it wasn’t the case.  He cut off Brancatelli.

He’s very upset with himself.  Brun continue to run 1-2.  Again, car #17 is Frank Jelinski and Walter Brun, while the sister car has Jesus Pareja and Oscar Larrauri at the wheel of it.  Derek Warwick and co-driver Jan Lammers have recovered to fifth, and will improve, unfortunately, at the expense of their team mates who are destined to retire from the race.  This sprint race is nearly over, and in C2, it’s been a cakewalk for Spice Engineering.  Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm win in the category.

#70 Spice/Bellm                Spice Engineering Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth

It’s close in C1!  But, it’s going to be Oscar Larrauri and Jesus Pareja winning in Spain!  Their sister car driven by Frank Jelinski at the end of the race, sharing with Walter Brun, he had to come to pit lane for a splash and a dash on fuel, and the net result is he loses the race by a mere 30 seconds.  A great day for Brun, and for Spain.  Jesus Pareja, at his home race, becomes the first Spaniard ever to win a World Sports Car Championship race!  Felicidades! Jesus Pareja!  Here are the race results.

1. #18 Larrauri/Pareja Fortuna Brun Porsche 962C
2. #17 Jelinski/Brun Fortuna Brun Porsche 962C
3. #52 Warwick/Lammers Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-6
4. #9 Wood/Lassig/Ballabio Obermaier Racing/Topolino Porsche 956

That’s your top four.  Here are the podium finishers in C2.

1. #70 Spice/Bellm Spice Engineering Spice SE86 Ford Cosworth
2. #75 Clements/Harrower ADA Engineering Gebhardt JC843 Ford Cosworth
3. #105 Barberio/Gellini   Kelmar Racing Tiga GC85 Ford Cosworth

Amazingly, Ian Harrower and Evan Clements, they finish second in C2, a full week after obliterating the car in that wreck at Brands Hatch.  Here are the driver’s points standings.  Despite missing this race due to IMSA commitments in the United States, Hans Stuck and Derek Bell hold the points lead over Derek Warwick after his travails here in Spain.

1. Derek Bell 70 points
2. Hans Stuck 70 points
3. Derek Warwick 54 points
4. Oscar Larrauri 48 points
5. Jesus Pareja 48 points
6. Eddie Cheever 41 points

Larrauri and Pareja, with their win in Spain, are sneaking up on Warwick in third place in the points table.  Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm have a commanding lead in C2 standings, but their competition is hanging tough.

1. Gordon Spice 73 points
2. Ray Bellm 73 points
3. Pasquale Barberio 52 points
4. Ian Harrower 52 points
5. Evan Clements 52 points
6. Stanley Dickens 40 points

Next up, it is the Nurburgring 1,000 Kilometers.

Next up, we move to the tranquility of the garden of England, and the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, for the Brands Hatch 1,000 Kilometers.  This race marks the beginning of the second half of the 1986 season.  A record crowd of 40,000 people have shown up to watch this race. Like the races at Monza and at Norisring, the Brands Hatch event is only for driver’s championship points.  So, Rothmans Porsche has decided to skip this race.  Hans Stuck and Derek Bell have decided to drive the #7 Joest Racing Porsche 962, which will run in the Rothmans livery for this event.

They will team up in a three driver effort, with Klaus Ludwig.  Green flag, and away we go!  Stuck starts car #7 from P1, but the snarling pack of Group C cars is chasing after the Bavarian immediately.  Jaguar’s are well to the fore, in this, their second home race, in England, of ’86.  Eddie Cheever sharing the #51 car with Gianfranco Brancatelli, and Derek Warwick, sharing #52 with Jean Louis Schlesser.  The top four through Paddock Bend for the first time are Hans Stuck, Derek Warwick, Eddie Cheever, and Thierry Boutsen.  Stuck is opening his lead, whistling off into the distance, while Warwick is under attack from the #14 Liqui Moly Porsche 956, Bob Wollek at the wheel of it, sharing with Mauro Baldi.

We have our first big crash!  C2 winner at Le Mans, Evan Clements has comprehensively smashed the #75 ADA Engineering Gebhardt, after being punted off the road by a C1 car.  The ADA Gebhardt is utterly destroyed.  The crash brings out the safety car so many teams decide, right let’s get our pit stops out of the way.  But, the marshals have bungled this one.  They have let some cars out of the pit lane, and kept others waiting in the pit lane as the safety car crocodile circulates ‘round Brands Hatch.  Finally, the mess is resolved and the green flag comes back out.  We’re racing again.

At this stage it is the customer Sponsor Guest Team #6 Lancia LC2/85 leading the motor race with Andrea de Cesaris at the controls, sharing with countryman Bruno Giacomelli this weekend.  Following the Lancia are one of the Jaguar’s, the Joest Porsche, and the Liqui Moly Porsche.  Bob Wollek is a man on a mission.  He flies past Stuck, and now, he’s driving on, focusing on pipping Cheever, next.  In the C2 class, the leader now is the 1985 spec Spice Tiga #105 for Kelmar Racing.  Maurizio Gellini of Italy is at the controls, sharing with countryman Pasquale Barberio, and New Zealander, John Nicholson.

Whoops!  We’ve got more drama on the road.  Louis Descartes in the #92 ALD 02 BMW, loses a wheel, and up… and over, he goes!  We present to you, Louis Descartes, the acrobatic unintentional stunt driver!  Clearly, a Group C car is capable of flipping its lid sometimes.  The Frenchman is on his head, embarrassingly, especially since he owns the automobile and will have to get it fixed.  I wonder if Louis Descartes is related somehow to Rene Descartes, who came up with the philosophical idea, “I think, therefore, I am”?

These faster C1 cars have to zig and zag, to try and avoid the overturned Descartes machine as he has to free himself from the overturned racer.  The Brands Hatch 1,000 Kilometers has plummeted into confusion on a grand scale.  Pit stops commence, and so Hans Stuck hands car #7 to Derek Bell, while in the #14 pit Mauro Baldi replaces Bob Wollek for the next stint.

Yet again, these blokes who made pit stops have to sit and wait for the safety car crocodile to come through.  For crying out loud, what is going on?  The trouble here is, the marshals let some cars out of the pit lane ahead of the safety car and pointed them around, while others were not released until after the safety car passed the end of pit lane, and no one knows which position these cars are in that are ahead of the leaders, because they are certainly separate from the rest of the crocodile.

Derek Warwick sums it up and says “you fight your heart out for a few hundredths, and then, you get snookered by the marshals who cost you a lap in the pits.  What can you do?  What can you say?  It’s just ludicrous.”  Andrea de Cesaris and Hans Stuck are confused by this mess as well, but they seem more confident they can claw their way back after the marshals mighty mix up.  The Stuck/Bell/Ludwig Porsche leads, but the Baldi/Wollek machine is hot on their heels in second spot.  Baldi makes his way past the #7 and also, the Lancia, but Lancia and other teams end up being penalized for the error, the blame for which needs to fall squarely on the stewards and race organizers.

Liqui Moly Porsche leads, and now, Ecurie Ecosse make up for their disaster of a blown tire at Le Mans by taking the C2 lead over the Gellini Kelmar Tiga Ford which had mechanical troubles.  In third spot, it’s the #19 Jagermeister liveried Brun Porsche 956 of Thierry Boutsen and Frank Jelinski.  We have drama in the closing moments of the race here at Brands Hatch!  Hans Stuck has run out of fuel in the #7 Rothmans Porsche!  He coasts to a halt just short of the checkered flag!  Will Stuck, sharing with Derek Bell and Klaus Ludwig still win Brands Hatch?

The answer to that question is… hang on here… the answer is, no!  Mauro Baldi and Bob Wollek complete the final lap and they put the #14 Liqui Moly Porsche 956 in victory lane!  Bell and company will have to settle for second place, here at Brands Hatch.  This is Richard Lloyd Racing’s second Brands Hatch triumph in three years, having also won in 1984.  Factory drivers score in first and second place, piloting customer cars.

It should also be noted, in C2, Ecurie Ecosse give Austin Rover their first win as a manufacturer with Ray Mallock and David Leslie sharing the honors.

1. #14 Wollek/Baldi                      Porsche 962C                     Liqui Moly Porsche
2. #7 Stuck/Bell/Ludwig           Porsche 962C                     Rothmans Joest Porsche
3. #19 Boutsen/Jelinski               Porsche 956                        Jagermeister Brun Porsche
4. #52 Warwick/Schlesser          Jaguar XJR-6                       Silk Cut Jaguar
5. #8 Barilla/Winter/Ludwig    Porsche 956                        Sachs Joest Porsche
6. #51 Cheever/Brancatelli        Jaguar XJR-6                       Silk Cut Jaguar

Group C2 winner:

1. #79 Mallock/Leslie                   Ecosse C286 Rover           Ecurie Ecosse

Mallock and Leslie finish seventh in the overall, first in class.  Five down, four to go.  Here are the point standings as Stuck and Bell lead over Warwick and Cheever in the points.

1. Hans Stuck 70 points
2. Derek Bell 70 points
3. Derek Warwick 42 points
4. Eddie Cheever 41 points
5. Oscar Larrauri 26 points
6. Jesus Pareja 26 points
7. Bob Wollek 26 points

It’s June in Nuremberg, Germany.  We are at the Norisring, the street course laid out on the former rally grounds of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party.  The World Sports Car Championship will fly around this circuit, in Nuremberg, Germany, within Bavaria, the home of the German toy industry and of Richard Wagner’s famous Meistersingers opera.  The high powered turbo sports cars of the World Sports Car Championship will fly through the streets in front of one of the biggest crowds of the year.  This race has a different format than all the others in the championship.

It is a short, 180 kilometer (112.5 mile) race, with just one driver in the car, and no fuel stops.  The sponsors are also different, because the Norisring 100 Miles is also a round of the German Super Cup series.  The weather is sunny and hot in the temporary pit lane.  The track is 1.348 miles long, with just eight corners.  Hans Stuck has the #1 factory Porsche 962, but it is running in Blaupunkt car audio livery this weekend, as are the Joest Porsche’s.  Stuck wants to go for the victory at Norisring.  He has not won in Bavaria, his homeland, since 1974.  This race will be run over 80 laps duration.  The factory Porsche Stuck is driving uses the PDK gearbox which Porsche wants to prove is reliable.

Hans Stuck is more than half a second quicker than anyone else.  Stuck knows his rival Klaus Ludwig is really quick.  Stuck gave it 100% in practice.  Stuck says this race is popular because it’s in Bavaria.  Stuck knows he has good opposition, drivers like Klaus Ludwig, Derek Bell, American Danny Ongais, (“The Flyin’ Hawaiian”), Bob Wollek, Eddie Cheever in one of the three Jaguar’s, (Cheever, Stuck, and Marc Surer, ran for BMW at Norisring, in the ‘70s), Thierry Boutsen, Derek Warwick (in the other Jaguar), and others.

Derek Bell and Hans Stuck are separated, due to FISA (FIA) regulations.  No Lancia’s from the factory, although Bruno Giacomelli has a privately entered Lancia in the race.  As mentioned, Danny Ongais is here.  He is using a single turbo 962 IMSA car, which has less decent fuel consumption than the European cars.  Stuck knows he has to be very careful, use his head, and finish the race at the Norisring.  Stuck does want to win.  He won it for BMW in 1974 as it was a saloon car race.  Derek Bell raced for BMW back in those days as well.

Derek Bell is here to race for the driver’s championship, and didn’t want to be in this race.  But, he needs the points for the championship.  The Norisring is an imposing place.  He’d rather be shooting in Wales with Jackie Stewart.  Derek Warwick thinks the Norisring is an interesting course, as it is bumpy, and demanding.  He says, “79 laps around here, you’ll earn your money.”  The engine power and fuel efficiency will be an advantage to the Jaguar’s.  Eddie Cheever did win here with a BMW, in 1974.  But he says the track is not the right sort of circuit for the Jaguar’s.  Fuel consumption, and small amounts of space between the cars, is a challenge.

Cheever says that sprint races are good for the public, and personally believes the 6 hour races are boring.  It’s a follow the leader kind of situation.  The sprint races are more cut and thrust.  So, we join Klaus Ludwig driving the Joest Blaupunkt Porsche on a lap of the Norisring.  Crossing the finish line at 180 miles an hour, we brake hard into the Grundig Kehre.  Powering towards the esses we go.  We enter the esses at 120 miles per hour passing the Steintribune grandstand.  Then, it’s uphill to the Station hairpin.  Past the lake, and onto the back straightaway (Zeppelinstrabe), before hitting turn 7, Dutzendteich Kehre, and the final turn, down the front straightaway known as Beuthener Straight, in just 47 seconds.

70,000 spectators are here, along with the prettiest girls and most beautiful cars in Germany.  Here’s the grid for the Norisring Supersprint 100 miles.

1. #1 Hans Stuck                Porsche AG Porsche 962
2. #7 Klaus Ludwig            Blaupunkt-Joest Racing Porsche 956B
3. #14 Bob Wollek                Liqui Moly Equipe Porsche 956
4. #51 Eddie Cheever  USA       Silk Cut Jaguar Jaguar XJR6
5. #18 Thierry Boutsen                       Brun Motorsport Porsche 956
6. #52 Derek Warwick       Silk Cut Jaguar Jaguar XJR6
7. #17 Walter Brun                 Brun Motorsport Porsche 962C\
8. #53 Jean Louis Schlesser    Silk Cut Jaguar Jaguar XJR6
9. #6 Bruno Giacomelli           Sponsor Guest Team Lancia LC2/85
10. #10 James Weaver        SAT Porsche Kremer Team Porsche 962C
11. #38 Frank Jelinski           Team Memorex Porsche 962C
12. #0 Danny Ongais    USA       Blaupunkt-Joest Racing Porsche 962
13. #8 John Winter             Sachs-Joest Racing Porsche 956
14. #11 Franz Konrad           SAT Porsche Kremer Team Porsche 956
15. #9 Jurgen Lassig            Hans Obermaier Porsche 956
16. #33 Derek Bell                 John Fitzpatrick Racing Porsche 956B
17. #46 Jan Thoelke              Derichs Rennwagenbau Zakspeed C1/8 Ford Cosworth
18. #56 Jochen Dauer          Victor Zakspeed Team Zakspeed C1/8 Ford Cosworth
19. #74 Stanley Dickens                      Gebhardt Racing Cars Gebhardt JC853 Ford Cosworth
20. #99 Thorkild Thyrring DNK.   Dana RBR (Roy Baker Racing) Tiga Tiga GC286 Ford Cosworth
21. #63 Ernst Schuster GER.        Ernst Schuster Porsche 936C
22. #66 Costas Los                    Cosmik Racing March 84G Porsche
23. #97 John Sheldon           RBR (Roy Baker Racing) Tiga Tiga GC285 Ford Cosworth
24. #89 Martin Schanche                   Martin Schanche Racing Argo JM19 Zakspeed

That’s your 24 car field for Norisring.  Fans pack the tribunes where once, the members of the Nazi party stood erect as the Panzer division paraded down what is now the start/finish straightaway.  Norisring has a carnival atmosphere helped by the people, the charisma of the venue, and the drivers.  But the heat is a nightmare for the drivers, some of whom will wear cool suits.  The memories live on as Manfred Winkelhock and Stefan Bellof have not been forgotten.

Everywhere you look, the pretty girls pose with the drivers, the very essence of Norisring, now turned into a motorsports stadium instead of a place of military power.  The field rolls off being the safety car.  One tank of fuel is needed for the race and a mere 79 laps to get things done.  We are ready to race, at Nuremberg.  The cars file through Grundig hairpin and Station hairpin, again behind the Porsche 959 safety car.  Green lights, on, and away we go!  Derek Warwick immediately charges after the leading Porsche’s.  Hans Stuck leads Klaus Ludwig, Bob Wollek, and Eddie Cheever, who are running side by side down into the first corner.  Warwick is also scrapping early on with Thierry Boutsen.  Further back in the field a battle is developing between Bruno Giacomelli and Danny Ongais in the camera car, car #0.

Klaus Ludwig leads, and then, Hans Stuck makes the pass for P1.  Ludwig says “no you don’t, sunshine” and slams the door in Stuck’s face.  Bob Wollek is third, Derek Warwick in fourth spot.  Jean Louis Schlesser is running well in the third Jaguar XJR6, car #53.  Ludwig and Stuck are still having a humdinger of a race at the sharp end.  The race leaders put a lap on the leader in Group C2, Stanley Dickens with the Gebhardt.  Stuck has taken over the lead from Klaus Ludwig.  It’s a battle of the Scandinavians in C2, folks.  Dickens, the Swede, fends off the attack of the Argo of Martin Schanche from Norway.  Stuck vs. Ludwig, black knight, vs. white knight, or should we say Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker?

They are passing each other all the time.  What a motor race!  Ludwig takes the lead back from Stuck!  But, Hans Stuck has a problem with the PDK transmission in his Porsche 962!  This transmission apparently does not have the reliability for this short sprint the way it did for the sprint race at Monza, or, at Le Mans in the 24 hours, last time out.  Ludwig asserts his lead as Stuck, trundles towards the pit lane.  It is now a Porsche vs. Jaguar fight as Eddie Cheever puts Jaguar #51 into second spot.  Stuck is pushed into pit lane.  Game over.  Meanwhile Ludwig consolidates his lead.

Thierry Boutsen snatches third spot from Warwick, and soon, he has Jaguar’s all over him like a rash.  Stanley Dickens continues to lead C2 as Boutsen and the Jaguar’s chase him down as well.  Warwick spins the #51 Jaguar!  He does a complete 360 and continues.  Boutsen is still having issues with Cheever and if neither of them are careful, it could end in tears.  Wallop!  Boutsen slams into Cheever’s Jaguar, but it’s the Belgian who pays the price with a cut down front tire.  Klaus Ludwig is cruising, and all he needs to do is finish to win Norisring for the second consecutive year.

Checkered flag!  Klaus Ludwig, after a fierce 67 minute contest, is crowned King Ludwig of Bavaria.  This race only counts towards the driver’s world championship.  Here are the results.

C1

1. #7 Klaus Ludwig       Blaupunkt Porsche 956
2. #51 Eddie Cheever USA       Silk Cut Jaguar XJR6
3. #52 Derek Warwick       Silk Cut Jaguar XJR6
4. #38 Frank Jelinski       Team Memorex Porsche 962C
5. #10 James Weaver       SAT Kremer Porsche 962
6. #17 Walter Brun          Eterna Brun Porsche 962

C2

1. #74 Stanley Dickens       Gebhardt Racing Cars Gebhardt JC853 Ford Cosworth
2. #99 Thorkild Thyrring DNK.   Dana RBR (Roy Baker Racing) Tiga Tiga GC286 Ford Cosworth
3. #89 Martin Schanche  Martin Schanche Racing Argo JM19 Zakspeed

Here are the points’ standings after four rounds of the championship.

1. Hans Stuck 55 points
2. Derek Bell 55 points
3. Eddie Cheever 35 points
4. Derek Warwick 32 points
5. Oscar Larrauri 26 points
6. Jesus Pareja 26 points
7. Al Holbert 20 points
8. Klaus Ludwig 20 points
9. Walter Brun 20 points
10. Emilio de Villota 19 points
11. Fermin Velez 19 points

Here are the C2 points, and despite missing the Norisring event, Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm continue leading the driver’s championship in the C2 division.

1. Gordon Spice 41 points
2. Ray Bellm 41 points
3. Stanley Dickens 40 points
4. Ian Harrower 32 points
5. Evan Clements 32 points

The next race is back in England, the Brands Hatch 1,000 Kilometers.