Author: the braking zone

Cheerio (in reference to a toast, and not goodbye, as we’ve just arrived), to the Silverstone Circuit in jolly old England.  The Silverstone 1,000 Kilometers is set to be held over a 212 lap distance of the 2,93 mile Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit.  Back again, is the surprise lucky winner from Monza after the tree fell.  Manfred Winkelhock, the German, and Swiss driver, Marc Surer, will qualify in fourth spot.  However, the blokes with the advantage are definitely Martini Lancia, as both of their sleek LC2 prototypes are again on the front row of the starting grid.

Derek Bell and Hans Stuck, in the #2 Rothmans Porsche 962 they are slower than the Lancia’s by a good 2.5 seconds.  That’s a long way.  Meanwhile, there was a big wreck for the Cheetah Aston Martin, run by a Swiss team, for two British drivers, John Brindley and John Cooper.  They may start the race, but the car took a major wallop into the barrier.  Also, Stefan Bellof is not competing here at Silverstone.  The #19 Porsche with Torno livery, will be shared by Thierry Boutsen, and Swiss team owner/driver, Walter Brun.  We are ready for a start, here, at Silverstone!

It’s green lights, on, in Jolly Old, and here we go!  Lancia’s lead 1-2 around Woodcote corner and into Becketts for the first time.  Manfred Winkelhock dives past Bob Wollek and/or Mauro Baldi in the second of the Lancia’s and says “thank you very much, I’ll take that place.”  He is now ahead of Riccardo Patrese in the sister Martini Lancia.  Bob Wollek and Riccardo Patrese have both of the Lancia’s in the top two places here at Silverstone.  Manfred Winkelhock is third followed by Johnny Palmer and Thierry Boutsen.  In case you are wondering, the Rothmans Porsche’s are eighth and tenth.  In C2, Mike Wilds has the Ecosse in the lead ahead of the #74 Gebhardt Engineering Gebhardt Cosworth with the driving squad of Frank Jelinski of Germany, Canada’s John Graham, and Britain’s Nick Adams, sharing the car.

Patrese leads Wollek, but Wollek has his hands full with Johnny Palmer, who dives past the Frenchman putting the Canon Porsche in second spot.  Thierry Boutsen in fourth is right there as well.  So, we have a fine scrap for the top positions so far, here at Silverstone.  Talk about determination!  Jonathan Palmer, he’s flying and he passes Riccardo Patrese’s Lancia for the lead of this motor race!  Palmer definitely has the welly down at the moment.  He and Riccardo Patrese are engaging in an enthralling battle, no doubt keeping the British crowd happy.

In the meantime, there’s the wheel, but where’s the Porsche?  Ah.  The Porsche is still running but not much longer.  It’s game over for Thierry Boutsen in the #19 Brun Porsche after his left front wheel departs company with the stub axle.  You’ve picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel.  There’s a good battle for fourth that we see briefly before focusing on the seventh place #1 Rothmans Porsche 962 in the hands of Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass.  Boutsen mercifully brings the Brun Porsche into the lane.  It’s Ecosse vs. Tiga in C2 right now.  Third is the Canadian Labatt’s beer Gebhardt.

Check that.  Gebhardt is a German team with Canadian sponsorship.  In the meantime, Rothmans Porsche is set up in pit lane for Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass.  Both of the Rothmans cars are fourth and fifth in the overall.  Mass will hand the car to Ickx on this pit stop.  It’s a tactical battle, and the Canon Porsche has good fuel consumption.  That is one of the cars that has not had to make a fuel stop yet.  But, there’s trouble on track, and big damage for one of the all-white liveried John Fitzpatrick Racing Porsche 956’s.  It’s the #55 car that has crashed, hard!

Peruvian Manuel Lopez was at the wheel of it at the time, sharing with Brits Guy Edwards and Dudley Wood.  Lopez has absolutely demolished the car.  Lopez is lying down, receiving medical attention.  He’s shaken, but not stirred, although he probably cannot believe what he’s done to a very expensive Porsche and will have some explaining to do for team boss John Fitzpatrick once he feels OK.  Lopez actually spun coming off pit lane.

Ecosse are in the pit lane for routine service, meanwhile.  Ray Mallock and Mike Wilds lead the C2 class ahead of Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm.  103 laps (just a hair over 300 miles) into the race, the #14 Canon Porsche driven by Johnny Palmer, lost another left front wheel!  It’s game over for Palmer and Lammers here at Silverstone.  They will finish fifth overall, but what a shame for a team that had such a good run going earlier in this motor race.  Into the lead goes Riccardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini with the #4 Lancia LC2.  Lancia runs 1-2 with the Rothmans Porsche’s chasing, but having to get past the C2 leaders, which now is the Spice Tiga of Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm, the #70 Holts, Hawaiian Tropic sponsored car.

The Porsche’s have put up a good challenge to the Lancia.  But, they may be lucky.  148 laps run (434 miles), and the Lancia is in the pit lane with a seized right front wheel bearing.  Game over, for Lancia #4.  Fortunately, they have one more bullet in the gun, and into the lead goes the #5 Lancia, the Bob Wollek, Mauro Baldi entry.  They lead both the Rothmans Porsche and the #10 Kremer Porsche with Manfred Winkelhock at the controls, which is making a pit stop.  It looks as though one of the Kremer brothers is not too happy about fuel consumption for their car at this moment.  But, there’s more drama!  184 laps (539 miles in), major problems for Lancia #5!  There is a ruptured transmission oil cooler on that car, which spells immediate retirement.

This is handy for the #1 Rothmans Porsche which has turned it on in the last part of the race.  Rothmans Porsche win at Silverstone!  It’s Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass finishing ahead of (and a lap up on) Derek Bell and Hans Suck.  Lancia #4 makes its way past the Kremer Porsche to score the final step on the podium.  In the points standings, it shakes out with Ickx and Mass on 50 points, Winkelhock and Surer on 45, and Bell and Stuck on 30, all tied, again because both drivers score equal points numbers in the 1,000 kilometer races.  Likewise, filling out the top of the table are Riccardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini, and, Johnny Palmer and Jan Lammers.

Here are the team’s championship points.

C1

1. Rothmans Porsche 40
2. Kremer Porsche 25
3. Lancia Martini 22
4. Brun Motorsport 13

C2

1. Spice Engineering 35
2. Ecurie Ecosse 20
3. Carma FF 19

Next up, it is the granddaddy of all sports car races, the 53^rd running of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, in France, in June.

Two weeks later, we remain in Italy.  Only this time, we are set to race the Monza 1,000 Kilometers, at a very windy Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, outside of Milan, Italy.  Lancia sweeps the front row in qualifying, with the #4 car, setting the pace in the hands of Riccardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini, which should make the home fans very happy.  The Lancia’s were on top in practice, and only the Brun Porsche could even come close.  Things were going pear shaped, however, for Rothmans Porsche.  It was more than pear shaped, it was catastrophe!  Hans Stuck’s #2 Rothmans Porsche 962 caught fire and was totally gutted.

Stuck was quoted as saying, after the accident, “I hated to lose the car, but I didn’t want to go to heaven just yet.”  Hans Stuck and Derek Bell will have to revert to their spare car, a 1983 spec Porsche 956.  We have a close up look, at the engine’s brain, a computer chip, that will control the fuel flow into the engine.  The field of the world’s greatest sports cars, winds its way down towards the Parabolica, on the pace lap, readying for the race to begin.  The home crowd, expects nothing less than a victory for Lancia.  This could be very close, this race.  Lancia runs side by side into the first turn, as the race is underway!  Riccardo Patrese jumps into the lead.

The Lancia’s run 1-2 and we see the #14 Canon Porsche 956 coming next, with the driving duo of Jonathan Palmer and Jan Lammers.  Once again, this race is a fuel strategy battle.  510 liters in each tank.  Stick to the strategy and you’ll do well.  Jochen Mass has gone around Hans Stuck.  Debuting in th C2 division is the Bovis sponsored Ecurie Ecosse team car, the Ecosse E285 with the Swindon Engines built 3.0 liter Ford Cosworth Vm8 in the back, shared by the British duo of Ray Mallock and Mike Wilds.  Mallock and Wilds were supposed to share with third driver David Leslie, for an all British trio.  But, it is a duo, as Leslie would never get into the car.

Their competition, Carlo Facetti, Martino Finotto, and Guido Dacco, in the Alba Giannini Carma AR6, is close at hand.  There is also an early scrap between the Kremer Porsche and the Brun Porsche.  Manfred Winkelhock, sharing with Marc Surer, is in pursuit of Thierry Boutsen, sharing with Stefan Bellof.  It’s the new Porsche 962C vs. the former generation Porsche 956 that has been around for two or three seasons.  Deary me!  Its déjà vu all over again for Canon Porsche.  Jan Lammers and Johnny Palmer have lost their left front wheel, look.  Lancia runs 1-2 as Rothmans Porsche are in the pit lane.  There’s a small brake fire on the #1 car.  Hans Stuck has had a hard stint and is now out of the car, but he looks unhappy and needs some rest.  Meanwhile, Derek Bell takes the #3 Rothmans Porsche back on track.  Remember, their T-car, the #2, which they normally drive, was barbecued during practice.

Meanwhile, it is pit stop time as well, for Lancia, as Riccardo Patrese is set to hand the driving chores to Alessandro Nannini.  Lancia Martini has found reliability and fuel consumption as Ray Mallock in the Ecosse retakes the lead in the C2 class.  Martino Finotto and company for those boys, it’s arriva derci and game over, at least in their second home race here at Monza.  Kremer Porsche comes in for a pit stop.  Marc Surer, out, and Manfred Winkelhock into the car.  Now, folks, we have a problem in the weather department.  It is a gorgeous day here at Monza, but the winds are blowing at gale force.  Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm have taken over the race lead in C2.  Manfred Winkelhock and Marc Surer are fifth in the overall at this stage.

We’ll have to watch the wind speed.  It’s getting pretty gusty out there.  Pit stop time again, for the leaders, for routine fuel.  Lancia will rejoin out of the lane, in third spot.  Winkelhock and Surer, these guys are leading the motor race at this stage, the privateer Porsche.  However, they have to dive to pit lane for fuel, soon.  Hans Stuck and Derek Bell, they have the #3 Porsche up to second spot.  Patrese and Nannini are hanging on to third.  With each passing lap, each passing minute, the winds are blowing more fiercely here at Monza.  The leaves are swirling all around, in the spring.  Yours truly doesn’t like the look of this.

Branches are snapping off the trees because of the wind, and this is beginning to affect the cars as the #7 Joest New Man Porsche of Paolo Barilla of Italy and Hans Heyer from Germany, they pit for a new nose.  The tree branches have damaged their primary nose.  Suddenly, the race is stopped.  The marshals have called off the remainder of the Monza 1,000 Kilometers.  You aren’t going to believe this, but, after 138 laps of the race (494.5 miles), a tree has fallen… timber!  It has fallen right across the circuit.  The marshals clear away the sections of the trunk of the tree after it was cut apart.  Would you believe that Manfred Winkelhock, and Marc Surer, are the winners of this race?  It’s true.

Kremer Porsche wins it.  Marc Surer replies to commentator Brian Kreisky’s comment, “the lucky tree, right?”  “Yes!  This tree was like a Christmas tree!” said Surer.  So, it is all smiles for the team of Surer and Winkelhock, but all frowns for Thierry Boutsen and Stefan Bellof at Brun Porsche.  Here are the Monza results.

1. #10 Surer/Winkelhock Porsche 962C   Kremer Porsche
2. #2 Stuck/Bell   Porsche 962C   Rothmans Porsche
3. #4 Patrese/Nannini   Lancia LC2/85  Martini Lancia
4. #1 Ickx/Mass   Porsche 962C   Rothmans Porsche
5. #14 Palmer/Lammers Porsche 956     Richard Lloyd Racing with Porsche

Now, there’s a post-race twist.  Stefan Bellof and Thierry Boutsen refueled their Porsche too fast.  So, the #18 Brun Porsche is excluded.  So, here’s the driver’s championship table after Monza.  Surer and Winkelhock are tied on 35 points for the lead, followed by Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass on 30 points, and Hans Stuck and Derek Bell, tied for fifth with 15 points.  Next up, Silverstone and the 1,000 Kilometers at the Northamptonshire, England, circuit in three weeks.

1985 in Group C World Endurance Championship sports car racing was marked by triumph, tragedy, and the beginning of a shift in the forces that dominated the sport.

Italy epitomizes beautiful scenery, good food, and fast cars.  The fast cars part, is going to be emphasized as we are in the land of Lancia, for the first of two consecutive races, to kick off the 1985 World Endurance Championship for sports cars.  There is no longer a manufacturer’s championship, and instead, the focus shifts off of the factory cars, in a way, and moves to recognizing teams and sponsors.  Another new wrinkle is a 15% fuel consumption reduction.  Speed and economy are both the name of the game in ’85.  Lancia take pole for the first of their two home races, here at Mugello, in the Tuscany mountains.

Lancia sets pole at a 1:39 dead.  1:39.07, at a speed of 190 kilometers per hour.  That’s 118.75 miles an hour around the Mugello track.  Lancia team manager Cesare Fiorio says the time is good for an endurance car, and it’s good for this track.  It is quicker than a Formula 2 car.  Fiorio says he is hopeful the season will go well.  The tech staff changed over in the middle of the 1984 season for Lancia.  Fiorio says that he isn’t sure how well Lancia will do, and no decision has been made for the future on whether the team will continue.  Fiorio also mentions the Porsche’s, the 956s and new 962s will be tough opponents.

The pole sitting #4 Lancia LC2/85 will have the all Italian lineup of Riccardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini, while the sister car, #5 is being shared by Bob Wollek of France, and Italy’s Mauro Baldi.  The team had two crashes in practice which severely compromised the handling of the car.  The cars have around 680 horsepower to play with and their fuel consumption is touted as excellent.  The Rothmans Porsche team believes they have an ace up their sleeve in the form of Hans Stuck, who is newly signed to drive for Rothmans Porsche this year, having won for Brun Porsche at Imola last year.

Stuck is the new team mate for Derek Bell in the #2 Rothmans Porsche 962.  The 962C is the longer wheelbase replacement for the three-time championship winning 956 model, and Stuck has qualified second fastest on the starting grid for this race.  Stuck says he sees the team as being organized and experienced, and this makes it easier for him as a driver.  Bell drove with Stefan Bellof and Bellof won the ’84 championship.  Bell admires Stuck and says he is underrated, and that Stuck is proving his ability.  Asked if he’d drive if he could choose between Stefan Bellof and Hans Stuck, Bell says, “I wouldn’t even drive if I had those two on my team.  They are so good, I’d just sit back and watch them race.”

The Lancia is 1.6 seconds quicker than the Porsche, and Stuck says he only ran at about 97-98%.  He says he couldn’t have gone lower than a 1:39.5 lap time.  Stuck is actually two seconds quicker than Bellof, who is now driving for Brun Motorsport alongside Thierry Boutsen of Belgium in the Brun Motorsports Torno sponsored Porsche 962.  Brun have kept the little extra front winglet atop their Porsche after most other teams got rid of them, after experimenting with them throughout the 1984 campaign.

Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass focus on fuel consumption running during qualifying.  But, Mass finds enough speed in the car to go fourth quick on the timesheets.  FISA has devised a new safety equipment package, and so, the 962 Porsche subsequently has a longer wheelbase than did the 956, and a stouter roll cage and crash structure.  The cars are heavier, and this presents a conundrum for Rothmans Porsche in the handling department.  Fuel restrictions have also dropped power down by 10 break horsepower from 620 to 610.  Jacky Ickx, and Porsche team manager, Norbert Singer, they are quietly confident.

Slightly bigger wheels will help with traction on the Rothmans 962.  But, here at Mugello, the cars are hopping and porpoising all over the road, and oversteering like crazy.  Brun Motorsport’s sister car runs sixth, behind the second of the Lancia’s as Oscar Larrauri from Argentina, and Italian Massimo Sigala qualified behind the second Lancia, the Patrese/Nannini car.  The sister car is the older Porsche 956, the dominant car in Group C during both 1983 and ’84 of course.

Seventh quickest, is the #10 Kremer Racing Porsche 962 of Germany’s Manfred Winkelhock and Switzerland’s, Marc Surer.  Watch for Winkelhock and Surer in ’85.  They are certain to be a strong driver pairing.  The sister Kremer Porsche qualifies next on the grid, in eighth, driven by Klaus Ludwig of Germany and South African George Fouche.  The third driver, is a guest driver in the car for this race, Italy’s Gianni Mussato.  But, he crashed the car in the morning warmup which couldn’t have given Mussato a favorable reputation with team boss Erwin Kremer and the rest of the lads in the garage.  So, we won’t dwell on Mr. Mussato’s antics anymore.

George Fouche meanwhile is one of the most improved drivers in Group C from ’84, and his team mate, Klaus Ludwig, he’s kind of the big dog on this driver’s strength because he was part of the winning team with Henri Pescarolo for Reinhold Joest at Le Mans last year.  In the lightweight C2 division, Alba emulates Lancia, going fastest in the class, with the #80 Alba Carma in the hands of their all Italian driving trio.  The car will be shared by Carlo Facetti, Martino Finotto, and Guido Dacco.  It was Dacco who set quick time for the Alba, which is now racing on Avon tires.  The Alba is just slightly quicker than the #70 Tiga Ford for Spice Engineering in the hands of Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm.

Last year, in 1984, Spice was extremely competitive, winning five races in the C2 division, but they lost out on the championship as they didn’t run every race of the year.  Their motor is the 3.3 liter Ford Cosworth DFL V8 with a 90 degree, double overhead cam, 4 valve layout.  They are meeting even more stringent fuel requirements with the C2 cars than are the big bruisers in Group C, (C1).  As the C2 cars have their own championship, Spice Tiga is going to go for it again this year, when it comes to winning the championship.

First seen at Spa, last year, the thunderous Cheetah Aston Martin is back in the Group C game for ’85.  The 5.3 liter Tickford built Aston Martin V8, is indeed the lump in the back of the car, and propelling the beast, will be drivers, Gianfranco Brancatelli of Italy, and Bernard de Dryver of Belgium.  The car sounds lovely, but is still in the development stages.  Fuel consumption is not the only subject playing upon the minds of the teams.  We also have a tremendous war on hand, and that is between the tire companies.  Dunlop, Michelin, Goodyear, and Avon, are the four tire brands who are slugging it out this year to see whose rubber can keep these ground pounding beasts on the road, the best.

Dunlop has the two top Porsche teams from Rothmans and Brun among others.  Tire techs are prepping for a possibility of a wet race after cold and wet running in Friday practice when the teams arrived at the autodrome.  There are hand grooved rain tires.  A technician is cutting further grooves into the tire’s tread surface, with a razor blade.  Kremer Porsche has opted to use Goodyear tires in 1985, and the U.S. based tires, made in Akron, Ohio, have a sterling wet weather record.  One of the teams not here at Mugello, but who will contest the bulk of the races in 1985, is the Canon Porsche 956/962 for GTi Engineering, spearheaded by Richard Lloyd, with Jan Lammers of Holland, and Englishman Jonathan Palmer, once again, doing the driving.

Richard Lloyd’s squad is making the switch, from Dunlop to Goodyear tires.  In 1985, Michelin is purely, solely focused on the FIA World Endurance Championship, having pulled out of Formula 1.  Michelin is serving as tire supplier for the Lancia team, and there’s speculation they are prepping for Renault to come back to sports car racing, after Renault last participated in the late 1970s, in ’77 and ’78, with the Alpine A442’s that won Le Mans in 1978, with French drivers Jean Pierre Jassaud and Didier Pironi, winning.  Pironi would go on to Formula 1, most notably, with Ferrari.

All of the lighter C2 prototypes are racing on the British made Avon tires.  At the next race at Monza, also in Italy, Yokohama tires, from Japan, will become the fifth tire supplier in Group C, being used by John Fitzpatrick Racing.  It is now time to race, at Mugello, on Sunday, April 14^th.  The weather is cloudy, but dry with a very remote chance of rain.  Pre-race activities are furnished by the medieval flag throwers troupe from nearby Florence, Italy.  Toss the flags in the air, and catch them.  Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, are stunned by their skills.

A record crowd is in attendance for the first race of the World Endurance Championship of 1985.  The fans have turned out, expecting a great race.  Friday snow still lingers on the mountains above the circuit.  The Lancia safety car leads the field on their formation lap promptly at 11AM.  Porsche and Lancia are going with a similar strategy for this race, each team will run a tortoise and a hare.  Both Rothmans Porsche and Martini Lancia trust that at least one of their cars will be ahead of the privateer entered Porsche’s when the checkered flag falls.

The safety car pulls off, and Riccardo Patrese, from pole, leads the field in the Lancia.  Green lights, on!  Away we go!  We are underway in the 1985 World Endurance Championship!  Riccardo Patrese has parlayed his pole position into a lead on this first lap.  Patrese was storming in qualifying, and his time of 1:39.07 in qualifying, was untouched by any other team entered.  He had the welly down then, and does now.  That being said, in qualifying, you can throw caution to the wind and turn the boost control for the turbo all the way up.  But, you’re going to have to turn it down, and conserve the car for the 1,000 kilometer race.

Riccardo Patrese is eking out a gap to hold an advantage before eventually handing the car to co-driver and fellow Italian, Alessandro Nannini.  Stefan Bellof runs in second spot in the #19 Brun Porsche, and in third, it’s Derek Bell in the #2 Rothmans Porsche.  Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass in Porsche #1, are nowhere to be seen.  What could the matter be? You ask.  Nothing’s wrong.  They are tactically playing the tortoise for Rothmans Porsche, and they will very well speed up before this race is done and dusted.  By the 90 minute mark, Stefan Bellof was well and truly in the lead of the motor race, and we see Derek Bell nip past Riccardo Patrese.

Jacky Ickx is making his way forward, and he is up to sixth in the overall.  Meanwhile, in Group C2, Gordon Spice leads, and Martino Finotto in the Alba, is chasing him all the time.  The first scheduled pit stops are underway, which will affect team strategy throughout the remainder of this motor race.  Hans Stuck has taken over from Derek Bell, and now we see the Kremer Porsche, car #10 into the lane, for service.  Manfred Winkelhock, once again, is sharing that car with Switzerland’s Marc Surer.  33 laps (107 and a half miles) are complete.  Brun Porsche are in the pit lane for service.  Stefan Bellof has handed the car to his co-driver, Belgian Thierry Boutsen.

We fast forward to lap 40, (130 miles), and the running order in the top placings is Boutsen, Stuck, Winkelhock, Nannini, and Jochen Mass.  Both of the Lancia’s were on pace, but the #4 car had to slow down as they were using too much fuel too early.  Lancia became embroiled in a battle with the Rothmans Porsche, #2 of Hans Stuck.  Nannini loops the Lancia, and loses a lap in the process.  This promotes to fourt, the #1 Ickx/Mass Porsche.  Thierry Boutsen is forced to enter pit lane on lap 109 for an extra pit stop.  This is at the 355 mile mark in the race.  Boutsen has a flat tire.

On the exchange, Manfred Winkelhock assumes P1 with the Kremer Porsche.  Winkelhock still needs another fuel stop, remember.  The tire is replaced in short order, and Winkelhock heads out back into the race.  On the pit stop exchange, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, have now moved to second place in the running order.  Heartbreak for Lancia!  The quicker of their two cars, the #4, with Alessandro Nannini, is out of the race.  Game over.  He retires on lap 113 (368 miles into the race).  Moving ahead, Manfred Winkelhock pits the Kremer Porsche from the race lead, on lap 132 (430 miles exactly), into the race.  While Winkelhock is being serviced in the lane, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass take the race lead.

We have seen so far in this race, Winkelhock and Surer, both of them are definite contenders.  Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, they pit, dropping to second, and allowing Thierry Boutsen back into the lead.  The #1 car has an advantage, though.  Remember, at the beginning of the race, they went at a much slower pace.  They will turn on the afterburners and step up their pace as the race draws to a close.  Boutsen is now making a pit stop, and handing the car back to Stefan Bellof.  #19 stays in the lead, but they need one more fuel stop, a splash and a dash, while the Rothmans boys will have to come ‘round one full lap on the circuit, to unlap themselves.

Derek Bell and Hans Stuck in the sister #2 Rothmans Porsche have also burned off a lot of fuel and will have to slow down.  #1 is going quicker, but the #2 team manager, Walter Najer has instructed Bell and Stuck to back off just a skosh.  The Winkelhock/Surer Porsche has passed the Spice/Bellm Spice Tiga, which is the car that will win the Group C2 division here at Mugello.  Jochen Mass has taken the lead on lap 169.  Just 21 laps to the finish here at Mugello, and Norbert Singer, Porsche Motorsport team director insists there is no fuel left.  They’ve used up the allotted 510 liters for this race.  Stefan Bellof makes the extra fuel stop for the Brun team on lap 178, at the 580 mile mark.  There’s just 45 miles or so to go now.  He will drop to third behind the #10 Winkelhock/Surer Kremer Porsche.  It’s victory for the #1 team of Jochen Mass and Jacky Ickx, but it’s heartbreak for their sister car, #2, of Hans Stuck and Derek Bell!

They’ve run out of gas just before the end, and are three laps short!  They rely on the starter motor to creep across the finish line, but will be disqualified for this maneuver, because there’s an obscure rule that says the final lap of a race has to be completed within 400% of the pole position time.  They’ve broken the 400% rule, and will be disqualified for it.  Ickx and Mass win, taking the lead in the driver’s championship, while Rothmans Porsche now leads the world team’s championship.

With the current sports car season, beginning soon, it may be that yours truly decides to take a short break from posting about the Group C cars for a while.  But, do not fear.  There will be more Group C action headed your way, very soon.  You can count on that.

The FIA WEC closes its season “Down Under” in Australia, at Sandown Park, as we watch footage of native wildlife.  Koalas and kangaroos abound.   We are present at the newly renovated Sandown Park Raceway just outside Melbourne, Australia.  It’s the first ever WEC event in Australia.  The Lancia Martini team elected to sit out the finale and not go to Australia.  An additional entry will be the camera car, set to be driven by Johnny Dumfries, and Australian motor racing legend, Sir Jack Brabham, the three-time Formula 1 World Champion.  The track here at Sandown, had been resurfaced prior to this race, but was beginning to break up during practice.

Track breakup would reoccur during the race itself.  It will be a highlight, or lowlight of the action.  Major representation among the Porsche teams here in Australia.  Rothmans, Joest, Canon Porsche, Skoal Bandit, they’re all here.  The championship battle is between Stefan Bellof and Jochen Mass, with the aforementioned third works Porsche, shared by 1980 Formula 1 World Champion, and native Aussie Alan Jones, along with Vern Schuppan, another Australian.

We are underway with the finale, at Sandown!  The Australian’s lead their home race as we dive into the first corner on the first lap, here, at Sandown.  Johnny Dumfries, the 1984 British Formula 3 champion, has the camera car.  Rothmans Porsche leads, with #3 leading #2 leading #1.  Dumfries is in car #56.  Alan Jones leads Stefan Bellof, as Jochen Mass spins.  Thierry Boutsen is in third, again driving the #33 Skoal Bandit Porsche 956 with David Hobbs.  Jochen Mass is down in 17^th spot at the moment, which isn’t good for his world championship hopes.

Battles ensue throughout the field as Stefan Bellof takes the lead of the motor race.  Thierry Boutsen, Jan Lammers, Manfred Winkelhock, and Klaus Ludwig all follow behind as it is a Porsche parade at the moment.  Stefan Bellof has pulled clear of Alan Jones, who in turn is being pressurized by Thierry Boutsen.  Many different classes of cars are running in this race.  We have Group C, Group B, one IMSA GTP spec car, (the #131 Chuck Kendall, and Jim Cook Lola T600 Chevrolet, they are sharing this weekend with Australia’s Peter Fitzgerald), and we have five automobiles in the AC or Australian Cars division.

These entries include the following cars:

#61 Alfredo Costanzo & Bap Romano     Bap Romano Racing Romano WE84 Ford Cosworth

#62 Jim Richards & Tony Longhurst     JPS Team BMW BMW 320

#63 Brad Jones/Thompson                    P.F. Motor Racing P/L Mercedes 450 SLC (the car is not powered by a Mercedes engine, but rather by a classic 350 cubic inch Chevrolet small block V8).

#64 Allan Grice, Dick Johnson, & Ron Harrop     Re-car Racing Pty. Ltd. Chevrolet Monza (powered by a 6.0 liter Chevrolet V8)

#65 Jeff Harris, Ray Hanger, & Barry Jones     Jeff Harris JWS C2 Mazda Rotary

Alan Jones is battling for second place, but a momentary off road excursion demotes him and allows the #33 Skoal Bandit Porsche, the Hobbs/Boutsen car, to pass.  We watch Johnny Dumfries.  He is trying extremely hard.  He is fighting the high G force loads exerted on his body in a ground effects sports car. You can hear he is uncomfortable, trying to fight the car into the turns… ugh, argh, aggh!, ugh, ughhh!,  as if he is in pain.  This is true.  He has to really be feeling it in his core and his back, as well as his arms, and through the seat.

He’s straining every sinew trying to keep the Porsche 956 on the circuit, hence all those audible ugh, arrgh, ughhh sounds.  With the breakup of the track and these low to the ground, ground effects sports cars, your body does take a thrashing if you are not used to it.  Plus, he has to manhandle the car without power steering, so before the end of his stint, his arms feel like tree trunks, and the thrashing over the bumps of the circuit, that can’t be doing his back or his insides any good either.

He’s feeling every single bump on the circuit and every single twitch of the Porsche as he’s inputting the steering.  Accelerate, upshift, downshift, turn, and brake.  Under braking, turning into the corner, you are giving it everything, and your brain is telling your body… I can’t take this!  No doubt certain parts of his body are taking a beating here.  Race car drivers are very tough, hearty souls.  But, here at Sandown, Johnny Dumfries was only just beginning to really be accustomed to how the big sports car handles, and he had to be spent after his stint.  Wouldn’t you be?

Another driver, trying hard, but maybe not feeling too much of the effects of the bumps, is Kees Kroesemeijer.  Kroesemeijer, the Dutchman, is sharing the #17 Kremer Porsche 956 with co-drivers Jesus Pareja of Spain, and Aussie Peter Janson.  Kees’ spin, shows us that the track breakup in the heat here at Sandown Park is becoming a concern.  No wonder Johnny Dumfries was uncomfortable in the car.  Jochen Mass, meanwhile, in the #1 Porsche 956 is charging through the field.  The track is breaking up in the hot sun since we are in midsummer in Australia, with temperatures in the low 30s on the Celsius scale, which is well over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pit stop time for the #2 Rothmans Porsche.  Stefan Bellof, out, and Derek Bell, in.  Jochen Mass is in the lane, but in the process of coming in, he nearly collides with the exiting Porsche 956, with Rusty French at the controls.  French, the Aussie, is sharing the #11 Kremer Racing Porsche 956 with Manfred Winkelhock, here at Sandown.  Mass finally pits, and has to be going like the clappers, as he’s been overtaken by the Hobbs/Boutsen Skoal Bandit Porsche #33.  Ickx might be trying a tad too hard!  He goes off the road, and scrapes the Armco barrier.  The breakup of the track is not helping matters at all.

A momentary error and you’re off the circuit, giving a whole new meaning to the expression in the Australian song, “Waltzing Matilda”.  Ickx is inching closer to Boutsen.  Meanwhile, the C2 class URD C81 BMW has spun.  This brings out the safety car, while the marshals attend to that automobile, #90, shared by the Danish duo of Jens Winther and Lars-Viggo Jensen.  This Full Course Yellow will no doubt help the leaders in their quest to win this motor race.  The Bellof/Bell #2 Porsche leads with the #33 Boutsen/Hobbs machine second.  Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass still run third.  Now, the #56 Rothmans Porsche 956 is still in this race.

Sir Jack Brabham, the Formula 1 hero, is now at the wheel, undoubtedly having a far easier time keeping the car on the road than co-driver Johnny Dumfries was, earlier.  He is enjoying himself thoroughly, on a Sunday drive, in his return to international motor racing.  After the safety car, Thierry Boutsen managed to take the lead from the Rothmans Porsche.  …And, as the circuit continues to break up (it did during the whole of the race), Jacky Ickx is off the road another time.  At the sharp end, blokes, we have a full on fight between Skoal Bandit Porsche and the works Rothmans car.

This is a battle of the best.  Thierry Boutsen and Stefan Bellof, are arguably the two best sports car drivers of 1984.  Bellof would retake the lead, and go on to win not just the race, but also, the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship drivers’ title.  Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass recover to second, at the expense of David Hobbs, who is out of the race towards the end.  Electrical problems sidelined the Skoal Bandit entry.  The checkered flag comes down over Stefan Bellof!  He wins the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship!  So, we look at the results of the final event of the year.

1. #2 Bellof/Bell Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche
2. #1 Ickx/Mass Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche
3. #14 Palmer/Lammers Porsche 956        Canon Porsche
4. #10 van der Merwe/Fouche Porsche 956     Porsche Kremer Racing
5. #11 Winkelhock/French            Porsche 956     Porsche Kremer Racing
6. #34 Bond/Miedecke Porsche 962     John Fitzpatrick Racing

It should be noted, there in sixth, is one of the new Porsche 962 machines, the evolution on the 956 model, coming home sixth overall in the hands of Aussie drivers Colin Bond and Andrew Miedecke for John Fitzpatrick Racing.  It’s a great achievement for a new car.  The final points tally of the season sees Stefan Bellof as champion with 138 points over Jochen Mass on 127, Jacky Ickx on 104, Derek Bell and Henri Pescarolo tied at 91 points, and with 75 points in sixth, Johnny Palmer and Jan Lammers.

In 1985, the manufacturer’s championship will no longer exist.  It will be a teams’ championship in the FIA WEC.  Jaguar will be back, will a full on factory entry next year, too.  It will be Jaguar, Lancia, and Porsche.  With more cars, new tracks, and a new championship format, the 1985 season looks to be the best yet.  We keep topping ourselves, every year.  See you, in ’85.  So long, everyone.

Two weeks after the race at Imola, the World Endurance Championship moves to Japan and the majestic Mount Fuji, where the circuit shares the name with the mountain.  This is the third year of the East/West rivalry in the world of sports car racing, converging upon Fuji Speedway.  Japan’s major car manufacturers are all here, to prove they can compete with the best from Europe, namely, Porsche.  Magnificent Mount Fuji watches over the speedway which she has lent her name, with graceful splendor, boding good fortune for the race.

Porsche already has the manufacturers’ championship in their pocket.  But, the driver’s cup is what is being fought for, and Jochen Mass and Stefan Bellof, both of them know this all too well.  The privateer Porsche’s want a say in this, and the Japanese brands, Toyota, Mazda, and Nissan, all three are hoping to give Porsche a tough run for their money, and perhaps even beat the great cars from Stuttgart.  As we are shown on a lap aboard the Rothmans Porsche camera car, with Richard Lloyd at the wheel, Fuji demands precision, and a car that handles.

A chicane has been added to a diabolical final corner on the course.  Recall, a year ago, in 1983, two of the European entered Porsche’s were totally demolished after crashes in that turn, before the race.  An added benefit of the new chicane is a reduction in lap times of around eight seconds.  Despite the chicanes, Fuji remains one of the fastest tracks in the world.  This is round seven of the manufacturer’s cup and also, round nine of the driver’s championship, as qualifying begins.

Stefan Bellof wants pole, and so does team manager, Klaus Bischoff.  But, out to steal Bellof’s thunder, is Rothmans Porsche team mate in car #1, Jochen Mass.  Norbert Singer is the team boss for the #1 entry.  Bellof will be sharing last year’s winning Porsche 956 with John Watson.  He won the race here at Fuji, co-driving with Derek Bell, last year.  Bellof is matching times with Watson, or vice versa.  Resources are stretched here in Japan.  Bellof, as he prepares for his qualifying trial, he hopes to break the magic 1:18 lap time barrier that no one has come close to touching, so far this weekend.

Watson has done his qualifying lap.  He gets out of the car, refueling himself on a magic electrolyte drink.  Do you want a taste?  No thanks.  I am only the writer here, not the driver.  I’d rather have lemon lime Gatorade.  No chance for Jacky Ickx to repeat as World Champion in 1984, this is because he and Jochen Mass both score the same points tallies, driving together.  Someone else will be champ in ’84.  It’s hot work here at Fuji.  No showers in sight at least for the moment.  So, Jochen Mass has to wipe himself down with a towel after his qualifying run.

Vern Schuppan and Hans Stuck are sharing another Porsche 956 this weekend.  They are driving the #60 Trust Racing Team Porsche 956, with sponsorship from Iseki Tractor.  The car has front fins underneath the nose instead of the widespread front aero wings we’ve seen on the cars earlier in ’84.  Schuppan and Stuck qualify third, the fastest customer Porsche at Fuji this weekend.  Schuppan has won twice this year at Fuji in the Japanese Group C series wheeling the Iseki Tractors special.  Fourth quickest is the #7 Joest New Man Porsche 956, still sporting the raised front wing, with Henri Pescarolo and Stefan Johansson driving.  Pescarolo, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier in the season of course.

This car is supported by Tokyo New Man jeans boutique, Taka Q.  Jan Lammers and Johnny Palmer are fifth on the grid, as the #14 Canon Porsche has been dealing with persistent handling issues at Fuji.  The pink Kremer Porsche qualifies sixth in the hands of Manfred Winkelhock and newly crowned Formula 2 champion, Brit Mike Thackwell.  Switzerland’s Marc Surer is also slated to be on the driver’s strength.  But, it remains a question if he will take part in the race, with Thackwell and Winkelhock.  “The Pink Panther” as this car has come to be known this weekend, is sponsored by another Tokyo fashion boutique.

Toyota is supporting four, factory Dome built Group C cars this weekend, and at the heart of these machines is their 2.1 liter twin turbocharged 4T-GT four cylinder engines.  They have around 600 horsepower at their disposal, nearly as much as the Porsche’s.   The overall Dome Motorsports entry, is car #38, the Dome 84C Toyota being shared by Eje Elgh from Sweden, and Masanori Sekiya, from Japan, in his home race.  They have qualified in seventh for the race.  Another Dome to look out for is car #36.  This is the Tom’s Dome with the same Toyota engine, being shared by Satoru Nakajima and Keiji Matsumoto.

Another contender in the Dome stable is #37, with Canon sponsorship.  This is the Team Ikuzawa car, with Brits James Weaver and Tiff Needell scheduled to share the wheel.  The car is qualified 11^th on the grid.  The fourth Dome entered here at Fuji, is last year’s car, the 83C model.  It is entered by Xebec Motorsports Division, for a trio of Japanese pilots including Kaoru Hoshino, Kiyoshi Masaki, and Kazuo Mogi.  Yes, there is a fifth Dome racer entered as well.  This is the #29 car with Ford Cosworth power.  Skoal Bandit Porsche regular, Rupert Keegan will share this ride with Aguri Suzuki, another Japanese star of the future, for the Autobacs Uchida Racing Team.  The Skoal Bandit Porsche’s are not entered at Fuji after their double engine failures at Spa Francorchamps and Imola.

It is a short weekend for Keegan and company however.  Poor old Rupert Keegan would crash out of both qualifying and the race, after the suspension broke on the Autobacs Dome.  Nissan’s main entry in their home event is the Nissan Silvia named March 83G Nissan for Hoshino Racing.  The car is propelled by a 2.1 liter turbocharged double overhead cam Nissan LZ20B 4 cylinder, and has Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Akira Hagiwara doing the driving.  But, the pair could not better ninth fastest in qualifying.  Nissan also powers the two LM cars, for the Le Mans Company.  The #50 car for Hasemi Motorsports, the Tomica Skyline liveried LM 04 Nissan of Masahiro Hasemi and Kenji Tohira qualified tenth, while in 12^th spot was the sister car, the #20 Canon/Coca Cola Light entry of Takao Wada and Haruhito Yanagida.  Nissan encourages the use of the names of their road cars for the Group C prototypes.  Hence, one  Fairlady, one a Skyline, and one, a Silvia.

Meanwhile, Mazda, for the first time ever have entered the overall Group C class in a WEC event.  Four weeks ago, a March 84G chassis was delivered to the team, and it is here, at Fuji, to race.  Car #17 runs under the Mazdaspeed banner and driving will be two Japanese drivers, Takashi Yorino, and Yoshimi Katayama.  They qualify in 15^th place.  With the same livery, but in a smaller package, is the C2 class #86 Mooncraft built Mazda 727C with it’s 13B 2 rotor rotary engine, to be shared by Yojiro Terada, Britain’s David Kennedy, and Belgian Pierre Dieudonne.  Dieudonne, incidentally, never drove the car.

Also back, for the first time since the Nurburgring race in July, are the BFGoodrich Lola Mazda’s for the driving duos of Jim Busby and Pete Halsmer in car #67, and Dieter Quester and Rick Knoop in car #68.  These guys finished first and third in C2 at Le Mans earlier in the year, but according to Dieter Quester, they need handling adjustments.  Alba goes quickest in the C2 division, with the #80 machine of Carlo Facetti, Martino Finotto, and Alfredo Sebastiani, setting the pace.  Next in class is the surprising #84 Lotec BMW.  This is the Auto Beaurex Motorsport entry, from Japan, set to be driven by Naoki Nagasaka and Keiichi Suzuki.  A new car to the Group C ranks, is a visiting team from the IMSA Camel GT series in the United States, who hope to do a full WEC campaign in 1985.

This is the #131 Kendall Racing Lola T600 with a big, thundering 350 cubic inch Chevrolet V8 in the back of it, set to be shared by American drivers Chuck Kendall (the team owner), and Jim Cook.  They qualify the Lola, 19^th on the grid.  After the Lola, there’s another Porsche 956.  This is the same car that Preston Henn’s team finished second with at Le Mans, but it is now wearing the #16, and FromA, OZ Wheels, and STP colors, under the Nova Engineering team banner.  Jiro Yoneyama, Chikage Oguchi, and Frenchman Philip Corona, will share the car, although Corona will not start, leaving the driving chores to Yoneyama and Oguchi.

This car, qualified just behind the Rothmans Porsche camera car, which here at Fuji, is the #3 Rothmans Porsche with Richard Lloyd driving, that was also supposed to have many of the other drivers for the team, partner in it if possible, such as Stefan Bellof, Jacky Ickx, and Jochen Mass.  35 cars will start the race.  The aforementioned Dome and one of the Porsche’s, with Advan sponsorship, crashed out of the race before it was even due to begin.  That was the #18 Nova Engineering Advan Porsche 956B, that was to be shared by Kenji and Kunimitsu Takahashi, and Brit Geoff Lees.

OK, folks.  Is anyone hungry?  Racing can be set aside for dinner.  A big meal is being prepped for many of the drivers.  Specifically, a giant pot of spaghetti Bolognese is being prepared by Martino Finotto and his sous chef, and co-driver, Almo Coppelli.  Lunch is ready, for everyone.  So, all the teams get to partake in spaghetti Bolognese a la chopsticks, an interesting melding of cultures and cuisine.  Make do with the chopsticks, everyone, but whatever you do, don’t forget the Parmesan cheese.  Manfred Winkelhock has the idea of eating the spaghetti with the chopsticks, down, and others prefer Eastern noodles to Western spaghetti.  With 80,000 spectators, the concession stands at Fuji are very busy.  Traditional food is served.  There’s raw fish, noodles, spice rolls, and some very interesting and very delicious looking Japanese style pizzas.  There is hibachi grilled corn on the cob, too.  The visiting teams’ verdict on the Japanese cuisine, superb, awesome, and delicious!

John Watson says there isn’t too much difference between racing in Europe vs. Japan.  The language barrier at the driver’s briefing is a barrier, and you eat with chopsticks instead of a knife and fork, but that’s about it.  The question still remains.  Will it be Jochen Mass, or Stefan Bellof, who win the championship?  Six of the Porsche 956’s have filled the top six spots on the grid, but from seventh to 15^th place, variety abounds among the Japanese entered Group C cars.  The Dome built cars are the most likely cars to give Porsche a tough run for their money.  The Nissan Group C car is also right back in the middle of the grid, as is the Rothmans Porsche #3, the camera car.  The race will be hot, from a temperature standpoint in the mid-80s, Fahrenheit, and, also, from the competition.

The safety car leads the field away on the formation lap.  The lush, green forests around this track are present because Fuji Speedway is nestled within the premier national park in Japan.  The field of 35 cars weaves back and forth to heat and clean the tires, forming up for the start.  Watch out for the speedy dry, the cement dust on the road, which is sopping up oil spilled by a car in an earlier support race.  Bellof and Mass lead the field down, and we are green, at Fuji!  It’s three wide already between three of the private Porsche’s!  Manfred Winkelhock, Jan Lammers, and Stefan Johansson, each of them is eager to go for it right from the start!

Richard Lloyd has a fight on his hands early with one of the local Nissan’s.  Stefan Bellof is eking out a huge gap on the rest of the field.  Meanwhile, in C2, this race would see sheer dominance from the Lotec M1C BMW, car #84 of Naoki Nagasaka and Keiichi Suzuki, since the Tiga Spice was not entered.  So, the Lotec was to be the only competition for the basically all-conquering Alba team, from Italy.  These were the chaps who graciously provided the pasta meal to members of the other teams in the paddock, earlier in the weekend.

The Rothmans Porsches, make hay while the sun shines, and now, Stefan Bellof is in the pit lane for his first stop.  He hands the driving duties to John Watson.  Watson ran so, so well, finishing sixth for Rothmans Porsche at Spa in September.  The Toyota squad has entered Group C racing with a bang in Japan, and we hope they will race the entire World Endurance Championship series in the future.  Because of the popularity of sports car racing in Japan, it stands to reason that major brands like Nissan, Mazda, and Toyota, would likely look into entering the full championship.  Vern Schuppan has the #60 Iseki Porsche 956 up to third in the overall, sharing of course with Hans Stuck.

Problems for the #99 Tiga Ford C2 car, look.  Jeremy Rossiter loses a wheel, and finds it among the crowd.  He may be able to reinstall it, but it looks unlikely.  So, game over for Rossiter and co-drivers with the Briton, Philippe Colonna of France, and Altfrid Heger of Germany.  John Watson gets the taste of a lead in a World Championship motor race, for the first time since his Formula 1 days.  Hans Stuck in the pits is getting a massage, as his car comes in, Vern Schuppan ready to turn it over to Stuck for the next stint.

Stuck and Schuppan challenged the #1 Rothmans Porsche of Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, early on.  Both cars made pit stops and in that time, they are also being hotly challenged by Stefan Johansson and Henri Pescarolo.  Whoa!  Close moment for Hans Stuck as he nearly gets into some argy bargy with the Lotec BMW leading the C2 class!  Mama mia!  Stefan Bellof continues to lead, and is a lap up over the team Rothmans car of Ickx and Mass.  A spin, for the #85 Mazda 727C.  This is the privately entered Japanese Setrab Racing by Yours entry.  Three Japanese drivers share the car, including Hideki Okada, Masatomo Shimizu, and Tomohiko Tsutsumi.  The #14 Canon Porsche was nowhere to be seen through this race.  At Fuji, they have had a litany of problems, and Jan Lammers with co-driver Johnny Palmer, these blokes are having a tough old time of it to say the least.

Then, disaster, and a massive hit for one of the Alba’s!  #82 smashes… ker-runch!, straight into a car that was already parked off the side of the road with mechanical issues.  Spare a thought for the Jolly Club Alba AR3 Ford, a rather secondhand motorcar.  Also, spare a thought for the drivers, who are out of this race, Pasquale Barberio and his countryman from Italy, Maurizio Gellini.  This colossal shunt with the Alba brings out the safety car.  Jacky Ickx, meanwhile, is about to have a problem of his own.  He was alleged to have passed under the safety car, had to pit for a drive through stop and go penalty, was told off by the clerk of the course, like having your hands slapped with the ruler by the school headmaster, and sent back on his way.

With all of that muss and fuss out of the way, Ickx is a lap down to his team mates, the #2 Rothmans Porsche of Bellof and Watson.  Manfred Winkelhock and Mike Thackwell in the #21 Porsche would finish this race, but not before one of them spun the car.  Bellof and Watson hang on to win, at Fuji, with their sister car of Ickx and Mass, just 32 seconds behind in second place.

1. #2 Bellof/Watson Porsche 956     Rothmans Porsche
2. #1 Ickx/Mass         Porsche 956     Rothmans Porsche
3. #60 Stuck/Schuppan Porsche 956 Trust Racing Team
4. #7 Johansson/Pescarolo Porsche 956  Joest Racing
5. #10 Winkelhock/Thackwell Porsche 956  Kremer Racing
6. #84 Nagasaka/Suzuki Lotec M1C BMW  Auto Beaurex Motorsports

Once again, the C2 class winners:

#84 Nagasaka/Suzuki   Lotec M1C BMW  Auto Beaurex Motorsports

The points table after Fuji, with just a couple of rounds to go, has a three point lead over Jochen Mass, 119-116.  Jacky Ickx is third on 89 points.  Henri Pescarolo is fourth on 75 markers.  Derek Bell, in fifth with 71 points, and tied equal for sixth because they share the same car, are Johnny Palmer and Jan Lammers on 63 points.  The final event of the championship, is coming up, in Australia.  Stay tuned for all the action from Sandown Park.

Notably, a month before the Sandown event, there was the 1,000 Kilometers at Kyalami in South Africa.  It was not as dramatic a race as we saw in 1983.  Lancia finished 1-2.  A few group C cars showed up, but they were blended in with a field of South Africa Saloon Car Championship machines and Group 1 Touring Cars.  Cars such as Alfa Romeo Alfetta’s, Rover 3500s, Volkswagen Golf GTI’s, Nissan Skyline’s, Stanza’s, and 160Z’s, Mazda Capella’s and RX7’s, Alfa Alfetta’s and Toyota Corolla’s.  Lancia won the race, but most of the Group C teams didn’t show up due to a travel money disagreement.

It is time to race, in Italy, at the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari.  The race around this three mile track will encompass a distance of 199 laps.  Lancia is at another home race.  They realize they have to step up to the plate and perform, here, in the latter portion of the 1984 campaign.  Only one factory Rothmans Porsche 956 is racing here at Imola.  It will be piloted by Jacky Ickx and John Watson, and is using an experimental twin clutch gearbox system.  Ickx and Watson will have a short race.  It will be game over for them both on lap one, as the new device on the car, packs up and lets them down.

We are going to see a battle between the privateer Porsche’s and the factory Martini Lancia’s in this race.  Jochen Mass and Stefan Bellof, have taken up driving duties, in the absence of the Rothmans team, with Joest and Brun, respectively.  Green flag, and away we go!  FYI, for next year, in 1985, Hans Stuck will be the new co-driver for Derek Bell in the Rothmans Porsche.  Stay tuned, for a recap of the 1985 season, coming soon.

Meanwhile back to the racing.  Ricardo Patrese leads the motor race in the #4 Lancia LC2 with Jonathan Palmer in the Canon Porsche, car #14, in second place.  Stefan Bellof runs third as the rest of the field of 30+ cars weaves their way through the chicanes here at Imola.  Once again, it’s game over for Jacky Ickx.  That experimental transmission is not serving him well, so he has no choice but to gracefully park the 956 Porsche on the grass.  Johnny Palmer leads Stefan Bellof, and in third, Thierry Boutsen, who slices past the Lancia and says “thank you very much I’ll take some of that.”  Riccardo Patrese was the bloke that Boutsen went around.  Meanwhile, back to the lead battle.

Jan Lammers is sharing the Canon Porsche with Johnny Palmer, while the Jagermeister liveried car they are chasing is that of Hans Stuck and Stefan Bellof.  Oh dear.  Smoke emenates from the rear of the #33 Skoal Bandit Porsche.  It’s nearly game over for the Hobbs/Boutsen duo.  There’s a great plume of very expensive smoke coming out of that Porsche.  Jurgen Lassig has a momentary off course excursion in the #18 Porsche.  He is having trouble, driving against the flow of traffic, the wrong way around the circuit trying to point the car in the right direction.  Be careful, Jurgen.  The lead battle is afoot.  It’s Brun Porsche vs. Canon Porsche.

Again, the driving teams here are Stuck and Bellof vs. Lammers and Palmer.  These two teams are swapping the lead back and forth as this motor race continues.  It’s a thrilling, seesaw battle.  In the meantime, Lancia’s home race, in Italy, is not going well.  They either crashed out of the race at the same place *gasp*, or, they retired when the engines went ka-blammo.  As for the lead battle, you haven’t missed anything.  It remains Canon Porsche vs. Jagermeister Porsche.  Palmer/Lammers vs. Stuck/Bellof.  Lammers leads, with Stuck and Bellof closing fast.  Serenely in third, was the #8 Joest Racing Porsche 956, the Blaupunkt car audio liveried car with the trio of either Hans Heyer, Jochen Mass, or Henri Pescarolo, at the wheel of it.

The battle for the race lead has become so hot that Jagermeister nearly takes out Canon!  It was fortunate that the two cars didn’t collide, and so, Stuck and Bellof continue to lead over Palmer and Lammers.  Not much more to write about, from here at Imola.  Stefan Bellof and Hans Stuck, score the win!  No more than 34 seconds in it at the finish line.  So, let’s h’ve a look at the results.

1. #19 Bellof/Stuck Porsche 956        Brun Motorsport
2. #14 Palmer/Lammers Porsche 956        Canon Porsche
3. #8 Mass/Pescarolo/Heyer Porsche 956  Joest Racing
4. #10 Brun/Fouche/von Bayern Porsche 956 B  Porsche Kremer Racing
5. #9 Larrauri/Sigala Porsche 956     Brun Motorsport
6. #18 Grohs/Regout/Lassig Porsche 956     Obermaier Racing

It’s another victory in the Group C2 class for Gordon Spice, Neal Crang, and Ray Bellm.

#70 Spice/Bellm/Crang                  Tiga GC84 Ford     Spice Tiga Racing

In the driver’s championship, Jochen Mass leads with 101 points, only two points clear of Stefan Bellof with 99 points.  That’s all that really needs to be said about the 1984 points championship, because these two blokes are the only ones who have a shot at the 1984 Group C drivers’ championship.  For the next event, we move away from Europe, heading for Fuji, Japan, and Fuji Speedway.

This is Spa Francorchamps, the fabulous palace of speed in the Ardennes Mountains of Belgium, nestled among the pine forests.  The seven kilometers of this track are a spectacle of speed, more than anything else, to paraphrase sports car racing commentator/narrator Brian Kreisky.  Once a year, drivers and spectators rekindle their love affair with this amazing speedway.  Racing a ground effects Group C sports car around this place, is a test for both man and machine, drivers’ bodies taking everything the track dishes out, just as much as the bodies of their racing machines they are steering.

Yours truly, with the assistance of the #16 Rothmans Porsche camera car in the hands of Johnny Dumfries and Richard Lloyd, will take you on a guided tour in words, of the circuit.  We start at the Bus Stop chicane, which is actually a bus stop in daily life.  This corner has been re-profiled massively in the years since the Group C cars raced here.  Now, slam on the brakes for the slowest corner on the circuit, the La Source hairpin.  But, watch out!  If you don’t hit the binders heavily enough, you’ll do a complete 180, spinning the car, and facing the wrong way up the road.

Sorry, chaps.  That was no guided tour.  Only part of the fabulous road was described.  You move down and up through fabulous corners.  La Source, Eau Rouge, Raidillon, Stavelot, Fangnes, Malmedy (also known as the Piff Paff), and many more.  The cat could be put among the pigeons here, as the customer based Porsche 956s have their best chance of dethroning the Rothmans machines here at Spa.  Canon, Skoal Bandit, Joest, Kremer, and Brun, all are in with a shout.  Again, the Canon team is owned by Richard Lloyd, and the Skoal Bandit team by John Fitzpatrick.

This is the sixth round for the manufacturers cup in Group C and the seventh for drivers.  Some may think, oh, 1,000 kilometers will be easy.  Not so here at Spa.  This one might just be as tough on some of the equipment as we saw earlier this year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  The privately entered Porsche’s are running additional front wings for downforce that we do not see on the factory Rothmans cars, and Thierry Boutsen was the chap to earn pole here.

Boutsen is running a new motor, from Porsche.  We normally associate the 956 with the 2.6 liter turbocharged flat six motor.  Boutsen and co-driver David Hobbs are using for this race, a new, bored out version of that engine, with a displacement of 3.0 liters.  Boutsen says “we were given a wing that was too big.  We have to live with oversteer on the car.”  On the upside, he says, “I’m not complaining.  We can be at the sharp end of this race, and try to win, or get into the top three.”

Boutsen also says “these times are good for Group C.  Everyone is competitive no matter what combination they’re running.  Times are good for Group C.”  Boutsen and Hobbs’ team mates Rupert Keegan and Franz Konrad, have a smaller front wing on their #55 Skoal Bandit Porsche, and qualified eighth fastest.  Also, unlike the Bousten/Hobbs entry, the Keegan/Konrad car is using the smaller displacement Porsche flat six.  Konrad would go on to a very successful sports car career.  Here, in ’84 at Spa, he is a newbie, after winning the 1983 German Formula 3 championship.

We do see the team that started the whole front nose wing craze with the 956.  It’s the #14 Canon Porsche owned by Richard Lloyd, and driven by our old pals Jan Lammers and Johnny Palmer.  The Canon car, unlike it’s rival Porsche’s has a honeycomb chassis.  The front wings provide downforce and advertising space.  The factory team remains aloof.  They hope, like the hula hoop, this craze will pass.  Jacky Ickx is the man here, who is looking for the hat trick.  He wants to win his home race three years in a row.

Jacky Ickx will co-drive as always with Jochen Mass and he will line up alongside countryman Thierry Boutsen at the start of the race.  Stefan Bellof put in some flying laps, until a clutch exploded on his Rothmans Porsche #2, he’s sharing with Derek Bell.  Despite the clutch issues, Bellof and Bell still turned in the third fastest time in qualifying.  The third factory Rothmans Porsche in this race, car #3, has Vern Schuppan, teaming up with Northern Irishman and former Formula 1 veteran, John Watson. Watson raced for Group 44 Jaguar at Le Mans in June, earlier this year.  Watson says he’s always dreamt of driving a Porsche, since his childhood.  So, he’s going to go for it here at Spa.  There is a fourth Rothmans liveried Porsche in this motor race, too.

Richard Lloyd, and the young Scottish Earl, Johnny Dumfries will team up to drive another 956, car #16.  This is Johnny Dumfries’ first sports car race.  We’ll see how he gets on.  Dumfries is the current Formula 3 points leader, in 1984.  Despite good driving from Jan Lammers and Jonathan Palmer, the suspension system on the GTi Engineering Canon Porsche is proving difficult for the mechanics to dial in.  The car does have potential, however.  Another small wing is seen on the #9 Jagermeister Porsche 956 as team owner Walter Brun teams up on the driver’s strength with German’s Hans Stuck and Harald Grohs, two rapid Porsche drivers indeed.

In sixth place, it is the #20 Gaggia Porsche of Oscar Larrauri and Massimo Sigala, the Argentinian and the Italian.  Seventh quickest is the New Man Porsche 956 #7 for Joest Racing in the hands of Henri Pescarolo of France, later to be known as “Le Grand Pesca”, and Stefan Johansson of Sweden.  They are joined by German sports car veteran, Hans Heyer, a man who we’ve seen race for Lancia.  It remains to be seen.  Will Lancia reappear in 1984?  Breaking the Porsche monopoly here at Spa is the Cheetah.  This pretty little Group C number has a thundering 5.3 liter Aston Martin Tickford V8 under the bonnet.  Belgium’s Bernard De Dryver and Britain’s Ray Mallock are on the driver’s strength.

The motor in the Cheetah may be heavy, but the car is only 870 kilograms, twenty above the 850 kilogram limit.  So, in American measurements, this car weighs 1,914 pounds compared to the others at 1,870, a difference of around 44 pounds.  The mechanic sprays the ether into the carburetors to fire the lump, and the brutish Aston Martin V8 roars to life like a lion.  The Cheetah Aston Martin was finished just before qualifying, and the team spends most of Saturday doing a shakedown on this new Group C racer.

Ray Mallock, normally associated with the Nimrod cars powered by the same behemoth Aston Martin V8, is impressed with the car, and goes impressively in it to boot.  In the C2 class, at the top of the time sheets, is the #70 Wasp Eze sponsored Spice Tiga Ford Cosworth of Gordon Spice, Ray Bellm, and Neil Crang.  The main competition to Tiga will come in the form of the two Alba’s we’ve seen throughout the ’84 season to date.  The green #80 machine, and the white, black, and gold #81 car.

Gebhardt has two cars in C2, but just one will start the motor race.  The #73 Gebhardt Ford, the Frank Jelinski, Gunter Gebhardt, and George Schwarz entry (two Germans and a Canadian), busted a water pump, and so the car is a non-starter with an engine that has gone ka-blammo.  No water pump = no engine cooling, = engine goes boom.  The Jolly Club cars are on the starting grid, though.

Sunshine bathes one of the most picturesque racing vistas in the world, Spa Francorchamps, the famous and wonderful track, which had its most recent facelift, five years prior to this season, in 1979.  144 laps make up the 1,000 kilometer/625 mile distance in this race.  Now, here’s a strange pre-race ceremony for you.  Have you ever seen a marching band, on bicycles?  Hmmm.  That’s peculiar.  The parachutists also fly in for the race.  Now, we’re ready to get down to business of serious racing.

No “gentleman start your engines!” in Europe.  At Spa, a bell, like that on a church steeple, chimes, to give the start engines signal.  We can see in the video, the cars starting to warm up their tires as we go onboard the camera car, the #16 GTi Engineering Porsche 956 with Johnny Dumfries at the wheel of it, to start, before he hands over the driving chores to co-driver and car owner, Richard Lloyd.  The colorful field of prototypes and GT’s weaves it’s way through Eau Rouge on the reconnaissance lap.  The G forces are highest on this track, through Eau Rouge, and the drivers will get a workout in today’s race.

We have a massive traffic jam of Group C sports cars, ready to start at Spa, squeezing into La Source hairpin.  Into the pits goes the safety car.  The hometown crowd has Jacky Ickx and Thierry Boutsen, two of their natives sons to cheer for.  It’s green flag, and away we go!  Jacky Ickx leads into Eau Rouge for the first time.  Thierry Boutsen runs second.  Third place belongs to Stefan Bellof.  Hans Stuck is fourth in the orange Jagermeister liveried Porsche 956.  So, it’s Rothmans, Skoal, Rothmans, Jagermeister, the top four, all Porsche 956s.

Johnny Dumfries is getting his first taste of Group C here at Spa and is in good old scrap for position right now.  Ickx and Bellof battle for first, and eventually, Bellof is the bloke to take the lead and leave Jacky Ickx to become the hare, chasing the sister car.  It seems Rothmans is letting the boys race, and doing some kind of tortoise and hare strategy.  Will that work?  Ickx is now being harried by Thierry Boutsen in the #33 Skoal Bandit Porsche.  Something must be going right.  Bellof is whistling off into the distance, while Ickx has his hands full with Boutsen.

Boutsen out brakes his countryman into La Source.  In the meantime, Johnny Dumfries in the camera car, he spins at La Source.  No harm, no foul.  He continues on his way.  Boutsen, meanwhile, he gets crossed up coming out of the Bus Stop, running off the road and into a tire barrier.  Some damage on the #33.  We have the same order we’ve seen for a bit.  It’s Stefan Bellof followed by Derek Bell and Hans Stuck.  Hans Stuck is giving his Porsche 956 all it can handle, tossing it about as if it were, well, a saloon car.  Pit stop time for Stefan Bellof.  Fuel, tires, and a driver change, to Derek Bell.

After their off, David Hobbs and Thierry Boutsen, have managed to recover back to second overall.  Bell and Bellof lead a Rothmans 1-2 and in second, the #1 car in the hands of Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass.  There is a third factory Rothmans Porsche also in the race, for Vern Schuppan of South Africa, and Norther Irishman, John Watson, a veteran of F1, just now getting his feet wet in endurance racing.  At the moment, Schuppan and Watson’s race isn’t going to their liking, and they are outside the top six.

Again, the other new car to appear was the honeycomb chassis Porsche 956 which was a T car, a test car.  The C2 division is now being led by a familiar suspect, the #70 Tiga Ford of the trio of Gordon Spice, Ray Bellm, and Neil Crang.  Thierry Boutsen makes his way onto the same lap with Derek Bell and is closing on the lead, while the Ickx/Mass #1 Rothmans Porsche holds down third overall.  Oscar Larrauri, meanwhile is pitting to replace a punctured left front tire.  Off the with the badly shredded Dunlop Denlok, and on with a new one.  The tire change is complete, and the Stuck/Grohs/Brun Porsche remains fourth.  Larrauri of course, shares the sister Brun car with Massimo Sigala, the car that just pitted for a new tire.

Boutsen in the #33 Porsche is still closing on the leaders, and fast.  Stefan Bellof takes over car #2 on their pit stop, and likewise John Watson is handed the controls of #3, from Vern Schuppan.  The Schuppan/Watson duo would come back and finish sixth overall in this motor race.  In the closing phases of the race, it was game over for the #33 car, as Hobbs and Boutsen were forced to retire with a blown motor.  The C2 class was being led easily by the #70 Tiga Ford of Gordon Spice, Ray Bellm, and Neil Crang.  John Fitzpatrick has had both of his Skoal Bandit liveried Porsche 956’s retire from the motor race, as early, it was game over for the sister #55 entry in the hands of Franz Konrad and Rupert Keegan.  But, Stefan Bellof is on a Sunday drive.

The BMW M1 Group B cars were also having things all their own way in that class.  Helmut Gall of Germany will take his car to the class victory sharing with fellow German Edgar Doren, and Belgian Michel Maillien, ahead of the ever present #101 BMW M1 for Jens Winther’s team.  Brun Motorpsort will finish third and fourth.  But, in the race’s closing minutes, there is a plot twist.  Tire trouble for Porsche #2 of Bell and Bellof, and the sister car, #1 of Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass unlaps itself and looks to be in contention for a race victory here.

Bellof and Bell are back on track as the #1 car is out of La Source and #2 is in Eau Rouge.  Bellof and Bell hold on to win!  Here are the results.

1. #2 Bellof/Bell Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche
2. #1 Ickx/Mass Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche
3. #9 Stuck/Grohs/Brun Porsche 956        Brun Motorsport
4. #20 Larrauri/Sigala Porsche 956        Brun Motorsport
5. #18 Lassig/Regout/Martin Porsche 956     Obermaier Racing
6. #3 Schuppan/Watson Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche

Again, your winners in C2

#70 Spice/Bellm/Crang                  Tiga GC84 Ford     Spice Tiga Racing

The points battle, after Spa is getting intense.  Jochen Mass leads Stefan Bellof by ten points, 89-79.  Jacky Ickx is just five markers behind on 74 points, in third.  Derek Bell is next on 71 points, and further behind, not in contention for the title are both Henri Pescarolo in fifth on 53 points, and David Hobbs on 51 points.  Next up, a race at the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari, in Imola, Italy.

For the first time in many years, the FIA World Endurance Championship comes to North America.  This is a very serene, picturesque venue here in Canada, and the Group C cars, are joined by a few regulars from the IMSA GTO championship, as opposed to the Group B cars from Europe.  But, it will be a small field that starts the motor race.  Porsche will likely have things all their own way, here in Canada.  The Lancia Martini team decided to skip the trip to North America.  They are not competing.

Car #33, the Skoal Bandit Porsche will see West Germany’s Franz Konrad joining David Hobbs and Rupert Keegan on the driver’s strength for this race.  There will be just one Skoal Bandit entry.  The sister car #55 with Rupert Keegan, Franz Konrad, and Guy Edwards (who never drove it in this race), crashed in free practice.  Game over for #55, and the car was sidelined for the remainder of the race weekend.

It’s going to come down to a battle between the Rothmans factory cars as well as the New Man Porsche for Henri Pescarolo and company.  The privately entered Porsche’s will play a part in this motor race.  Much like Brands Hatch last time out, Mosport is an undulating track that makes drivers feel like they are heading somewhere when racing on it.  We’re ready to get this motor race in Canada, underway.

Now, for some reason, the flagman has the yellow flag showing.  But, that isn’t going to stop the drivers from getting the motor race underway.  Press the accelerator!  Away we go!  Half the field drops the hammer and wants to go for it.  Of the 16 starters, eight guys want to get on with the job, and eight others probably see that yellow flag and think, “OK, best slow down.”  The marshals don’t like the look of this start.  The red flag is displayed.  Let’s re-rack them, boys.  OK, do overs. Stefan Bellof leads the way, from pole, and we do get green this time!  Green flag, and away we go!

In the battle of the Rothmans Porsche’s its Jacky Ickx getting away in the lead over Stefan Bellof.  On the far end of the circuit, we plunge downhill and then, turn through the famous Moss corner, at turn five, named for Formula 1 champion and racing legend, Sir Stirling Moss.  Jacky Ickx leads Stefan Bellof, Oscar Larrauri, David Hobbs, Vern Schuppan, and in sixth, Canadian hometown hero, Bill Adam, sharing the #20 Kremer Brothers Sperry Turbo sponsored 956 with countryman Kees Nierop (also in his home race), and our old pal, South Africa’s George Fouche.

Stefan Bellof, meanwhile, takes the lead from Jacky Ickx.  The track here at Mosport is very bumpy.  Races have gone on for many years here at the track, since this event.  But back in the day, this place had a washboard surface.  The track is slated for resurfacing in 1985.  We’ll cover that race when we can, as these season retrospectives on Group C, continue.  Vern Schuppan in the third Rothmans Porsche, #3 he is sharing with Nick Mason, Pink Floyd’s drummer, Schuppan is having a tough old time trying to pass team mate and championship contender, Stefan Bellof.  Poor old Jacky Ickx, however, he’s dropping back, losing time to the two sister Rothmans machines.

Holding down third is Oscar Larrauri in the #19 Team Gaggia Porsche 956 he shares with Swiss car owner Walter Brun.  This team had two reserve drivers on hand for the race who could have been called up if need be.  They are Walt Bohren, from the United States (an IMSA regular), and Italian Massimo Sigala.  But, their services were not needed.  Uh oh!  We’ve had a clatter into barriers, as the Gebhardt running in the C2 division, has lost its whole nose.  He’s gone crunch, straight into the wall.  Game over for the #73 Pepsi Challenger Gebhardt with the Ford Cosworth DFV lump in it.  Once again, the lump is the engine.

But, it’s day done for Canadian drivers John Graham and George Schwarz.  Full course yellow now, and thus, the field forms up behind the safety car.  The marshals have towed the Gebhardt to safety, and Stefan Bellof restarts the race in the lead.  The battle for second heats up.  Oscar Larrauri is applying the blowtorch to Jacky Ickx at the moment.  Meanwhile, behind the leading trio, David Hobbs has a solid fourth place in the Skoal Bandit Porsche.  Larrauri finally disposes of Ickx, before it’s pit stop time for the Rothmans crew, as it’s Derek Bell taking over from Stefan Bellof.  Bellof is so quick to get out of the car, one of his pit crew has to tell him, “Stefan, please help your team mate get buckled in.”

Fuel and tires done, Bell suited and booted, and in the car, and he rejoins the race.  David Hobbs has moved the #33 car up to third overall.  After an off course excursion, Oscar Larrauri loses third before he makes his pit stop.  Bellof and Bell are a lap up on everyone else as the cars whiz down the Mario Andretti straightaway.  In Group C2, meanwhile problems for Carlo Facetti as his Alba Giannini entry is damaged.  So, he and Italian team mates Alfredo Sebastiani, and Martino Finotto have not had the race they wanted, here in Canada.  Their sister car, #81 goes around into the C2 class lead, with Guido Dacco and Almo  Coppelli sharing the driving chores.

There’s a change at the front as the sister #1 Rothmans Porsche heads for the lead.  Alternator issues have plagued Bellof and Bell in their efforts here at Mosport.  The alternator on the #2 Rothmans Porsche is not keeping the battery charged.  They’ve sunk to sixth overall.  More problems as during a refueling stop, Bellof brought the car to the lane, but the fuel has ignited on the red hot turbo, and caused a fire.  Thankfully, a crewman shouts a warning to Bellof.  “Stop!”  He hits the fire bottles and they spray the Porsche in extinguishing foam.

Bellof is able to continue, trying to soldier on and salvage a top three place if he can.  Meanwhile, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass in the team Rothmans Porsche are on a Sunday cruise to a win here in Canada, eh.  Despite losing a wheel during the 1,000 kilometers, David Hobbs and Franz Konrad, those two recover to second overall.  We have a third place for a C2 car and that’s the aforementioned machine with Guido Dacco and Almo Coppelli sharing the wheel of it.  Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass complete 253 laps and win in Canada!  With the victory, Jochen Mass takes the points lead in the FIA WEC.

We look at the results of the Mosport 1,000 kilometers.

1. #2 Bellof/Bell           Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche
2. #33 Hobbs/Keegan/Konrad Porsche 956        Skoal Bandit Porsche
3. #81 Coppelli/Dacco                  Alba AR2 Giannini Carma              Jolly Club
4. #2 Bellof/Bell                           Porsche 956        Rothmans Porsche
5. #82 Barberio/Gellini/Vatielli                                Alba AR3 Ford    Maurizio Gellini

Hats off to the other Alba squad, the Maurizio Gellini team of Italy, finishing second in C2 and fifth in the overall, with the Italian trio of Pasquale Barberio, Maurizio Gellini (the team and car owner), and Gerardo Vatielli.  Next up, it’s another legendary race at a legendary venue.  The race is the Spa 1,000 Kilometers at Spa Francorchamps in the Ardennes forest of Belgium, just over a month away.

Two weeks after the Nurburgring, we are in Jolly Old England once again, at Brands Hatch in Kent, for the Brands Hatch 1,000 Kilometers.  This race counts only for the driver’s championship.  Not the manufacturer’s cup.  Thus, the Rothmans Porsche’s are skipping this event, so the field is wide open.  23 cars will start, including some from Group B, and GTX.  We are perhaps, in this race, going to find out who the mystery driver “Victor” is.  Despite the absence of the Rothmans backed 956’s, Stefan Bellof, is still here.  He will race at Brands Hatch, in the #19 Brun Porsche 956, now labeled as Team Warsteiner, with sponsorship from Warsteiner beer, teaming with Harald Grohs.

The #14 Canon Porsche has changed little, except for having an extra wing element placed to the front of the car.  The #70 Wasp Eze Spice, the Spice/Crang/Bellm machine, is quickest in the C2 division.  The field is formed up and ready for a start.  We have gorgeous blue, sunny skies to race under, and fans have packed the stands for Group C action.  Lights out, and we’re off and racing!  The #14 Canon Porsche 956 takes the lead into Paddock Bend.  In the absence of the Rothmans cars, Jochen Mass is drafted in to share the #8 Joest Racing Porsche 956, to drive with Henri Pescarolo, replacing Stefan Johansson for this round of the championship.

Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell are not racing at Brands Hatch this weekend.  Flying downhill to Hawthorne’s bend, Johnny Palmer leads and Bob Wollek is hot on his heels.  Stefan Bellof and Jochen Mass are next in the queue.  The Canon Porsche leads, and there’s all kind of pressure from the Lancia squad.  Jochen Mass is second, but Johnny Palmer, the man is off and running away from the rest of the field like a scalded cat!  Bellof wants by Bob Wollek, but the Frenchman from Strasbourg says “non”, and slams the door in his face.  The #33 Skoal Bandit Porsche is next in line with David Hobbs and Thierry Boutsen again, sharing the car.  Mass is opening a lead as the C2 leader, Almo Coppelli also appears for the first time, in the #81 Jolly Club Alba Gianinni Carma with its 1.8 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine.

It’s been a good while since we’ve seen Coppelli at the sharp end in C2, sharing with fellow Italians Carlo Facetti, and Martino Finotto.  Coppelli is battling with the yellow #94 Grid S1 Ford Cosworth.  British drivers Steve Thompson, Tony Lanfranchi, and Divina Galica share the car, but they’d later be disqualified after the race, for receiving outside assistance, and being pushed over the finish line instead of having the engine running.  Mauro Baldi has assumed the lead of this motor race, driving the Lancia around Stefan Bellof.  Baldi shares #5 with Pierluigi Martini and Bob Wollek, and there is a third Lancia again entered here at Brands Hatch, car #6 which didn’t start the race.  It was an extra car that wasn’t needed.  A spare car, if you will, that would have had the same driver team of Baldi/Martini/Wollek at the wheel of it.

Pit stop time and there’s problems for the #33 Skoal Bandit Porsche who had been running in fourth spot.  The leading Canon Porsche is in the lane, coming to the attention of team manager Keith Green and the rest of the pit crew.  Ditto for the #8 Joest Porsche.  Jochen Mass and Henri Pescarolo on the driver’s strength.  Pescarolo won his fourth 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier in the year, and his first, in a decade.  The race leading Porsche is back in the fight, tires screeching up the hill out of pit lane.  Both the Canon Porsche in C1, and the Spice Tiga in C2, have been unstoppable today.  It was game over for Lancia, their challenge evaporated.

Paolo Barilla experienced déjà vu.  He crashed out of the race, in exactly the same place he had in 1983 here at Brands.  Car trouble has dropped the #19 Bellof/Grohs Porsche to fifth.  Thierry Boutsen changed over to assist Rupert Keegan in the sister #55 Skoal Bandit Porsche 956 and will finish fifth, while in sixth, his team mate David Hobbs, who he was assisting earlier in the race, has Guy Edwards assist in co-driving to the end.  It’s a fair driver swap on the Skoal Bandit team.  But, it’s joy for the Canon Porsche team!  They will earn their first ever FIA World Endurance Championship triumph!  Congratulations, Johnny Palmer and Jan Lammers!

So, here are the results from Brands Hatch.

1. #14 Lammers/Palmer Porsche 956        GTi Engineering/Canon Racing
2. #8 Mass/Pescarolo Porsche 956        Joest Racing
3. #55 Boutsen/Keegan/Edwards Porsche 956   Skoal Bandit Porsche Team
4. #10 Sutherland/Fouche/Wilson Porsche 956   Porsche Kremer Racing
5. #19 Bellof/Grohs Porsche 956   Team Warsteiner
6. #33 Hobbs/Edwards/Boutsen Porsche 956  Skoal Bandit Porsche Team

Well done, to fourth place finishers, David Sutherland, George Fouche, and lady racer, Desire Wilson, all from South Africa, driving for Kremer Racing.  Jochen Mass takes the lead in the driver’s championship, and just eight points cover the top five drivers.  Covered by the proverbial blanket indeed.  We are headed now, for the second half of the season.  Next up, a visit to North America and the great Mosport International Raceway, in Canada, a week after Brands Hatch.