Event Information

Race Results

DATE	DESCRIPTION	RACE RESULTS
August 7th/9th, 2009	37 AvD OldTimer Grand Prix - Race 1 37 AvD OldTimer Grand Prix - Race 2

Race Report

2005 was the last time that the rear-engine cars of the Association had been invited to race at the OldTimer Grand Prix and what an excellent race it was. Michael Schryver driving his Lotus 18 won the race just six tenths of a second ahead of Rod Jolley in his faithful Cooper with Ted Rollason a second in arrears in another Cooper. Very sadly another Schryver, Will this time, was not to appear in the 2009 results as the family decided to leave the circuit before the race.

The Association participates at the OldTimer Grand Prix by invitation. Great credit must be given to our friend Hubertus Donhoff; as he resisted considerable pressure from the organising club, the Automobile Club von Deutschland, to combine the two grids as they had heard that we might be struggling for entries (particularly in the rear-engine race). In the final analysis we had a very respectable 24 cars entered in each race.

Our timetable this year was such that no track time was allocated to either grid on Friday, both qualifying practice and race one being on Saturday; this meant that the first event for most HGPCA competitors was the superb Friday evening BBQ to which all had been invited. As always, and particularly this year with a fine warm evening, food and drink flowed, speeches were made and all enjoyed themselves. A highlight was the unveiling by Hubert Fabri of his unique type 51 Bugatti parked near by. Rumours abounded (fed by Hubertus) that Hubert might be the illegitimate son of King Leopold – the original owner of the magnificent car.

Where Thursday and Friday had been gloriously warm and sunny, sadly Saturday reverted to typical Eifel weather. With the pre 1966 grid scheduled to practice at 08.00, drivers, mechanics and helpers were all assembled in the pit garages by 07.30 warming the cars up. What had not warmed up was the weather! The higher parts of the track were above the cloud base and, even with a good strong breeze, visibility was so poor that track use was impossible. The AvD issued amended time-tables followed by further amendments but the cloud remained and by mid-afternoon it was clear that Saturday’s racing was lost. Very sensibly the organisers agreed to take each HGPCA grid for three laps behind the pace car to allow a proper ‘grand prix’ start the following day - should the weather improve.

At last the weather changed and by 10am the rear-engine car race was able to start their scheduled 08.30 race. Without qualifying practice times to determine the starting grid, a guess had to be made on who in with which cars should be at the front and who at the back. For both races, with a few exceptions, those selected to start at the back remained there and the front runners raced for the lead! In bright sunshine the race started and at the end of the first lap Mark Piercy in his Cooper T53 and Jason Minshaw in the family Brabham BT4 were well in the lead with Alan Baillie’s Cooper third just ahead of the LDS of Ian Ashley; Sid Hoole followed with Rod Jolley, who had had an incident on the first lap, next. Lap three and a good race was developing between Mark and Jason but when they both did not appear on lap four, it seemed that they may have collided with each other – this was not the case. Both cars had developed mechanical problems on the same lap!

With the two front runners out, Rod claimed first place with Alan second, Ian third and a charging Peter Studer next in his Lotus 32. Rod was having problems with his cars (brake bias amongst other things) and a second spin dropped him back to fourth.

At half distance Alan led, pushed hard by Ian Ashley with Peter third; mid field an excellent race was developing between the Lotus 18/21s of Erik Staes and Andre Wanty, the Lotus 24 of David Coplowe and Nick Eden’s Cooper. By lap nine, Rod was back up to third, promoted to second when Ian Ashley ran out of fuel. Richard Parnell had the Walker Special running well, moving from penultimate position on the grid to finish eleventh. The winner of the ‘driver of the day’ for rear-engine cars was David Coplowe who had successfully piloted his recently acquired V8 Lotus to a mid-field finish.

Like the pre 1966 race, the grid for the pre 1961 race was selected, there being no practice times to make use of. As a fitting tribute to these fine machines the front two rows were Maserati cars! Sadly Josef Otto Rettenamier’s 250F developed problems on the first lap whilst Stefan Schollwoeck’s 4CM expired on the seventh lap, however the two other 250F cars of Jos Koster and Allan Miles finished first and second after a fine race.

It was great to see Jos racing his fine Piccolo 250F Maserati with us again and, from the second row, he immediately went into the lead followed by Allan in a similar car. Hubert Fabri held third place in the big engine Aston DBR4 with Ian Nuthall fourth in the Alta. Lap five and the lead changed with Allan leading the other 250F but only for one lap; Jos quickly moved back into the lead, a position he was not to loose. Behind the front cars a fierce battle developed between Paul Grant in his Cooper Bristol, Martin Eyre in the little Cooper T43 and Wolfgang Friedrichs in the second Aston DBR4. Another fine battle further down the field was the two Cooper Bristols of Brain Horwood and Graham Burrows.

A slightly disappointing weekend for the HGPCA competitors; only 30 minutes track time rather than the scheduled 90. No blame can be placed on the organising club, the AvD, who did all they could to get our cars on the track, only to be defeated by the weather and full marks to the driver of the safety car who managed, in appalling conditions, to get up considerable speed for the 3 lap ‘blind’ qualifying sessions.

The highlight of the weekend? No doubt the Friday night BBQ – thank you Hubertus, Klaus, Willi and friends.