Historic Racing

Classic Endurance Racing – Luco wins at Barcelona

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

The Classic Endurance Racing season opener at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain had over 40 cars taking part. Highlights of the first weekend were a Porsche 935 ‘Moby Dick’, a Sauber C5, the Ferrari’s 712 and 512 BBLM as well as the regular Porsche 936.

In the free practice sessions on Friday the battle was fought out between three drivers. Jean-Marc Luco (Porsche 936), Jacques Nicolet (March 74S) and Marc Thilloy (Lola T298) were the quickest in the two practice sessions, with Nicolet posting the absolute best time in the second session (1:51.808).

During the qualifying session that took place on Saturday the same three drivers were out to take pole position, none of the other entries was capable of matching them. As the checkered flag came out the gap between pole and third on the grid was less a third of a second. French driver Marc Thilloy took pole position in the “Invitation”-class Lola T298, ahead of Jean-Marc Luco and Jacques Nicolet. No less than four Lola T298s made it into the top 10 of qualifying, with a Lola T296 taking fourth place on the grid.

At the start several cars were missing unfortunately. Jean-Marc Luco was there though and went into the first corner leading the race. Thilloy’s Lola however passed the Swiss driver early on in the race and the French driver went for it, almost forgetting he was racing an old car in a one hour race. As a result Thilloy wrecked his brakes and the Lola T298 was retired in the pit after just eight laps.

The race continued with Luco firmly leading the race, up until the point where the Chevron B36 of Claude Le Jean and Yves Junne came to a halt in the final chicane. A safety car period was the result, but by the time the cars were released again the Porsche 936 disappeared into the distance and was never to be seen by any of the other competitors.

After one hour of racing and 29 laps completed Jean-Marc Luco passed the line as the first winner of the 2009 Classic Endurance Racing season, 26.002 seconds ahead of the Lola T280 of Michel Quinou and almost another second on the Lola T298 of Olivier Cazaliers, making it a Prototype 2 cleansweep. In P1 John Sheldon’s Chevron B16 won the race. The GT categories were won by father and son McInerney in the BMW M1 (GT2) and Jan Gijzen in the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 (GT1).

Not flagged were the Lola of Marc Thilloy, the Porsche 935 ‘Moby Dick’ of Yvan Mahe, the Ferrari 512 BBLM of Mr John of B, the March 74S of Jacques Nicolet and the Ferrari 712 of Paul Knapfield. The Ferrari 712 looked well, until it retired from the race in the final laps, just over two minutes before the chequered would have been waved.

For the next round at Spa-Francorchamps the organisers expect a 52-car strong field. Hopefully more original, old liveries will show up in Spa to create that real classic atmosphere.