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Racereport 2003 / 01 Donington Park


Back to England

 

With a fantastic touring car race and two thrilling GT races, the season for the FIA European Challenge for Touring Cars (FIA-TC’65) and the Cup for Historic Grand Touring Car (FIA-GTC’65) started at Donington Park. It was the first time since a long time that these FIA series competed in England or Ireland.

 

In the touring car race up to 1965 (FIA-TC‘65), the race started with an interesting struggle for the lead between the three British Ford Mustangs of Rostron/Larsson (GB/S), Austin/Loudoun (GB) and Vaulkhard/Smirthwaite (GB) along with the Dodge Dart GT of Young/Young (GB). The Dodge Coupe was very fast. The Youngs scored the fastest lap of the race. But shortly after the mandatory pit stop they had to retire due to technical problems.

 

Austrian driver wins in his class in an Italian car

 

After one hour Max Rostron and his Swedish team colleague Ulf Larsson managed to win the first FIA-TC‘65-race nearly 30 seconds ahead of Richard Austin/Dave Loudoun in another Mustang, followed by Nigel Vaulkhard/John Smirthwaite. The first who cracked the British phalanx was the Austrian Alfa Romeo driver Dieter-Karl Anton in his fast GTA .

 

The Austrian Ex-Formula-2 –Champion finished as fourth overall and was the fastest solo racer in the FIA-TC’65-race. Anton was the only GTA driver in the race and had to fight against a strong opposition of Ford Lotus Cortinas. The Austrian won the classment in the class up to 1,6 litre only 2,9 seconds ahead of Kerry Michael/Chris Sanders (GB) in the fastest Ford Lotus Cortina. Bo Warmenius/Gunnar Turebrand (S) only managed to finish third in the capacity class with the most amount of competitors of the FIA-TC’65.

 

Giulietta solo

 

The 2003 FIA-TC’65-champions Claude Boissy/Alain Miran (F) did not have a perfect start into the new season with their Mini Cooper S. They managed to finish second only behind the solo starter Graham Churchill (GB) in another fast Mini Cooper S. Claude Boissy drove the first stint and came as leader in the class up to 1,3 litres into the pits for the mandatory stop. But Alain Miran lost the leading position to Churchill in a thrilling fight for the lead.

 

The marvellous Alfa Romeo Giuliettas from the 50’s of Scuderia del Portello had their own race with four cars in the class. It was won by Marco Rossi/Marco Cajani (I) ahead of Marta Vinicio (I) and Ambrosi/Ambrosi (I).

 

History repeating

 

The FIA-GTC’65 races were both won by Sean Walker (GB) in his „Gold Bug“-style Lotus 26R, the racing version of the Elan. With his sovereign double in Donington Park, Sean Walker opened another chapter of the „Gold Bug“ story. His father Ian built the cars in the 60s and ran them with drivers like Graham Hill und Jim Clark. They got the nickname because of their golden livery. There was no chance for the 2003 FIA-GTC’65- champion, Bo Warmenius in his Elan to score points for a class win.

 

In both races Walker won overall ahead of Hans-Jürgen Malsbenden (D) in the open Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray which had no chance in the wet conditions of the first race against the light British GT. In the second run, Malsbenden was only 6,8 seconds behind Walker. Third position in both races went to a Marcos 1800 GT driver. In the first race it was Stuart Tizzard (GB), in the second - Allen Tice (GB), who finished only 0,5 seconds behind Malsbenden. Jamie Boot (GB) came in fourth after he saw the chequered flag with his TVR Griffith. He did the fastest GT lap of the weekend but missed the podium by 1,6 seconds.

 

Small cars, big fights

 

The winners of period E cars (up to 1961) drove a Big Healey. In the first race it was Richard Tyzack (GB). He finished as 7th overall. In the second race, Tyzack’s teammate Chris Chiles was the fastest. He won by 2,2 seconds ahead of Ian Cox in another Austin-Healey 3000.

 

But the actual duels of the race took place in the smaller classes between Trevor Needham (GB) in the Ginetta G4, Peter Aylett (GB) in a rare GSM Delta Coupe, Udo Vosshenrich (D) in the beautiful Lotus Elite, Lothar Franke (D) in the newly rebuild Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato and the Dutch Alpine of Theo van Bree and Ad Vermeulen. In the first race Theo van Bree was the fastest of the smaller class up 1.3 litre in his Alpine A110 Renault (1150 cc), in the second Trevor Needham managed to stay ahead.

 

Welcome in the Seventies

 

The premiere of FIA-GTC-TC’76 was dominated by Wolfgang Schachinger (A) in his Alpina BMW 3.0 CSL, a type of car that was raced by Hans-Joachim Stuck, Toine Hezemans, Derek Bell, Harald Ertl or the Australian Brian Muir in the 70s. Schachinger won both races in his “tail fin” BMW ahead of Dr. Wolfgang Stein in the Ford Escort RS, a Ex-Jörg-Obermoser-car of the tuner Wooding, run in the International Deutsche Rennsport-Meisterschaft. There was no chance for Peter Govaerts who competed in a Lotus 26R with a dry sump engine.

 


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