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Rapport 2003 / 05 Nürburgring


Warmenius / Turebrand follow in Whitmores footsteps

 

The favourites Bo Warmenius und Gunnar Turebrand (S) didn’t win the fifth round of the FIA-TC on the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix at Nürburgring. But with their second place in Ford Lotus Cortina (1963) they are getting closer to win the championship. 40 years ago the first round of the European Championship for Touring Cars took place at Nürburgring. 1965 Sir John Whitmore won the championship in his Ford Lotus Cortina.

 

54 historic touring cars made the jubilee to a highlight of the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand Prix. There were a lot of Ford Lotus Cortina, Alfa Romeo GTA, many Mini Cooper and Ford Mustangs as well as extra ordinary cars like the Alfa Romeo 1900TI (1953) of Francesco Capuzzo (I), the Saab 96 Sport (1963) of Hageman/Wigren with the two-stroke engine and the beautiful Jaguar Mk II 3,8 (1965) of Dr. Manfred Sontheimer / Juliane Hummelt (D), who had bad luck because of a puncture on the right front tyre. With a similar Jaguar Mk II Peter Nöcker won the very first European Championship race for Touring Cars 40 years ago.

 

Favourites were not lucky

 

„When you are second, you never will be satisfied“, said Gunnar Turebrand, who drove the Ford Lotus Cortina in the second stint. But in the championship they were the winners of the weekend because the runner-up-teams Colin Sanders/Nick Whale (GB) and Michael Kerry/Nick Stagg (GB) retired early in the race. Junior and Senior Gustavsson (S) became fourth in the class up to 1600 cc with 23 starters on the grid.

 

In an amusing one-hour-race Ulf Larsson (S), the former team colleague of Bo Warmenius, took the leadership after the flag start with the Ford Mustang, he was sharing with Max Rostron (GB). Bo Warmenius tried to follow and passed Max Werner (D). The young German had started from pole in Alex Furianis Alfa Romeo GTA. This three teams were the only ones, who performed lap times under 2.15 minutes on the GP track (4,6 km) of the Nürburgring without the Mercedes arena.

 

Tropical heat in the Eifel

 

After the pit stop period Alex Furiani took the leadership in the GTA with a body in Silver Arrow-style ahead of Rostron and Turebrand. In the struggle for the second position Rostron spun at the end of the Bilstein corner and Turebrand could pass. The mistake dropped Rostron down to sixth.

 

The best V8 289 c.i. in the big class then was the father-and-son team Helge and Henry Snabb (SF) in the Ford Falcon Sprint (1964), who snatched the third position overall. In the front Alex Furiani began to sweat under his helmet not only because of the tropical heat in the Eifel (air temperature 38oC), but also as he realized strong vibrations of his GTA.

 

„It was so terrible, that I reduced the revs by 1000“, said the Alfa specialist. He saw the chequer 5.4 seconds ahead of Turebrand. Henry Snabb secured the third position in the Falcon. In the 1.3 litres class the Mini Cooper teams showed an entertaining struggle. Niklas Johansson / Nick Swift (GB/S) defended their class pole followed by the Zolder winners Claude Boissy/Alain Miran (F) and Hans Söderholm (S).

 

Estoril instead of Imola

 

Boissy/Miran, second best team in the FIA-TC 2001, passed the orange-coloured Cooper of Johansson and Swift. In the second stint the Swedish-British team tried to close the gap. But after a very quick lap, one second faster than the fastest time of the leading Cooper drivers, Johansson / Swift had to retire. So the French Cooper won ahead of Söderholm and Allen Tice/Ian Cox (GB). In the class up to 1150 cc Graham Churchill / Peter Baldwin won in their Mini Cooper S.

 

The 2.5 litres class was dominated by the Austrian duel between solo starter Wolfgang Schachinger (A) and Oliver Heschl-Gillespie / Alex Ellinger (A), both in a BMW 1800TI (1965). Schachinger won one lap ahead of his compatriots, who collected important points for the FIA-TC.

 

The FIA-TC continues with another highlight at the Grand Prix track of Spa-Francorchamps. The season ends in Estoril (P) after the cancellation of the final in Imola. Most of the drivers where in favour of the race in Portugal. One team wished to have the final countdown in Spa after six rounds of the FIA-TC. They might have been out of Sweden and maybe they drive a Ford Lotus Cortina.

 

Dirk Johae

 

 


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