Nuerburgring, 20-21 September, 2013
The fourth round of the 2013 Classic Endurance Racing series
was held at the Nurburgring, as one of the support races for the
Blancpain Endurance Series, and despite a date clash with a
major historic race meeting at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit a
short distance away across the German-Belgian border attracted
a healthy 31 entrants for the 1 hour race on the Saturday
afternoon. It was also a truly international entry, with competitors
coming from Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy,
Portugal, Switzerland, USA, and even from Colombia in South
America. One of the competitors was Brian Johnson, the lead
singer of the famous AC/DC rock band, who was driving a 1974
Porsche 911 3.0 RSR. There were also a couple of competitors
with names probably more familiar to classic motoring
enthusiasts, namely Jurgen Barth and Nanni Galli.
The race comprised of four classes, Prototype 1 & 2, and GT 1 &
2, with a variety of models in the prototype classes from the likes
of Chevron, Lola, March, Sauber and TOJ, encompassing a
number of attractive historic liveries, notably the TOJ of Kevin
Wilkins in its beautiful gold and black Warsteiner beer colour
scheme. The two GT classes were predominantly Porsche 911
variant dominated, apart from a pair of BMW M1 Procars, one
driven by Frenchman Robert Boos in the blue and white Denim
livery, and the other in the red with white circles BASF livery,
which was driven by the German entrant Gunther Schindler.
Kevin Wilkins stamped his mark on the weekend in qualifying,
putting his TOJ on pole position, and then proceeding to dominate
the race from the front, despite a first lap safety car call, after the
# 94 Porsche of Fratti/Cabianca expired in a cloud of oil smoke
less than halfway around the first lap. Once the track went green
again, the TOJ quickly re-established a cushion to its pursuers,
which it maintained to the chequered flag. However, it was not
such smooth running for some of those in the chasing pack, as
Paul Knapfield had to retire his beautifully prepared blue and
yellow Ultramar liveried March 76 S DFV just before half distance
when running 2nd, and another quartet of P2 runners also fell by
the wayside in the first half of the race. Probably the highlight of
the race was the duel between the pair of evenly matched BMW
M1s for the final GT 2 podium spot, which developed as the race
progressed, and lasted right through to the chequered flag, with
only 0.095sec separating them as they crossed the line, with
Gunther Schindler just ahead of Robert Boos.
Overall Race Result & Prototype 2 Class
1st 8 Kevin Wilkins TOJ SC 302 DFV, 1977
2nd 2 Frederic Da Rocha Lola T 298 BMW, 1979
3rd 21 Philippe Scemama Sauber C5 BMW, 1976
Prototype 1 Class
1st 70 Pierre-Alain France Lola T70 Mk IIIB, 1969
2nd 3 Stephane Gutswiller Chevron B16 Mazda, 1970
3rd 24 Manuel Monteiro Chevron B16 FVC, 1970
GT 2 Class
1st 25 Nicolas D’Ieteren Porsche 935 K3, 1979
2nd 14 Darius Ahrabian Porsche 935 K3, 1979
3rd 59 Gunther Schindler BMW M1, 1979
GT1 Class
1st 96 Santiago Orjuela/ Pablo Orjuela Porsche 911 RSR, 1974
2nd 66 Didier Denat Porsche 911 RSR, 1974
3rd 64 Joerg Hubner/ Jurgen Barth Porsche 911 RSR, 1974
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