Monaco, 9th - 11th of May, 2014
The temporary race track in the principality of Monaco is without
doubt the most famous “circuit” in the Grand Prix calendar, if not
even within all race series. Since 1929 the best racing drivers of
every generation came to Monaco to measure with the tricky
wormed roads in the street canyons at the Cote d´Azure, even the
most talented having “their moments” at the unforgiving narrow
track. Where a mistake on other tracks might lead into the gravel
the race in Monaco today ends in the guardrails or even in the
harbour back in the days as Alberto Ascari did in his Lancia in
1955.
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For the 700th birthday of the principality the first historic GP was
held in 1997 attracting more than 200 cars in different race groups
giving the gentlemen drivers the once in a lifetime opportunity to
experience the famous 3.3 km on their own. Planed as a singular
event the success of the premiere led to a biennial edition from
the year 2000 on so this last weekend saw the 9th historic GP.
In 7 different classes ranging from the pre-war years to the
different post-war F1 and F2 regulations with an additional F3 race
and a Sports Car Race representing the short intermezzo of the
sports cars in 1952 the historic race cars were lined-up in the
small paddocks in the harbour on Thursday afternoon for the
scrutineering.
Friday morning started with the Credit Swiss Racing Forum in the
drivers club featuring race drivers of the different eras including Sir
Stirling Moss, Derek Bell and Jochen Mass plus Romain Dumas
to share their memories on their Monaco appearances and other
races from the past to get into the right mood for the following
races. Furthermore Damon Hill and Alain Prost were
demonstrating the Renault F1 from the Turbo era whereas Jacky
Ickx was back on invitation of the official partner Chopard to drive
the Auto Union Silver Arrows; especially the sound of the
16-cylinder C-Type was one of the highlights of the weekend.
Before the timed qualifying on Saturday every group had the
chance to explore the track in a free practice, a very welcome
opportunity for the newbies in Monaco but also for the seasoned
historic racers, although the track is unchanged in the last years
new buildings and fences change the look of the circuit very much
making it difficult to find the previous braking points.
The first cars on the track were the pre-war cars from the late
1920s and the early 1930s, namely Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and
ERA. In the last editions the light and nimble but yet powerful
ERA seemed to be unbeatable running on all the podium places
but this year two Alfa Romeo P3 were very strong competition,
especially the one driven by Matthew Grist. Being son of the
renowned Alfa restorer Paul Grist Matthew certainly knows how to
drive this car and well from the beginning he was fighting with the
fastest of the ERA, the Type B of Paddins Dowling for the victory.
The ERA set fastest time in qualifying but it was the Alfa taking
the chequered flag in the closest of all races with just a margin of
0.2 sec over the ERA in a photo finish. Pre-war races always have
a very own atmosphere, although they are also driven hard the
competitors are very respectful leaving each other enough room
because a crash in these cars without any safety belt rarely ends
without injuries. So it is no surprise that this category was one of
the very few without a safety car phase or even a red flag during
the entire weekend, something that could not be said from all
classes. Another reason was certainly the small number of cars
with just a dozen leaving enough room on the track.
More crowded was the appearance of the sports cars in Class C,
limited to the year to 1955. With 40 cars this was one of the
biggest fields of the weekend leaving just little room on the track.
As the qualifying times ranging from 2 minutes from the fastest
Jaguar C-Type to more than 2 ½ minutes from the back markers
the race promised a lot of lapping during the 30 minutes, but apart
from minor accidents including a bump from the second Jaguar
C-Type of Nigel Webb to the Ferrari 340 MM of Roberto Crippa
most of the high priced treasures came home unharmed. Right
from the start of the race on Sunday afternoon the golden Jaguar
C-Type of Alex Buncombe pulled away from pole position just
followed by the Cooper Bristol of John Ure in about 10 second
distance and the rest of the field over a minute back. In the
centenary year Maserati was very well presented with several
race models ranging from the two litre versions of the A6GCS and
200S to the 3 litre 300S, at the end the 150S/200S of Michael
Willms was fastest of them on a fourth place just in front of the
300 S of Henri Chambon. Ferrari was presented by two 225 S of
the type that won the 1952 sports car race here and a third of this
rare coupés could be seen parked in front of the Fairmont Hotel.
Furthermore a 250 MM, the mentioned 340 MM, a 500 Mondial
and a 625 TF were entered in the race but they were not
competing for the first places but were even lapped by the Jaguar.
Although untypical for the Monaco circuit this class was again
one of the spectator’s favourites.
The third “exotic” class was the Formula 3 class from the years
1974 to 1978 with 2 litre engines. Back in the days this was the
cheaper entrance in formula racing compared to the F1 and within
a stricter regulation the drivers had to fight with equal weapons so
a good driver could make himself known with good results in this
series to attract a contract in F1. Today the F3 races and
Formula Junior Races are very common at race meetings as
there are plenty of cars available for the ambitious historic racer.
In Monaco the F3 race was one of the main races with 18 laps in
total and the second to last of the weekend. At the end no less
than 14 Toyota powered F3 from Chevron, March, Lola, Osella or
Ralt were on the first places followed by the first Renault powered
Martini, the race was won by Paolo Barilla with the only Italian
victory in a weekend mostly dominated by British drivers. The F3
race was the only race on Sunday with a safety car phase as it
seemed that the less talented drivers and the more wanton ones
were already taken out the day before in the timed qualifying. One
reason is certainly that in the race the cars are already starting in
the order of the drivers’ performance leaving less hairy situation
with lapping than the qualifying where everyone is trying to get a
clear lap in between the slower cars for the counting timed lap.
Especially in the more powerful F1 qualifying sessions this led to
many crashes.
Most obvious was this in the last F1 race for the cars of
1973-1978, with lap times at about 1 ½ minute (compared to 1 ¼
minute of the current F1 cars) they are pretty fast and both the
car and the track seemed to be too difficult for some of the
entrants. The weekend started the worst possible way as the
Ferrari 312 T with the number 12 lost his entire oil from the
Casino back to the paddocks on one of his first laps covering the
entire track with oil sending several cars in the guardrails.
Fortunately most of the impacts were very soft so the cars could
be run the rest of the weekend but the marshals had to work hard
to get the track clean over almost the full 3,3 km. After lots of oil
binder and several laps of the street sweepers the track was clear
again. Being the last of the qualifying sessions on Saturday
afternoon it was finally stopped after no less than three red flags
giving the worst expectations for the last race on Sunday but
unfortunately no one was injured.
This era was just featured last year in the movie “Rush” showing
the rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt and Ferrari
against McLaren. Although dominant back then it were not these
two marques in front of the field but the smaller of Hesketh and
Fittipaldi but also March and Williams fighting both for pole
position and the winner of the actual race. After a one second gap
in qualifying finally the Hesketh 308E of Michael Lyons won with
more than half a minute over the March of Charles Nearburg, third
came the Williams of Nick Padmore. Fortunately the weather this
year stayed dry as two years ago this last race was held in
pouring rain making it even more difficult to keep these cars on
track. On could say that this was not a good weekend for the
Ferrari pilots in the F1 races as the last of the remaining car, the
312 T2 (winner of the 1976 Monaco GP in the hands of Niki
Lauda) just did one single lap before retiring.
Even less fortunate was the ex Jacky Ickx Ferrari 312 B2 in the
race of Class E, the grand prix cars of the years 1966 to 1972. In
this period one of the star lots at the RM Auction in Monaco, the
Brabham BT20 won in 1967 in the hands of Denis Hulme followed
by three Lotus victories with the Type 49. One of this Lotus 49
originally driven by Jim Clark to victories in the Netherlands,
Belgium and USA was entered in this race but ended in the wall
of St.Devote after loosing his wheel in the first practice session. It
was another Lotus, the Type 72 entered by the Lotus Classic
Team driven by Katsuaki Kubota who both set the pole time in
front of Michael Lyons in the Surtees TS9 and winning over
Duncan Dayton in the Brabham BT33. The Lotus is being known
as one of the first cars with sponsor livery instead the team
colours and the black-gold JPS livery is without doubt one of the
best looking of an era when tobacco advertisement was normal.
The race was ended two laps early after a red flag incident on the
start-finish straight when a misunderstanding between the Ferrari
312 B2 and a March 721 blocked the straight. Being shown the
blue flags the Ferrari changed the line overseeing the March who
tried to lap the Ferrari on the inside, with just two more laps to go
the race was not restarted.
Whereas the cars of the former categories featured already
spoilers the Class D with cars from the 1.5 litre era 1961-1965
had the sleek cigar form of the Lotus and BRM with the famous
Climax engine in the back. More exotic was the wonderful Ferrari
1512 that already made its post restoration debut two years ago
when it was not fully sorted. This year the 12-cylinder Ferrari
engine powered the car to a promising third place in qualifying
giving hope for a podium finish that should just last for about one
lap ending up in the wall as well leaving the victory to Andy
Middlehurst in the Lotus 25, another one for the Lotus Classic
Team.
One of the most entertaining races was the era of the F1 and F2
cars before 1961, when most of them were still front engined.
After a second place in first practice German GT driver Frank
Stippler, who is very well known for driving historic races in the
last years, had to skip the second practice due to technical
problems but his time was good enough for a sixth starting place.
After a repair overnight he attacked the BRM in front of him
coming home second behind the Cooper T51 Climax of Roger
Wills. With 6 cars within 10 seconds after 8 laps this was the
closest race of the weekend.
As one could see from the results this was a very expensive
weekend for some of the entrants giving some restoration
companies more work than expected. Monaco is a very
demanding race track and not very suited for the unexperienced
driver. Beside the own ability the preparation of the cars is most
important and with all the professional race support (most of them
from Great Britain were historic motorsport is still most common)
it is a surprise that at least two crashes resulted from a lost
wheel because of loose wheel nuts. Furthermore it was easy to
see that the bigger the race group the more likely were the
misunderstandings between the faster and the slower cars so
even more than on other race meetings one had to look both the
own and the competitors driving style before lapping or passing as
unlike in modern professional racing the racing lines differed very
much from driver to driver.
When the cars were rolling for some time it was still very
interesting racing and the tribunes very well visited for a classic
race meeting. With good weather in May the Cote d´Azure is well
worth a visit and the addition of the RM Auction makes this a very
attractive weekend to watch historic racing. In 2016 the tenth
edition will be held and hopefully many interesting cars could be
seen again in the jubilee year.
Report & images: Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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