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Classic Porsches could only manage two of the top ten spots in the 2011 Boucles de Spa. Stefan Stouf in a Mk 1 Escort (car 182) repeated his RAC win of a few months ago, Waldegard was second in a Mk 2 Ford (#161), while third place went to Patrick Snijers in his ’82-chassis’d Porsche 911 SC RS (#162).

Eight-time winner Snijers, was initially held up due to alternator problems and getting stuck behind a pair of Opels on the first pass through Creppe. “If I’d been given details of the rankings, I might have put in a stronger attack,” said Snijers afterwards. “It seems I was fastest on the RTs, but I was beaten due to the younger age of my car (1982, versus 1975 and 1976). I obviously had not taken into consideration the corrective coefficients regarding the years.”

Other classic Porsches had a torrid weekend. The organisers’ claim that the dry ground gave older engines and transmissions a harder time seems a poor excuse for the high rate of 911 attrition. Just 103 of the 185 starters reached the chequered flag, with the Porsches of Droogmans, Dumas, Van de Poele and Kelders going out. Big names were no help as Thiry, Loix, Munster, Perez and Solberg all dropped out too.

As ever with rallying, playing a well-paced game paid off for Stouf and Waldegard. TwinSpark associates, Tuthill Porsche in the UK, are running Bjorn on the East African Safari Rally in November – it’ll be interesting to see how he goes there in a Tuthill Safari Porsche. Early testing is described as mesmerising – sounds like an exciting recipe! We’ll pass more news on as we get it.

Here’s some quality Boucles video. But, if it seems like the same cars going round and round, you could be very right. Excellent pics in this post by Otocton on Flickr.