Defending the State of Art Grand Prix Lead

Had an answerphone message from Leonard on Friday. He was very excited about the upcoming State of Art Grand Prix Classic at Zandvoort, and our continued assault on the Techno Challenge for Historic GT and Touring Cars.

Leonard was leading the championship, so this was an important weekend. “We need to keep within a sniff of the podium, and there are a couple of cars that we’ll have to try to keep behind us if we want to retain first position. This weekend will be the first time I have raced with the Hulk on slicks, so how much faster will it make it?”

Good questions, and when the flag dropped for Race 1 on Saturday, our man had similarly good answers.  In the end of race 1, he finished 4th, with a top speed just 2mph behind the fastest car: 128 versus 130 mph. Lex was just behind, in 5th.

What’s interesting is that Leonard’s time was set on lap ten, versus lap four for the best lap time of the race, set by the eventual winner. Space to make an early push on those new slicks could have made a difference, but that’s racing and that’s learning.

The amazing TwinSpark Zuffenhaus RSR brakes continued to make a difference, with great feel and control under foot. We’re excited to have sold a few sets of these to fellow racers now: roll on the positive feedback!

Here’s a report on Qualifying and Race Day One from the man himself. Read the report, and imagine what might have been:

Qualifying

Bas Proper was all excited racing his new 3.0 RSR engine in the Mexico Blue 3.0 Carrera. Cutting through the field of Escort like they were standing still! Gerd Rijper had his engine rebuilt due to multiple problems which transpired last racing weekend. The MFI pump was left alone and guess what? That sucker started to spit oil like there was no tomorrow. He got the meatball flag and had to pull out of qualifying.

Lex Proper in Woodstock pulled out a fine sixth place in qualifying, but got put back to eighth due to allegedly overtaking under yellow. Must have been marginal as his routine would normally catch this. Lex is still playing with the settings of the A/F ratio and was probably running a bit rich. I qualified fourth, now getting used to slicks under The Hulk and driving the narrowed body (shaved 2cm off each rear wing to comply with max width). The Hulk was very steady and I now need to find the next level of race performance. Hulk is ready to be lowered this winter and will get new trailing arms.

Race 1

Dry conditions and warm temps, but a dirty track where drifting was the norm! My start did not go as planned. I had a jump start and got penalised 10 seconds for moving before the lights went out. Sitting on the second row, I then got trapped behind the second place RSR, and Lex! Lex flew by from the 4th row and being manoeuvred to the right, tapped the side of my front bumper. No harm done and the race was on.

I knew I’d picked up a penalty, so started the chase to come back from 5th and put as much time between myself and the rest of the field. Solid lap times around my earlier record brought me closer to Lex and the Escort, RSR and Division 2 Golf Mk 1. As the leaders drive similar speeds, a bad start has serious impact; when Lex dropped back in the last few laps, I recovered 4th position.

Poor Gerd had to drop out after warmup laps before the start with clutch full of oil. Bas had a close encounter with a fellow competitor who moved to the fast lane instead of the slow lane when being overtaken, so Bas ended in the gravel trap. Not too much damage and he will drive again in Race 2. Famous collector and historic racer Adrian van Der Kroft put on a good show his Morgan plus 8. He showed how you drive that type of car fast and how to drift it through turns when grip was subsiding!

Special friendship award goes to Lex Proper (above in trademark disguise), who stayed at the track until 9 pm to fix Gerd’s MFI pump. Lex replaced all the crappy old gaskets and ensured our friend Gerd got out to play, where he had already conceded the opportunity. Lex, that’s the spirit that represents motorsport at its best!

Two more races followed Saturday’s delight. More on those later this week.

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