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Leonard shares the story of Race Day 2 at the recent State of Art Grand Prix Classic. Went pretty well for us! Pics in this update by Soledad Cordova, Daan Stolk and Eric van Der Schaaf.

Day two saw two races: one dry and one going from wet to dry.

The morning session started with Gerd leaving the grid before the start with what he thought was a clutch problem due to the now fixed oil leakage from the pump. Rather, it turned out he had broken the left drive flange clean off the gearbox!

I had a lightning start for a change and tore the green RSR right to the 8.000 rev limit in first to clench 2nd position in the first turn, gaining a spot. The LONG gearbox I  use allows for advantage at the start on a short track, but it’s really more suitable for Spa or tracks with long straights. At Zandvoort I  don’t reach 5th anywhere…

Lex made another lightning start in Woodstock, our yellow ’73 RSR, but he dropped back after a few laps and dropped out with what turned out to be fuel irrigation of the rear tires! the breather hose of the tank, which exits the body through the front beam, had dropped a few centimeters and developed a vacuum, sucking some fuel from the tank. Imagine that kind of thing….

Bas, in the blue Carrera3.0, caught a slippery patch whilst trying to correct a throttle pedal which came back too slowly and hit a tire wall with the left front side. Thank God a friendly panel beater stopped by in the break between the races and cleared the front wheel.

Ronald Aardse in his 2.8 RS ended up in a tussle with an original 535 works car that used to run in the Belgian Bastos team. Braking through the Tarzan corner, the Beemer ran wide, forcing Ronald to avoid contact by running through the gravel trap as though it was a rally test!  At least he could keep going.

The race ended with the silver Escort/Zakspeed of Marcel Frijlink in the lead and me coming in third, losing out to the power of the later spec RSR of Rolph Smulders.

Race three was as exciting to prepare for as to drive! It started to rain 3 hours before the race and the prediction was for it to stop at 3.30. The race was to start 45 minutes later. Team TwinSpark decided to trust the prediction of subsiding rain and a track that would dry out. Last time we went for wets in similar conditions and each wrote off a set in 5 laps… On the pre grid a Marshall came up to me stating that I  had made an interesting choice of tyres: team TwinSpark and a single Escort were the only ones on slicks out of a field of 25 cars…. As Gijs van Lennep stopped by the pre grid, I  felt heartened by his encouragement that this was indeed the right choice of tires given the circumstances.

I had another good start, moving to 2nd, but quickly got overtaken in the wet tussle by at least 5 cars within 1.000 meters, including buddy Lex in Woodstock. After the manoeuvring was done, the first 3 laps were a survival game, but the track was indeed drying out. I started to catch one competitor after the other. Frijlink, in the lead, left the track after 5 laps as his tires went to jelly, Lex spun twice due a problem with the floorboard which caught the clutch pedal slightly and Rolph Smulders in the red and yellow RSR was starting to feel the heat.

In the meanwhile, midfield, Bas Proper was making a spectacle of himself with a sweeping off on the Scheivlak turn. This is a high speed downhill, off-camber, then on-camber right turn where an off usually means a few rolls through the kitty litter…. Bas was lucky to go in backwards rather than sideways, narrowly missing an Escort as he practiced his reverse parking skills! No major harm came to anyone, just a bent front spoiler.

The officials only showed the Last Lap sign after Rolph and I had passed the line, so I thought I could catch Rolph. As I was getting ready for braking and overtaking at the end of the straight, the finish flag came down, leaving me in second by a 0,6 second margin! Needless to say that was an exciting end to a great race weekend, where the top spot in the championship was defended.

Next round is on September 24 at the Nurburgring GP track.