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Team TwinSpark participated in a non-championship 1 hour race during the Open Exhaust Historic Grand Prix at Zandvoort on September 1 and 2. Lex proper and I shared the wheel during this race amongst 60’s and 70’s Sports Car prototypes and what an experience that was! Zandvoort has only 7 days a year during which there is no noise restriction. We could therefore drive The Hulk on megaphones for the very first time and experienced what an RSR sounded like in the day. I drove qualifying with ear plugs in, but decided that this was a waste of aural pleasure and raced without them!

As a coincidence my niece Emilia Mendieta, a Vassar cinematography graduate and producer, who lives in new York, was present that weekend and we asked here to make a video impression of the event, using both round-the-track video and in-car footage. I believe she has succeeded in capturing the thrill of both participating and spectating very well and we are very grateful for her product!

The race we ran in is part of the The Masters Series World Sports Car class and we shared a pitbox with friends Mark and James Bates of EB Motorsports. You will see their yellow 2.8 model RSR in some of the footage. Mark showed his skill by leaving a few of the prototypes for dead and proving the power of minimum weight. His car weighs in at just over 900 kilo’s, features his own slide valves and a very well tuned camshaft and gearbox set up. The car is fully FIA compliant spec and we were very impressed with its performance. There is more news coming about TwinSpark Racing and EB Motorsport in the next couple of weeks.

In the video you’ll see Lex spinning the Hulk during the second lap of the race, as he hits the marbles on the edge of the Scheivlak. No harm was done but as we were waiting for him to come through a Masters stewart informed us that:” the car was being towed, but the driver was safe…” That was good news in itself, but I thought our race was over. Thank God there was nothing wrong with the car either and the marshals let Lex continue the race after he had been towed clear.We have been bitten by the open exhaust experience and will definitely participate in this class again next year. There was a clear performance improvement in the upper revs due to the lower exhaust restriction and The Hulk just felt even more agile as a consequence. We drove the car with steel RSR trailing arms, supporting the Zuffenhaus RSR brakes and will be doing final set up of the chassis before our final championship weekend at Zandvoort on September 29-30. I think I’ll play the sound track of the video on my earphones that weekend…