Photos by Dave Brassington (For hi resolution copies click here) – Words : Sarah Bennett-Baggs
It was Chris Ward and Andrew Smith who stole the honours for this year’s Spa Six Hour feature race, clocking up a debut win for JD Classics in their Ford GT40 after sprinting their way through the dark and stealing the lead from the pole sitting German crew of Frank Stippler, Michael Funke and Georg Nolte by making their final driver change under the safety car.
Qualifying:
A rather damp track was served up for Friday night’s qualifying session and I can tell you from experience the driving standards were pretty hair-raising. Speed differentials have always been high in this race, and non-more so than this year with seventeen Ford GT40s hustling their way through the grid. However it wasn’t the gentle stream running across the circuit at turn 16 which was the issue, it was more the sheer balls out approach some of the competitors decided to attack their precious qualifying laps.
No surprise then, that the top three fastest cars were Ford GT 40s, with the German team of Frank Stippler, Michael Funke and Georg Nolte taking pole position with: 2m 42 – the Brit JD Classics duo of Chris Ward and Andrew Smith were 2nd fastest: 2m43 and third was Dickie Meaden, Nick Padmore and Martin O’Connell.
Fastest behind the GT40s was the Dutch Shelby Cobra of David and Oliver Hart and Nicky Pastorelli. Julian Thomas and Calum Lockie were the fastest of the Jaguar E-Types. A total of 115 cars qualified with a range of lap times from 2m42 – the slowest at 3m49.
The Race:
The race got underway safely slightly later than the planned 3.55pm due to previous race delays. It was 4.45pm when the lights went green for the start of the Six Hour Race, the timing screens showed a count-down race time of just over 5 hours – due to a 10pm curfew.
The German pole sitting GT40 of Stippler/Funke/Nolte led the race in the early stages with the Ward/Smith GT40 in hot pursuit. It was lap 11 when Ward/Smith took the lead. The GT40 of Martin Stretton and Tony Wood carved their way up the sharp end to run in second position in the mid part of the race, and later the crew of Wolfe/Gans/Wright also ran in second position behind Ward/Smith. In the last part of the race the GT40 of Stippler/Funke/Nolte returned to the leader board with Smith/Ward a lap behind but on lap 74 – Chris Ward retook the lead of the race and that is where he stayed to the final flag. The German crew Stippler/Funke/Nolte had to settle for 2nd and 3rd home was Wolfe/Gans/Wright.
First of the non GT40s home was the Aston Martin DB4 GT DP214 of Wolfgang Friedrichs a remarkable result finishing in 6th overall and winning the GTS12 class. Just behind them was the Lotus Elan 26R of Graham Wilson, Oliver Stirling and David Pittard who topped the GTS10 class. Julian Thomas and Calum Lockie were the first of the E-Types home finishing 14th overall (3rd in class) a great result. Also congratulations to the little topless red Healey 100 of Nick Matthews and Nathan Freke who kept circulating to finish 27th overall not bad for a 1954 2.6 litre sports car they enjoyed the top step of the podium for the GTS2 class. Finally, hats off to Clive Joy who bravely fielded his stunning Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competition along with co-drivers Christian Traber and Simon Patrick and was rewarded with the GTS7 Class win.
This event and race remains THE highlight of the annual Classic racing calendar, the only true long distance endurance race, whilst it feels like it gets bigger and faster every year, the lap times were actually slightly slower than previous years and this was reflected with the total number of laps by the race leader just under 100. It is still a privilege to be part of this amazing event, sadly our race ended with an early bath this year, but hopefully we’ll be back to try again in 2018.
