British GT – Spa-Francorchamps 1000 Km – Preview
Absolutely Wide Open

The British GTs may have been to Spa before (but none of these cars have), but they haven’t raced over a distance of anything like 1000 Km before – and they haven’t mixed it with the prototypes before either. This is real endurance racing, and for three of the GTO teams, there’s an awful lot at stake.

GTO Points
1 Shane Lynch / Piers Johnson 166
2 Shaun Balfe / Jamie Derbyshire 164
3 Tom Herridge 153.

In some ways it’s remarkable that not only is there a TVR right in the thick of the title hunt, its drivers are actually leading the points race. Thinking back to the Silverstone event in May, there were more than mutterings that the Moslers were running away with the races. Yet here we are in late August and Piers Johnson and Shane Lynch are the outright leaders, with two races left.

Another odd feature of the nine races so far is that the Rollcentre Mosler hasn’t won one yet. The score is Balfe Mosler six, Eclipse TVR two, DeWalt TVR one. The better finishing records of Rollcentre and Eclipse have kept them in the hunt…and this is a 1000 kilometre race.

Only one of the teams is experienced at real endurance races – Rollcentre. Will Martin Short’s experience pay dividends at Spa? What is absolutely clear is that getting the car to the finish is going to be vital for all three teams. A no-score now could mean championship aspirations gone in a flash.

So there’s a lot hanging on this one. Each of the three has brought in a third driver: Tommy Erdos (Balfe), Joao Barbosa (Rollcentre) and Simon Pullan (Eclipse).

But it’s a race among more than just three cars, of course. The DeWalt TVR(s) raced at Sebring (very well) and Le Mans (not so well) and could well be the pace setters. Spa should suit the Xero Corvette, there are the Peninsula and CDL TVRs, Peter Cook is out with his Porsche again, for he and Franck Pelle – and the Master Motorsport entry is taken over by the Damax Ferrari. And everyone will have to use their mirrors….

The Cup cars even more so. It’s a good grid of ten, and who’d bet against the Porsches of Tech 9 / GruppeM? Freisinger has already won at Spa this year – with a car from the ‘second’ class: that couldn’t happen again, could it?

Two Morgans, two Elises, a Golf, a Clio V6, the ISL Mantis and the Glenvarigill Ferrari – what an assortment. In the Guest Class we have Cor Euser’s Mantara, a Vertigo Streiff and a Diablo. It doesn’t get more varied than this.

Wonder if it will rain?