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Lotus Cup Europe 2010 - Round 1

Nurburgring race report

30 April – 1st May

 

Introduction

The opening round of the 2010 Lotus Cup Europe season saw many familiar faces from last year together with fresh blood over the four classes.  In particular there were several new entrants from France, Germany and the UK making record numbers in the 2-Eleven and Exige Cup divisions, plus we can expect many more cars joining these two classes in particular later in the season.  Production also had entrants from Austria and France for the first time.  Last year’s class winners - Scotland’s Scott Cruickshank, Belgian John Rasse and England’s James Knight - were all back to protect their crowns.

Petrolhead heaven, the historic Nurburgring in the German Eifel mountains provided the perfect setting.  This is the venue where the Rob Walker Lotus of Stirling Moss scored an against-the-odds victory against the more powerful Ferraris in 1961 and Jim Clark won for the works team on the way to his second championship.  Of course these were claimed on the old Nordschleife and some of the drivers made sure they took in a lap or two over the weekend.

Practice and Qualifying

For much of the qualifying session Walker held the fastest time, carrying forward his pace from practice a couple of hours earlier.  It looked as though things were going his way until Kirby put in a quick lap.  He would end up almost a second faster and the pair’s 2-Elevens were over three seconds clear of Invite class leader Peter Entenfellner, the Austrian just ahead of Cruickshank and 340R driver David Harvey.  Six 2-Elevens would line up behind them, newcomer Phillipe Loup leading Harry Steegmans, Tom Chatterway, Mark Gooday, Thierry Verheist and Simon Deacon. Poor Gooday would take no further part in the weekend however, as his engine let go soon after he set his lap.

Leading the Exige class were the Rasse brothers, picking up where they left off in 2009.  John was the faster of the pair by just over a tenth and they had Laurent Feve’s 2-Eleven between them and Olivier Cunat, who was just in front of Denis Van den Savel.  Steve Williams and Pete Storey were well back in seventeenth and nineteenth places, sandwiching the unfortunate Frank Berger, whose session ended in the barriers at the Ford-Kurve.

Production pole was taken by Michael Edwards, just clear of James Knight, with Rob Austin and Paul Quinn a little further off the pace. No fewer than ten new drivers would make it through to the grid for the first time including locals Frank Berger, Herbet Metzker, Sebastian Schwertner and Markus Nikowitsch.

Lotus Cup Europe’s new Technical Partner and main sponsor Motul, the specialist lubricants supplier, were present to meet drivers and teams in what looks like being an exciting partnership with the only Group Lotus official race series.

Race One

A late switch to a rolling start for race one gave Kirby an advantage off the line as Entenfellner took second place.  Walker and Steegmans went through the Mercedes arena together but the former would prevail and with a move around Entenfellner around the outside of the Warsteiner Kurve, he held the advantage along the back straight.

Also passing the fast-starting Steegmans on that first lap was Cruickshank, as Harvey, Verheist, Chatterway and an impressive Loup looked to find their way past the Belgian’s 2-Eleven.  Then we had the Rasse brothers, together as always, John ahead of Gregory.

As Harvey was passing Steegmans, Walker started to close on the leader, with third place Entenfellner coming under pressure from Cruickshank.  As he got past the modified Exige, Harvey looked set to follow but an oil leak put paid to a very promising weekend.  Chatterway and Verheist swapped places as did the Rasse pair, Gregory also demoting Verheist and Steegmans, the racing hard-fought.

In the latter stages the main focus was on Walker catching Kirby, Cruickshank was some way back and alternating between maintaining a comfort gap and defending, especially once Chatterway moved into fourth place.  With the way clear, Walker took advantage of a backmarker leaving the pits and wrested the lead with a lap to go.

The order of the leading two now settled, Cruickshank held off Chatterway for the final podium position. Gregory Rasse took sixth and the Exige Class while Entenfellner took fifth and victory for Invite,   Loup, Feve, Steegmans and Verheist completed the top ten, whilst Deacon finished in front of Exige class runners-up John Rasse and Cunat.

Knight led production from Edwards, Austin and Quinn, whist the quartet lapped amongst Berger.  Austin’s race didn’t quite go to plan and he dropped behind Nigel Ayres for a while. Edwards managed to find away past the erstwhile leader and scored a class victory.

Race Two

Late in the afternoon, the cars lined up for a standing start, this time for a 30-minute race.  Determined not to lose out, Kirby maintained the lead from Walker, whilst Cruickshank and Chatterway made sure that they would not be bottled up behind Entenfellner as Deacon made a great start to also pass the Exige, now tracked by Steegmans, John Rasse, Loup and Gregory Rasse.

Into the hairpin halfway round the lap Chatterway spun and the pack did well to avoid him, especially Storey, Williams and Lisandre, who were three-abreast at this point.  This left Deacon free to attack Cruickshank and the two would lap in close company for some time.

Entenfellner once again held a number of cars behind, with John and Gregory Rasse, Loup, Steegmans, Verheist, Feve, Lisandre, Cunat and Storey all looking for a way past each other.  Verheist’s car would develop a problem and the resultant oil spill triggered a safety car intervention midway through the race for two laps as the unfortunate Loup was spun into the barriers. 

At the restart the order at the front would be Kirby, Walker, Cruickshank, Deacon, John Rasse, Entenfellner, Lisandre, Gregory Rasse, Storey, Steegmans, Cunat and Williams.

Cunat was the big winner, taking a couple of places but up front the big story was first Deacon taking third place, then Walker taking the overall lead with just a few laps remaining.  Entering the final lap with seconds to go, he may have wished he’d backed off a little as into the chicane Kirby made a last-ditch move that paid off handsomely as he crossed the line in first place.

Deacon lost seven seconds to the front in the final laps but was a second clear of Cruickshank.  Gregory Rasse took another Exige class victory, with sibling John just behind. Steegmans also cleared modified winner Entenfellner, with the 2-Elevens of Lisandre, Storey and Williams clearing Cunat, from Sebastian Schwertner’s modified Elise.

Lisandre’s ninth position was particularly impressive, considering that he had started thirty-second on the grid.

Rob Austin led the early stages of the Production class from Quinn, Knight, Bartlett and Ayres, Edwards some way back after losing out in the first laps.  However Quinn and Knight would pass and the lead was settled in Knight’s favour.  They would finish clear of a charging Edwards, taking advantage of Ayres’ attempt to pass Bartlett at the chicane, leaving the latter with nowhere to go but the gravel.  He would recover to finish at the tail of the field.

Conclusion

A flying start to the 2010 season, with both overall winners the class of the field this weekend, Walker picking up both fastest laps after Kirby took pole postion. Gregory Rasse continued his form from 2009 in the Exige Cup class with two great wins, while it’s great to see the Exiges competing with the 2-Elevens.

James ‘Pinky’ Knight just pipped it in Production with a win and a second, however it was a shame we didn’t get to see the developing battle between Entenfellner and Harvey in the Invite class.

The next round is at Snetterton for the Classic Team Lotus Festival, an event looking likely to be one of the most important Lotus events ever!

Full race coverage of round one and all future Lotus Cup Europe rounds will be broadcast to over 60 countries in a one hour programme on Motors TV from the middle of June.

 

Kevin Ritson
Press Officer LoTRDC

 

 

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