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Lotus Cup Europe 2009 - Round 6

Spa Francorchamps race report

OCTOBer 2nd - 4th

 

Introduction

A month after Dijon, the series moved on to the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, venue of the Belgium Grand Prix.  A fast track, with plenty of tricky corners, in its old configuration even the great Lotus Formula One driver Jim Clark confessed to fearing the place, despite excelling there.  With the round also coinciding with the UK Elise Trophy and boasting a huge grid, would Michael Damoiseaux continue his run of wins on the mainland?

Practice and Qualifying

Practice and Qualifying took place on Friday, a cold, damp and misty morning providing plenty of challenge for the drivers.  Michael Damoiseaux pipped Scott Cruickshank but was unable to beat UK runners Chris Headlam and Jamie Stanley.  They did, however, put themselves in front of several Elise Trophy Modified class cars before Harry Steegmans and Thierry Verheist in 9th and 10th places respectively.  Christophe Lisandre paired up with Gregory Rasse in 13th and 14th, the latter top Exige runner.  A couple of places further back were Olivier Cunat and David Seear, then John Rasse in 19th place.

Qualifying happened under threatening skies, some drops of rain lightly dampening the track.  Damoiseaux continued to dominate but was unable to take pole, which fell to UK runner Jamie Stanley, posting a great lap, some 2.3 seconds ahead.  Elise Trophy drivers Ben Pitch, Sean Bicknell, Chris Headlam and Austrian-based modified runner Andreas Holzleithner all qualified ahead of Scott Cruickshank, back in seventh and two places back was Lisandre.  Steegmans was in eleventh, Cunat top Exige in thirteenth, Robert Montgomery fifteenth, with Verheist and Gregory Rasse directly behind.  His brother John was twentieth,  Seear twenty-third, Antoine Leblois twenty-sixth and Denis Van den Savel twenty-seventh.

In Production, Mick Edwards edged out Marcus Jewell, Steve Williams, Ken Savage and Stuart Kirkbride, all of them getting amongst the faster cars, whilst behind them Dijon winner Simon Phillips led the rest of the pack.

Race One

The weather at Spa was as ever predictable in its unpredictability and when the cars were fired up on mid-morning on Saturday, the skies were grey and drizzle left a damp layer on the track.  With a rolling start to make things easier, the cars set off on the run to Eau Rouge, with Stanley making the most of his pole position.  Things weren’t so good for Damoiseaux and he fell back several places but not as bad as Chris Headlam and Simon Deacon, both spinning at Eau Rouge and poor Deacon’s 2-Eleven planted itself in the barrier.  Or Verheist, who found the run to Pouhon treacherous and ended his weekend in the Armco.  A few laps later he was joined by Gary Broad, who was lucky to avoid serious contact with the 2-Eleven.

Stanley set about establishing a lead whilst Damoiseaux languished in fifth place, behind LCE leader Cruickshank and the modified cars of Bicknell and Pitch.  First Pitch swapped places with Bicknell, then Damoiseaux worked on getting places back.  Bicknell was soon passed and Pitch was making a battle of it.  The second half of the race was all about these two and Cruickshank, well within reach of the pair.  As Damoiseaux grabbed third place they were right with Cruickshank as they rounded La Source for the penultimate time.  Down the hill Damoiseaux was now second and further round the lap Pitch claimed the final podium place.

At the flag Stanley was 10 seconds to the good but Damoiseaux, Pitch and Cruickshank finished within three seconds of each other.  Bicknell was a lonely fifth before the third-placed 2-Eleven of Lisandre.  He was disputing the place with Exige winner Gregory Rasse, with brother John 8 seconds further back.  With UK regulars Mark Gooday and Chris Headlam finishing off the top ten, the third-placed Exige of David Seear was back in twelfth, ahead of Robert Montgomery.  Van den Savel came home seventeenth, ahead of Antoine Leblois.

Jewell led the production class, with Edwards a threat until the late stages, when he dropped down the order.  This left Williams to finish second, from Peter Driver, himself only just ahead of Pete Storey.

This was a very entertaining race, with Damoiseaux’s fight back providing most of the thrills.

Race Two

At least there were no questions over grip on Sunday’s race.  Indeed, there was a shortage of grip all round the circuit as it was awash from a heavy and constant rain, making visibility very poor, too.  Anyone who finished this race would have reason to celebrate.  As such, a rolling start was declared in place of the scheduled standing start and late in the morning the field floated through the Bus Stop and as the lights turned green, Stanley, who could at least see the starting gantry, headed into his second lead of the weekend.  Damoiseaux again experienced problems, this time a determined Bicknell who was unable to take advantage this time but held the rest of the pack behind.

Cruickshank and Headlam made it past by the end of lap one and Pitch was soon also through but only the first of these was able to make any headway into the leaders and as Bicknell slowly dropped down the order with his own woes, Cruickshank hauled himself up to Damoiseaux and immediately set about displacing him.  For the remainder of the ten lap race, the two 2-Elevens circulated as one, the Scotsman feinting the odd move here and there but ultimately unable to wrest second place from the Belgian.  Whilst all of this was going on, Stanley drove a canny race, pacing himself so that he was just enough seconds in front, immune from attack.

With Pitch a lonely third, Headlam just kept himself ahead of Gregory Rasse, the leading Exige driver.  In the early stages he duelled with Cunat but put in some decisive laps to pull away, as his brother completed the distance between them and Seear.  Rounding out the top ten we had the third-placed 2-Eleven of Robert Montgomery, on a day when the Exiges were ahead of many of their open-topped counterparts.

The Production class was led from the start by Williams and he managed to put some of the faster cars between himself and the battle for second, keenly fought between Rob Myers and Simon Phillips.  Myers was driving a very wide car and eventually they both had moments, leaving Greg Noble and Driver to claim the final podium places.

Conclusion

Spa lived up to its reputation of being fearsome, spectacular, entertaining and also wet!  All the drivers did exceptionally well in the conditions and we look forward to a dry final 2009 round at the home of the Worlds greatest motor race, Le Mans later in the month.

 

Kevin Ritson

Press Officer LoTRDC

 

Pictures courtesy of Simon Milner and Yvo Tuk

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