Spa Summer Classic

The Spa Summer Classic (yes that’s correct!) took place in April this year, and it must be said, the weather was quite mild.  By Spa standards, there was very little water and occasionally there was even some sunshine.  With a mixture of race series from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, the Roadbook Organisation once again put together a truly international event.  Jan-Bart Broertjes reports….

The Tourenwagen Legenden boasted not only legendary cars, but legendary drivers too, like Harald Grohs, Klaus Ludwig, Eric van de Poele and Marc Hessel, as well.  These had no fewer than three races over the weekend and the ubiquitous BMW E30 M3 Group A proved not to be quite up to the task this time.

The national Belcar Historic Cup is always well-supported, and the quality of the competing cars has vastly improved over recent years.  The first race was won by Lun Branckaerts in a Corvette C4 from Wim Kuijl in a Ford Capri RS3100.  The second race saw a race-long pitched battle between the two that ended 30-minutes later with Kuijl first past the flag.

There were three Dutch-organised series on the schedule.  The NK GTTC ‘66-‘81 shared the grid with the German Triumph Competition & British HTGT, which in turn accommodates the Dutch MG Competitions.  Wim Kuijl was again victorious in his Ford Capri, while the second race was won by his son Dieter in a similar car.  The classic British division went to Christian Bock from Germany in his E-type in race 1 and Swiss MGB racer René Grüter in race 2. 

The SuperSixties kicked off their season with mechanical issues for many drivers, from engine bay fires to broken diffs and wheels parting company, but nonetheless fielded over 40 pre-‘66 cars for two 40-minute races.   The big banger GTPs were conspicuously absent, and though the big banger GTs were out in force, it was Bob Stevens in his Lotus Elan 26R who had the legs on all of them in both races. 

The YTCC always creates a party atmosphere in their paddock.  With 67 cars there was plenty of opportunity for mayhem on the track as well, and so it turned out that there were only 54 left to take the start of the first race.  All three races were won at a canter by Walter Hoffman in a McLaren M1, although Coen Vink in a BMW bodied V8 STAR (remember those?) was not too far behind in the final. 

From Germany there was the Historic Championship ‘65 and the Historic Championship ‘81.  With just 15 cars, the pre-‘65 races were not very well supported.  Both were won by Luco Sanchez in a Ford GT40.  There were more cars in the 90-minute pre-‘81 race, partly because most pre-‘66 cars reappeared for this.  Felix Haas led from start to finish in his Lola T210. 

Finally, the Classic Sports Car Club Interseries featured a cross section of the CSCC’s membership divided into seven different classes.  Stephen Nuttall twice came out on top of the 60-strong field, keeping the Porsches and other supercars at bay in his Caterham R400.

Spa Three Hours 

The main race was, of course, the 3 Hours, which boasted a healthy 66 entries.  This turned into a battle of the generations, between the pair of 1970s 3-litre Porsches of the Rolner family on one side and a number of pre-‘66 challengers, mainly Lotus Elans from the UK, on the other.

Te read our full report get the June 2024 issue of Historic Motor Racing News…..