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Brno

01/07/2001

Race

Report

Warm Up

While all Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions were held under warm and sunny conditions, on Sunday morning it was cloudy with showers but the weather forecast for the afternoon was a little more optimistic.

Before the morning warm up it stopped raining, but all teams had to leave slicks at their pits and could try the Brno circuit in the wet. All 20 cars present took part in this morning session. Some of them didn't have a trouble free run however. The major problem occurred with the Debora, which is the 1999 LMP2 car, now called Debora PR B6. Before completing its first warm up lap, its driver spun and hit the pit wall. The damage wasn't so extensive, so the team started to repair the car with the hope of racing it in the afternoon.

The Kremer Lola driven by Formato and Hancock ran very well and in the final warm up standings appeared in the second position (2:09.257) just behind quickest car, Lavaggi's Ferrari-Judd (2:08.988). But at the end of the session one of the Lola drivers ended up in the gravel.

The pole position car, the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari of Zadra / Gounon, was only third (2:09.960) ahead of the Ascari driven by Lupberger and Ben Collins. This car is chassis number 001, which has reverted back to a full roll hoop trim.

A bit disappointing was the performance of both Domes on wets. Lammers and Hillebreand's car was only seventh (2:14.471). Even slower was Den Bla Avis car of Nielsen and Katoh that finished ninth, a full five seconds behind the SR2 leader, the Audisio & Benvenuto Lucchini (2:18.103) driven by Tonetti and Massimo Saccomanno. They were running a new 2001 specification car (chassis 144) while their 2000 car (chassis 140) appeared for the second time this year after Monza, now driven by Chiminelli and Ernesto Saccomanno.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the warm up morning session was performance of Renauer Motorsport Tampolli. Gsell, Cepin and Wolfgang Griessner (former Interserie front driver for Walter Lechner) were 10th overall and second in SR2 class.

The Race

After two hours and thirty minutes of racing John Nielsen and Hiroki Katoh took the chequered flag and celebrated the first international victory for the new Dome S101.

After very good start on wets, Nielsen took the lead ahead of Gounon's Ferrari and after several laps run in slight rain, he led with a huge margin. Only during pitstops on laps 23 and 46 did they lose the lead, when the Riley & Scott of Caffi and Baldi pitted a lap later. "It was actually harder waiting for Hiroki than driving myself in the early stages when the conditions were very tricky," said Big John. "The car was perfect on both wets and slicks and this one is for the team who have worked so hard."

Second place in the finish belonged to Jean-Marc Gounon and Marco Zadra. The pole sitters started the race in second position but after seven laps they had dropped to sixth. Improvement came after the first series of pitstops, when Gounon held third place behind the leading Dome and Lupberger's well driven Ascari. Lupberger was having a great run, even reducing the gap to Nielsen between laps 30 and 40. "The car felt fantastic in the damp and I was actually catching the Dome a little, but when I handed over to Ben there were problems with re-fuelling and then starting the car and we lost over 30 seconds," recounted Werner Lupberger. But after the second series of pitstops the Ascari never returned to its form from the middle of the race, while Gounon who took over from Zadra on lap 44 became the quickest man on the track and on lap 47 he set the new track record in 1:52.271. However, the trouble free run of Katoh's Dome gave no chance to Gounon to win even when he shortened the gap from 39 seconds on lap 49 to 14 seconds at the finish.

Two of the six former formula one drivers present at Brno - Mauro Baldi and Alex Caffi in R&M Riley & Scott Mk III-020 - finished third. Caffi moved from seventh position on lap one to fourth before the end of the first stint. They kept the same position in the middle of the race when they ran quicker than Zadra in Ferrari #1 and even set the provisional fastest lap when the rain stopped and track was drying. After a very quick pitstop they overtook the Ascari and took a well earned podium after two retirements at Monza and Spa.

The Ascari driven by Lupberger ran well for most of the race. From fourth position at the end of the first lap he moved to second after overtaking Gounon's BMS Ferrari 333SP-024 on lap 5. Lupberger and Collins looked to have the possibility of beating the leading Dome but after a long pitstop on lap 43, they dropped to fourth place and in the finish they could be extremely happy to retain this position because in the final lap they were caught by the second Dome and Kremer's Lola and at some parts of the circuit all three cars were seen alongside.

This battle with Ascari, Lola and Racing Team Holland Dome saw the latter cpme good, after a very poor start for Jan Lammers. They had not made a good choice of tyres for the wet track and during lap eight they were even overtaken by SR2 leader - the Tampolli SR2 RTA98-007 driven by Massimo Monti, which was the immediate signal to return to pits and change tyres. But even after that the Dome, which was so quick at Le Mans two weeks ago and kept in touch with leading factory Audis, didn't run much better. It was very hard to drive in the wet conditions. However, on lap 19 with the track drying, Lammmers pitted again and changed to slicks and became the faster driver in the field. But he was two laps down, behind seven SR2 runners. When Lammers handed over to Hillebrand on lap 45, he was already fifth overall. Before Hillebrand returned to the track they lost three positions. But they soon fought for fifth with the Kremer-Lola driven now by Gary Formato. After dramatic battle they overtook them in the final lap. The difference between fourth and sixth in the finish was less than one second.

Sixth place for the Kremer's Lola B98/K2001-HU07 meant the first finish for the team this year, but that was probably a little disappointing after a good performance during most of the race. After starting from the back end of the SR1 grid, Hancock overtook Christian Vann in Lavaggi's Ferrari on lap 8 and ran third until the end of the first stint on lap 19. However he had to return to the pits on lap 22 for a tyre change after a wrong choice before. After that the Kremer car was one of the fastest when the track was drying and was also among several runners that set provisional fastest lap. In the end they had second fastest lap. They were one of the few crews that made four pitstops instead of the usual mandatory three. After an unsuccessful attack on the Ascari on the final lap they even lost their fifth position to the Racing For Holland Dome.

The last SR1 finisher was the second BMS Ferrari 333SP, chassis number 029, driven by Enzo Calderari, Lilian Bryner and Angelo Zadra. They ran regularly throughout without major problems but never were better than sixth.

The only SR1 car out was GLV Brums Ferrari 333SP-003 driven only by Christian Vann (electrical trouble). This car is one of two Ferrari examples in world racing with the Judd engine and is also the car with longest history among all competitors running not only in FIA Sportscar Championship but all international sportscar series today. According to our records it was its 60th race since its debut at Road Atlanta 1994.

SR2 Race

The battles between the SR2 cars were very interesting and despite it looking like a comfortable win for the Swedish Lola B2K/40-HU06 driven by Oberto and Björk, it wasn't so clear for much of the race. The class had five different leaders during the race and the winning Lola, after a poor start on wets, was the last of them. They didn't set the fastest lap, they weren't the quickest, but probably a good pitstop strategy helped them to recover from sixth and seventh places that Oberto ran on wets.

Massimo Monti in the BM Autosport Tampolli was the early SR2 leader who, after several race laps, even overtook Lammers in his Dome and Calderari in the BMS Ferrari #2. But after 19 laps the race for him was over.

The new leader in SR2 class became Jean Bernard Bouvet in one of the factory Lucchinis, #52. His first stint was longer than that of all the SR1 cars and thus he became an overall leader for a single lap, number 24. During first series of pitstops another two Lucchinis appeared in the SR2 lead. The first was Roberto Tonetti, followed by Leonardo Maddalena in the yellow SCI Lucchini, who was the fourth different SR2 leader. After Maddalena returned to the pits, the SRTS Lola appeared in the lead for the first time on lap 30. But after only two laps, he was overtaken by the quicker Lucchini, #52. Onn lap 36, the Lola pitted again and the Lucchini #66 of Tonetti and Massimo Saccomanno moved up to second. However after two thirds of the race the Lola overtook this Lucchini again and was second behind the better of the factory Lucchinis (#52). However, after the pitstop of #52, the Lola took the lead and kept it until the finish.

Björk in the Lola was more than one minute ahead but behind him no less than three Lucchinis were in a close battle. Saccomanno in #66 had to leave second position to the works car of Peroni at his third mandatory pitstop. But Peroni wasn't able to keep that place because another factory Lucchini, #50 with Francioni at the wheel, was getting faster and two laps before the end of the race overtook Peroni. But the battle didn't stop and the gap was about half second at the end. Saccomanno finished fourth but the team could be happy at least for setting the fastest lap among smaller class.

The SCI Lucchini had a good start and finished fifth ahead of the only Pilbeam in the field. That was the repaired Rowan Racing chassis MP84-06/01 that was crashed at Le Mans. Martin O'Connell and Warren Carway lost much time in the first part of the race because of a wrong tire choice.

The Renauer Motorsport car was the only Tampolli at the finish. They were classified seventh, which was their best result since their debut atthe start of this season. The last finisher was the Debora, which was repaired after the accident in warm up and now used a little different front bodywork and rear wing. The Debora stopped in the pits after eight laps with problems and didn't return until the leader's lap 28.

While two works Lucchinis #50 and #52 (2001 chassis numbers 143 and 146) had a good race, the third works Lucchini #51, model 2000, chassis number 142, was the first car to retire from the race. Denny Zardo went to the pits just after completing the pace lap, returned to the race after two laps but didn't complete more than five laps.

The last car that we need to mention is the Swara Racing Tampolli. This silver car driven by Mallock and Wiseman was an early SR2 midfield runner but stopped after 33 laps (engine).

With only twenty cars on the grid and only eight in top SR1 class, the FIA Sportscar Championship still doesn't look strong enough. We can hope that more new cars will appear in the second half of the season. The current racing is good, but when we compare it to FIA GT race at Brno two months ago, it still needs more new cars, more top line drivers and especially more publicity. At this current form, it is the same as it was last year and even the same as it was in 1998.

Martin Krejci (less than subtly introducing chassis numbers into his report - he's from the Janos Wimpffen school of race reporting!). Thanks Martin.