Grand Prix de l’Age d’Or
Bravo to Patrick and Louis Quiniou. The 2010 Grand Prix de l’Age d’Or, which took place on 18-20 June, was an excellent vintage, with quality grids and good racing. Only good summer weather was missing from the programme, with low temperatures and occasional showers, fortunately none too severe.
With Ford Trophée Kent Formula, Formula Fords, which produced a great scrap between Simon Hadfield and Pierre Alain Lombardi, which included a startline incident resulting in a roll by Pierre Alain Lombardi, who luckily escaped without damage to himself, two FJ heats and two HGPCA grids, single seat racing was well represented.
Philip Walker took pole and the early lead in his Lotus 16 in the HGPCA pre-’61 effort, with Mac Hulbert in his ERA and Ian Nuthall in the Alta F2 on his tail, the first two never really challenged throughout. Walker still reigned supreme in the second heat.
John Harper took pole in the Pre-’66 HGPCA race in his Cooper, but it was Mark Peircy’s Lola and the Cooper of Alain Baillie that took off at the start. With mechanical problems in the second heat, Peircy ceded the win to Harper.
The first of two Lurani Trophy races produced a battle royal for the remaining podium places after poleman Christophe Burkhardt re-took the lead from a fast-starting Urs Eberhardt, who then came under threat from John Fyda and Erwin Van Gelder for second place. The second race was a little more sedate, with Burkhardt taking the lead, followed Fyda and neither being seriously challenged. This time Rey took third ahead of Van Gelder’s Lotus.
GT and Sports cars were also on the menu and a superb grid lined up for the one-hour Woodcote Trophy race, contested in damp conditions. Ben Shuckburgh and Sam Hancock took the victory in their Jaguar D-type; an outstanding result for Shuckburgh, who only took up racing cars a year ago. In second place behind the Shuckburgh/Hancock D-type came the Maserati A6 GCS of Lukas Hüni and Gary Pearson, followed by the Ferrari 750 Monza of last year’s Woodcote Trophy winners, Andrew and Richard Frankel.
In the crowded Dutch Championship NKHGT race for GT, touring, sports and prototypes, the scrap was between the GT40s and Cobras, with the Fords getting the upper hand.
A packed grid led to a troubled U2TC race for Touring cars when a spinning Mini wrecked havoc in the early stages, bringing out the safety car. It was to be a Cortina race, with Bo Warmenius taking Thomas Fritz’ car into an early lead, challenged first by Andy Wolfe and then by Howard Redhouse, having his first drive in Philip Walker’s Cortina and in U2TC.
When the safety car came out polesitter Leo Voyazides took his Cortina into the pits seconds after the pit stop window opened to hand over to a determined Simon Hadfield, who proceeded to take fastest lap on his way back through the field once the safety car had gone. Finally hitting the front, the team took their second U2TC victory this season.
The second race of the newly launched Stirling Moss Trophy, for pre-1961 sportscars and sports-racers, was the final highlight of the weekend and spectators were treated to an action-packed race.
Sadly, the weather was less enticing: cold, windy and wet; and it was the rain, arriving near the mid-point of the one-hour race that decided the final outcome. Jamie McIntyre, setting off from pole in his familiar Lister Knobbly, tried hard to put sufficient distance between him and his pursuers to make up for the one-minute pit-stop penalty he knew he would incur as a single driver. But three cars in particular hung tight to his tail – the two Lotus 15s of Ewan McIntyre and Philip Walker/Danny Wright, and the Lister Jaguar Knobbly of Alex Buncombe.
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Van Gelder and Eberhardt.
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Ewan, sadly, dropped out of the fight with gear-selection problems but Jamie was still scrabbling to get away from the rest of the field when the rain started. In the wet and slippery conditions, the Cooper T39 Bobtail of Charles McCabe ended up in the gravel at the Parabolica, which brought out the Safety Car. Since some drivers had already pitted, and some – including Jamie – had not, the Safety Car laps had a huge influence on the placings, negating for many the balancing effect of the one-minute single-driver penalty.
The atmosphere at the meeting was, as always, one of great enthusiasm, with clubs displaying their cars, lunch-time demonstrations (this year for Bugattis and crazy sidecar drivers), a vendors village and a lot besides to see and do.
For a full report and results see our August issue
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