Spa Francorchamps FIA Lurani Trophy Race

Round 5 12/14th September 2003

Several of the Formula Junior runners, including most of the potential front runners, took advantage of Friday mornings "free" practice session to reacquaint themselves with the ultra fast Spa circuit, this session was run in perfect conditions sunny and warm and hardly any breeze.

Official qualifying practice forty one cars started this session, after the earlier practice the standard of competition for the grid was very high and close, the top four, Urs Eberhardt Lotus 27, Edwin Jowsey Lotus 22, Alan Lloyd Lotus 27 and Michael Schryver Lotus 22 all recorded times of 2.51 with only seven tenths of a second covering them, fifth fastest was Mike Hibberd in his 27 on 2.52.651 he was hampered by a collision with Van Gelders Lotus 20/22, probably caused by a misunderstanding under blue flag conditions, this ended the session early for Mike, Denis Welch was sixth fastest with 2.55.087 in the Merlyn Mk5/7, fastest in class B with 3.14.130 was Martin Borch- Christensen in his Lotus 18, Clive Wilson was the pace setter in class A in his Lola Mk2 with 3.14.393, thirty two drivers were shown in the results as qualified and nine drivers were outside 110% of best in class.

Race one was under way just after midday on Saturday, the green flag lap and the rolling start behind the pace car meant that the pit crews really couldn't see what was going on for literally the first three laps, we had a distant view of the cars at Eau Rouge and Edwin Jowsey was well in the lead and pulling away from the chasing pack of four cars dicing with each other trying to get on terms with the leader, but probably delaying each other in the process, this situation continued at a furious pace, Alan Lloyd and Urs Eberhardt's battle for second place was eventually resolved in Lloyds favour when Urs car left the road on lap seven, Mike Hibberd had his Lotus in front of Denis Welch's Merlyn and got the better of Schryvers 22 to get into third spot, just as it was looking as if this was to be the finishing order at the front Alan Lloyd passed Jowsey's 22 which was running out of fuel, Schryvers car retired with engine problems on lap ten, Alan Lloyd's Lotus 27 went on to win by 11secs from Edwin Jowsey Lotus 22 who claimed second spot in the pit lane after coasting in with an empty fuel tank, Mike Hibberd in his 27 was 1.8 secs away in third, with Denis Welch's Merlyn a couple of seconds away fourth, Clive Wilson in the Lola Mk 2 continued his good showing as in practice to head the front engined runners with the Justesen U2 second less than a second behind, Kevin Musson in the Lotus 18 headed the class B runners, with Martin Borch-Christensen also in a Lotus 18 some 7secs away second in class, only one car was unclassified the Roy Walzer Lotus 27 only completing one lap.

After Saturday's race there was a lot of activity in the paddock as the cars were prepared for Sunday's race two, David Stevenson had damaged the front of his 22 and was cutting it down so that it looked like a "Monaco" type nose and was trying to patch his damaged rad, in the end he borrowed one from a 20 to be sure, Bob Birrell was repairing his gearbox , someone else needed a push rod, someone a rocker, all very interesting. A big relief for everyone to see, Martin Walford, Dean Butler and Michael Windsor - Price who visited the FJ paddock on Saturday evening after their horrific accident early on Thursday morning, on the E40 near Brussels, it was a relief to see them out and about so quickly, they had clearly had an incredible escape. As Saturday wore on there were moves to reduce the race duration in Race two to 25 mins, this was intended to get over the difficulties which four of the drivers had with fuel capacity, this didn't meet with universal support, so a compromise of scrapping the first formation lap and using a shorter paddock access to the start was introduced, for race two.

Race two was again run in perfect conditions, thirty three cars formed up on the grid, there was a delayed start, we thought to allow a presentation to take place ! notable absentees from the line up were Edwin Jowsey and Michael Schryver in their Lotus 22's, which left a pretty large gap at the front of the grid, from the rolling start Eberhardt and Lloyd led away up from Eau Rouge with Denis Welch making good use at the start of the space in front of him on the grid, powered into third spot, only to spin away this advantage letting Mike Hibberd's 27 up into third, at the end of the second lap the three Lotus 27s were locked in a dice for the lead which went Hibberds way as he had the 27 ahead with a slight lead at the end of lap three, Alan Lloyd brought his Lotus 27 into the pits to retire on the fourth lap, then Urs had his 27 ahead through the pit straight, behind the leaders the Brabham BT2 of Klaus Rauschen had a serious accident, he struck the kerb just ahead of the private battle for position between Andrew Hibberd and Mark Green in their Lotus 22s, the Brabham was severely damaged though thankfully Klaus was OK, this resulted in the last 15/20 mins of the race being run behind the safety car as the marshals were unable to move the damaged car, when the yellow flags came out Urs Eberhardt was leading in his Lotus 27 Mike Hibberd's similar car was second, Denis Welch closed up to third after his early spin, if racing had resumed it could have been a real dash for the flag, as it turned out the safety car led the way for the remaining laps, this spoiled the race but was clearly very necessary for safety reasons, Clive Wilson Lola Mk2 finished in fourteenth to again win class A, Kevin Musson Lotus 18 fifteenth took class B.

With so much of the race run behind the safety car the lap and place gaps were a bit academic. Fuel consumption also proved to very low as things turned out !!

Races 1 & 2 Aggregate position

Ist overall/class C Mike Hibberd Lotus 27, 2nd overall/class C Denis Welch Merlyn Mk5/7 3rd overall/class C Bruno Schaffner Lotus 22.

1st class A 11th overall Clive Wilson Lola Mk2.

1st class B 12th overall Kevin Musson Lotus 18.

The spectacle of the Formula Juniors blasting down the hill on the pit straight, flat through Eau Rouge and hurtling out of sight across the sky line was something to savour, also a bit nerve racking when son and grandson are in the thick of it all.

Stan Hibberd