Trophees Historiques de Bourgogne
7 & 8 October 2006 Dijon-Prenois

Lurani Trophy Formula Junior:  Martin Walford had already secured the FIA Lurani Trophy Championship and Class C for early rear-engine drum brake cars but this did nothing to reduce his desire to race. Looking at the thirty-three qualifiers Class E, rear-engine disc brake cars, was wide open with three possible winners.  Martin Carter was safe in Class D, rear-engine drum brake cars as was Duncan Rabagliati in Class B for front-engine cars, and Daniele Salodini in Class A Italian front-engine cars.

Friday’s qualifying was dismally wet with continuous fine rain and the track as slippery as a bar of soap as many drivers quickly discovered with many spins and excursions off the track.  Despite all the pirouettes every car escaped damage.  Simon Ham went out on a new set of tyres and lived to tell the tale.  Martin Walford called into the pits twice, once with loose bodywork and the second when he misread the oil temperature gauge for the water temperature, which shows it can happen to the best!  John Fyda’s car took a dislike to the wet and was very reluctant to start as were several of the others.  Michael Trganowan’s Kieft had already retired after engine failure in Thursday’s free practice whilst trying out his newly installed gear-box.  Marcus Mussa was trying hard for a good grid position and spun three times during the session as did Jens Rauschen who gratefully selected reverse as six juniors sped round the corner towards him.  Urs Eberhardt and Simon Ham were not immune with both having brief excursions off the island but exceptionally Erwin van Gelder  kept his Lotus 20/22 on the track.  Eberhardt (Lotus 27) to his amazement took pole as he is the first to admit that he does not like to drive in the wet.  Race One was wet despite the weatherman’s prediction of a dry race.  The juniors went out on a track that was still wet from the overnight downpour and rain started to spatter on their helmets as they left assembly.  Some had risked a dry setting anticipating a dry-line that never appeared.  The track seemed to have less adhesion then qualifying which was summed up by John Fyda who thought he found more grip on the shale from the kitty-litter than on the track.  Bruno Schafner spun his Lotus 20/22 on the green flag lap but collected it and took his place on the grid.  Robin Longdon (Lola Mk 5A) made a superb start from seventh on the grid to second at the end of the straight only to be hit from behind by a late braking Simon Ham (Brabham BT2), luckily tyre to tyre, which lost Simon two places but Robin watched everyone go by before he rejoined and began his charge through the field to eventually take seventh place.  Meanwhile Chris Drake (Brabham BT6) took advantage of the confusion to lead for the first lap before being overtaken by a flying Simon Ham who galloped away to finish by a margin of twenty-seven seconds from John Fyda who had wend his way through the field from ninth, with Marcus Mussa making up the podium.  Race Two Overnight Marcus Mussa, Urs Eberhardt and Emanuele Benedini were number crunching as to what they had to do to win their class.  The Alain Prost of the trio was Marcus who needed to finish no more than one position adrift of Urs and not give six points to Emanuele on aggregate.  Sunday was dry and well suited Urs Eberhardt who held the lead from start to finish. A determined Robin Longdon finished in second place having battled for the lead with Urs who was better in the braking zone whereas Robin was quicker down the straight.  Back markers came into the equation towards the end of the race and though Urs spun he managed to retake Robin before the flag.  In third place was Chris Drake.  Jens Rauschen was lent his father’s Brabham BT2 and finished the race with a beaming smile, but at one time we had to check the emergency number for France as Klaus did not look too healthy when Jens produced a spin in front of him! 

The aggregate winner was Simon Ham (GB) Brabham BT2, 2nd John Fyda (GB), 3rd Emanuele Benedini (I).
Class A: Massimo Comelli (I) Taraschi; ClassB: Mogens Christensen (DK) Alfa Dana; Class C: Martin Walford (GB) Elva 200; Class E: Simon Ham (GB) Brabham BT2:
Fastest lap by Urs Eberhardt (CH) 1:33.958

Winner of the last class in the championship to be decided; Class E Lurani Trophy Championship 2006 was Marcus Mussa (MC)

Yuzaburo Baba (J) was awarded a prize for the competitor who had travelled furthest to compete in the championship, from Japan, with his best finish being 5th at Hockenheim in his Foglietti.

Bruno Schaffer has put in a claim for the greatest number of spins in one race (5).

A big thank you to Patrick and Carol Quiniou for finding a slot for us to race at Dijon after the Estoril meeting was cancelled due to the Local Authority withdrawing their financial support.  Also thank you for the Saturday drinks party at which the drivers awarded Duncan with a trophy marking their respect for his hard work this season as well as two cases of wine.  Thanks also to the efforts of the Marshals who were particularly good with the blue flag signals.

Jill Carter October 2006