Dijon  - Grand Prix De L’age D’or – Round 5 – FIA Lurani Trophy 2009

It was good to see some change at the top of the pack, only two weeks after Monza. BRDC Young Rising Star, Edwin Jowsey was making his first FJ appearance of the year in his familiar maroon Lotus 22 ex-Eric Staes, while Tommaso Gelmini was escaping from the sleepless nights with a young baby, in the prototype Branca 63, and Pau victor, Dr Stephane Rey from Nogaro, was making his Lurani debut for the year.  A warm welcome was due to Christian Cane from Lyons with his ex Thomas Duchene Lotus 22, still under the care of Marc Widar, Thomas himself being present with his Lotus Elan, and he hopes to be looking for an 18 to rejoin the fold around November time.
It was to be a generally warm and sunny weekend, but the Lurani cars caught one of the few wet sessions for their qualifying practice – although the earlier untimed sessions had all been warm and dry, giving several of the Juniors time for testing and acclimatisation  - Urs Eberhardt (Lotus 27) and Philipp Buhofer (still in cousin Marc’s Lola 5A, while his own is being repaired) as usual took full advantage of the time, John Dowson (Elva 200) on his first visit to Dijon, was finding his way around, and Francois Berges spent every opportunity to run in the new 22 engine for Christian Cane.
It was a surprise to find Edwin only in second spot after qualifying, with Tonetti on pole, and Gelmini and Fyda next up.  Urs does NOT like the wet, and was back in eighth spot just ahead of Philipp Buhofer who had been following in his Master’s footsteps around the track in this session.  Erwin Van Gelder was having an extra-championship run in his auction purchased Cooper T59 but with Coventry-Climax motor ex-Pasty Burt, and more recently Tony Bailey, as his Lotus 20/22 is still awaiting its rebuilt motor. Team Rauschen brought only the Brabham AM16, this time for Jens to drive.  Manfredo Rossi, only a few days ahead of his double wedding to Caroline – in Paris and then in Italy – was a late arrival, but now getting the hang of the 22, although not yet correctly geared for the Dijon straight.  Bob Birrell and Peter Strauss were to share the yellow Brabham BT6, but Bob took the qualifying slot, it being too much of an operation to change belts half way, Peter electing to start from the back in heat 2, having set practice times in his Elva Mk8 during the weekend.  Further down the field, it looked as if Peter Mullen in the white Kieft, spannered by the Sid Hoole team, might be nibbling at Dan Collins’ Class C points.
Friday evening was enlivened by a jolly party at the Widi truck hosted by Christian Cane and his wife Anita,as a welcome to his participation in Formula Junior.  It was fun to see Elva 100 driver Bruno Proton de la Chapelle (arriving in his well used Austin Healey 100) again, and talking of rejoining the fray next year.
Race 1 was late on Saturday, and Edwin had fixed his problem, and was simply in a class of him own, nearly two seconds a lap ahead of the field, and well out of sight of the battling Tonetti and Eberhardt, (up to 3rd in one lap!), Urs just not having the power of Pierre’s engine to make any further headway, finishing all of 0.4s behind in the shortened race, as the start had been aborted (and seemingly only restarted after much arm waving from Edwin – perhaps a sign from his F3 racing rather than the more gentlemanly Formula Junior) and strangely two laps docked from the schedule after Christian Cane stalled the 22 up the hill before the start, and then all but exhausted his battery in, eventually, getting restarted.  Behind these two, there was a multicar dice, and much place changing, headed by Robin Longdon’s determinedly driven Lola 5A.  Stephane Rey moved up the ladder dramatically, but it was all too much and a spin sent him back to the bottom of the leading snake after briefly hitting fourth spot ahead of Robin.  John Fyda was also at his best moving up steadily ahead of Tommaso Gelmini and then Robin and then finally faster than all but Edwin.  The saddest happening occurred two laps from the end when the two Lurani Championship contenders collided on the downhill left hander – suffice to say that Brendan Roberts (Lola Mk2) had managed to get by Dan Collins (Lotus 18) and then followed a real battle with much place changing, but Brendan taking the advantage as they headed into Lap 10. Dan could see his points being reduced, with Peter Mullen’s Kieft ahead on the Class, and made a determined effort, but it all ended in tears, with the Lola in the wall with much rear end damage, and the Lotus limping round to flop dead just past the flag, with a broken wheel and flat tyre, but with at least a prospective 8 points in the bag to Brendan’s ‘nil point! Not a happy ending to what had been a neck and neck Championship until then.  Bruno Ferrari blew the Branca engine, Dietrich too had terminal engine problems, while all the unscheduled starter work had exhausted Christian’s battery, and he coasted to a halt with no electrics.
Patrick Quiniou put on his usual excellent Saturday night party with a splendid barbeque buffet, but the band were at full throttle from the very beginning, making conversation nigh impossible, and the Juniors soon made their way to bed, ready for an early race in the morrow.
Bruno Ferrari’s team changed the engine, Dan Collins and Chris Dinnage had repaired the Lotus 18, but both Lola’s were loaded up for home as the FJs lined up in the sun for Race 2 on Sunday morning. No change at the front, except Edwin was not quite so far ahead, but once again, Eberhardt was soon up to 3rd, but then he spun, letting John Fyda behind Tonetti – and Tonetti spun too – then Urs again – and Longdon – all very exciting, so Fyda led the “train” from Stephane Rey, Urs back up again, and Conti Rossi, now really getting the hang of the 22 – but – oh dear – as he rounded the long curve at the end of Lap 9, all the car’s oil deposited itself in the cockpit, and Manfredo made a VERY swift exit beside the barrier, and in a jiffy the yellow flags and safety car were out, as Marshalls tried valiantly to mop up the oil – but not before Edwin had just lapped the Kieft of Peter Mullen, which was to prove crucial  – from then on the field just trailed round to the flag. According to the “Law Napoleon” alias FFSA rulebooks, the race end was when the safety car came out, so they published the first results on this basis, tracking back a lap, so Peter was unlapped.  Fortunately for Dan Collins, FIA rules stepped in and counted every SC lap to the flag, enabling Dan to count his catch up to the SC train and nearly a lap on Mullen – net results, 10 points on aggregate for Collins and NIL for the other title contender, Brendan Roberts – a very hard result after 5 long trips across Europe.

DCPR