Straight after the Asian Le Mans Series’ opening weekend of the season at Sepang, the DSC Editor was on TV duty again at the third edition of the Gulf Historic Dubai GP Revival at Dubai Autodrome, the event organised by Fred Fatien’s GP Extreme organisation, with news ( see elsewhere on DSC) of a major step forwrd for GPX’s historic racing activities.
Joined by ex WEC pitlane reporter Duncan Vincent and ex ELMS pitlane reporter Hayley Edmonds there would be two days of live-streamed racing and demonstrations in a 70s themed event that saw Sportscars from the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s alongside F1 cars from the 1970s, 80s and 90s on-track.
Event Notebook
Jann Mardenborough took an overall win in Sunday’s ’00s Sportscar race at Dubai Autodrome, part of GP Extreme’s Gulf Historic Dubai GP Revival meeting, driving solo in an Invitational class ex IDEC Sport Ligier JSP2 from 2014, fending off LMP1 opposition from Steve Brooks’ 2011 Peugeot 90X and Keith Freiser’s 2009 ex Beechdean Mansell Zytek 09S.
The Welshman had tussled for the lead in Saturday’s race when he shared the car with Nico Prost, but had to give best to the much more powerful Peugeot. On Sunday though he grabbed the lead early, Brooks half spinning as he tried to get back onto terms and trying to fight back thereafter.
Amongst the other contenders in the field was the Steve Zacchia owned and driven Oreca 01 from 2011, this the car initially fitted with a Flybrid hybrid system and thus the first such drivetrain to compete at Le Mans. The hybrid tech has now been removed from the car so the car was somewhat underpowered with just the Lehmann-tuned 2 litre VAG turbo .
Taking the GT class win on Sunday in a Chrysler Viper GTSR was the ‘Jandré’ pairing of Jean Eric Vergne and André Lotterer. The rival Hypercar drivers firm friends after two seasons together ad DS Techeetah in Formula E.
After reliability woes in Saturday’s race with Lotterer at the wheel, Vergne started Sundays race and took the Viper to an unchallenged lead, Lotterer completing the win.
Lotterer was also due to contest the 1980s sportscar race in a 1986 Toyota TOMS 86C, but the car was one of several casualties to reliability issues from Friday’s test sessions, the turbo four suffering an internal failure.
There was more bad luck for the Porsche Penske Motorsport man too in Saturday evening’s ’60s Sportscars 3 hour enduro into darkness, the Jaguar E-Type that André previously owned was the leading non Ford GT40 into the final stages of the race but then suffered a fuel system failure and retired.
The ’60s race was won by Nic Minassian and Kyle Tilley in an Era Motorsport-entered Ford GT 40 from 1965, the win coming after Richard Meins and Rob Huff in a near-identical car had taken the win over the line but were hit with a big penalty for a shorter-than regulation pit stop. Shaun and Max Lynn eventually finished second in their GT40.
Stuart Hall meanwhile took a win and second place in the two Formula One ’70s races (actually for cars from the 1970s and 1980s), in the RoFGO Collection’s newly restored ex RAM March 821.
The grid also featured no less than Thierry Boutsen in an Arrows A3 (below), Julien Andlauer in an ATS and, on Saturday, Ollie Webb in a Fittipaldi F8 and Jean Denis Deletraz in a 1974 Shadow DN3.
The F1 race on Sunday was an absolute belter, the cars five-wide into turn one with a three-way battle between hall, Martin Stretton in his Tyrell 012 and Michael Cantillon in his glorious Williams FW07C, it woud the the Williams man that took a fine win, but boy he had to fight for it.
Arguably the driver of the weekend was BTCC star Jake Hill who pedalled a Lotus Elan beautifully in the ’60s sportscar race but also made his single-seater race debut in one of the oldest cars in the 1970s F1 field an ex-Rikky van Opel 1973 Ensign N173 scoring a pair of fine fourth place finishes beating off much younger machinery.
The paddock was graced by no fewer than four FIA World Champions with Alain Prost demonstrating a 1991 Ferrari 643 on Saturday, the aforementioned Rob Huff in the ’60s GTs and, on Sunday, four time Rally Raid World Champion and Dakar Rally winning co-driver Mathieu Baumel, fresh from the FIA Gala in Baku, co-driving a 1984 Argo Mazda to a somewhat unexpected second place in the 1980s Sportscar race.
A handful of 1980s and 1990s F1 cars saw some demo laps, Stefan Johansson pedalling a somewhat recalcitrant 1987 Leyton House, Sophia Floersch driving a 1992 Brabahm BT60B, the same car that Giovanna Amati became the last (to date) woman to attempt to qualify for a Grand Prix, as well as being Damon Hill’s route into F1.
On Saturday, ACO President Pierre Fillon drove a 1993 Arrows Footwork FA14, professing himself to be utterly delighted with the experience and doing a fine job to bring the car back undamaged after a front-right puncture.
And there were demo laps too for Rebellion Racing’s R13, the ex WEC race-winning car driven by company boss Alex Pesci!
Pics : Author and Gulf Historic Dubai GP Revival Official photographers
