In 26-degree temperatures, the Gentlemen Drivers Pre-66 GT car two-hour enduro fell to Martin Stretton and Jon Minshaw after a late race safety car period at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The opening laps were a stirring sight as an AC Cobra and Jaguar E-Type train ran nose to tail. Jon Minshaw grabbed an early lead from Simon Hadfield (in Leo Voyazides’ AC Cobra) and Chris Chiles jnr (AC Cobra). Pole-sitter Rob Hall ran in an early fourth, mindful of self-preservation as he was forced to do the race solo as father Rick hurt his shoulder while tightening his seat belts earlier in the day.
Minshaw and Hadfield scrapped intensely, damage to the Cobra resulting in the left front headlight becoming trackside furniture. “It was a wonderful battle with Jon,” said Hadfield.
Behind them, Hall started his charge and moved up into second place at the half-hour mark with the charging Chiles not far behind. Minshaw ran fourth from Hans Hugenholtz in David Hart’s Cobra, but this was delayed with 70 minutes to go when it served the mandatory driver change and needed extra pit work. The Cobra’s exhaust had come loose after a trip over a kerb and a fuel supply line issue meant the car lost two laps.
Hadfield, due to drive two cars, pitted with 63 minutes to go and the car had a new left-rear tyre fitted due to the natural wear on the circuit. Leo Voyazides took the car back into the race and continued to lead while Minshaw’s E-Type second, now in the hands of Martin Stretton. Hall, in the lead, pitted last of all but lost a few second in the pits with a flat-spotted front left to change. Back in the race, Hall “Came past the pits and heard a death rattle.” He parked the sick Cobra.
When David Smithies’ Corvette dropped oil with 30 minutes to go, Galal Mahmoud’s E-Type and David Clark’s Aston Martin 214 plunged off the road and necessitated a safety car. With a lot of oil to clear, the safety car period was a long one but it allowed Stretton (in for Minshaw) to close to within three seconds of Voyazides for the restart.
Stretton wriggled his way past four backmarkers to catch a brakeless Voyazides and made his dived past at turn one on lap 49. Once ahead, Stretton pulled clear to bag the win.
“That safety car helped me but Leo was dead meat in those conditions with no brakes. I passed him at turn one but Leo didn’t do anything silly so it was an easy move.”
The lack of brakes wasn’t Voyazides only problem: “With 50 minutes to go the red light was on meaning no alternator so we had no charge,” he said.
Stretton was also third as he shared Steve Tandy’s E-Type which was a lap adrift while Hart/Hugenholtz recovered for fourth ahead of the giant-killing Lotus Elan of Stephen Bond/Keith Fell in fifth. Hadfield and Irvine Laidlaw rounded out the top six in Laidlaw’s Porsche 908.
