The Williams FW08C-5 driver capitalised on a rare error by Duncan Dayton who had, up until that point, dominated proceedings from pole position. Winner of round 1, Fredy Kumschick, brought his Williams FW07 home third. Elsewhere, Hubertus Bahlsen ran into Richard Eyre; Mauro Pane claimed his maiden Class B victory in the Tyrrell P34 and Sid Hoole, celebrating his 60th birthday, was rewarded with a class A win in the Brabham BT33.
JARAMAFrom the blazing desert of Bahrain, the FIA TGP World Championship was in for a nasty shock when they arrived at the cold, wet and windy Jarama Circuit in Madrid for the first European round of the season. In what was rumoured to be the coldest April 18th on record in Madrid, the TGP stars battled it out for top honours in the 2004 World Championship.
US-racer, Duncan Dayton, made one of his occasional trans-Atlantic trips for the event hoping for more luck than he had at the Sebring 24hrs a few weeks earlier and he seemed to have the advantage throughout qualifying, the Hoole Racing prepared Williams taking pole position on the fifth lap of the first session. The American was subsequently able to sit out the second half-hour as a downpour dashed any quicker lap times. Fellow Williams drivers Folch, Kumschick and Eyre slugged it out for the remaining top grid positions, the latter being penalised for a weight infringement which meant his first session times were voided. He would end the second session in 6th behind reigning TGP Champ Mike Wrigley (Tyrell 012/3) and Hubertus Bahlsen (Arrows A4-5). Mauro Pane had the Tyrrell 34 right on top of the Class B times and sat 7th on the grid. Steve Hartley (Arrows A6) was in ninth, one slot behind Dave Abbott (Ensign N180) after having borrowed his spare engine after head gasket problems on Friday.
THE RACEAll 23 cars lined up for the Sunday race despite Kumschick "doing a Bahlsen" and spinning on the cold tarmac during the warming up lap. He had duly regained his place by the time the cars came round to face the lights.
Dayton made a textbook start as the red went out, leading Kumschick, Folch and a slow starting Eyre with Bahlsen close-inspecting the rear of the Williams. Dayton had pulled out a 4-second lead by lap 4 as the chasing pack put on a great show but probably slowed themselves down in the process. Wrigley was a lonely Class D leader.
A yellow caution flag was shown on the start line on lap 5 as a detached panel from Andrea Bahlsen's Lotus 81 lay right on line for half a lap before a daring marshal managed to clear the track. As pit crew members frantically signalled to drivers to hold to the left hand side of the track, several drivers were forced to flick past it at the last moment whilst others had no chance and ran straight over the piece.
Back at the front, on lap 8 Folch got past Fredy and gave chase to Dayton who was soon to realise that the few laps needed to secure pole had not shown him how demanding the Jarama circuit was on brakes, which started to lengthen his pedal. After the race, Sid Hoole was to bemoan the amount of tape covering up the brake ducts and left to rue what might have been.
Pane was glued to David Abbott's tail for the early part of the race, the Italian relishing having finally got some reliability out of the Tyrrell. In a ballsy manoeuvre, Pane slip streamed Abbott down the start-finish straight and was mere inches from the Englishman's gearbox before feigning right and diving out left and past the Ensign before heaving braking into the first corner. It was the move of the day and Abbott was left behind to battle it out with teammate Steve Hartley and Dan Collins (Lotus (91/10). Hartley had started from the pitlane with gear selector problems, his exhausted Mirage Motorsport crew having shed having lost both weight and sleep over the weekend fixing a myriad of glitches on the car. Collins watch the dicing pair in front, waiting and expecting something dramatic to happen; it did: both cars made it to the end...
With 7 of the 18 laps remaining, Dayton still has a 3 second advantage but slower traffic was intense and on lap 13, the brake fade out rumbled him on the downhill complex allowing both Folch and Kumschick through - the popular Catalan getting a great cheer from the Spanish crowd.
But Dayton was not finished and with just two laps to go, he out-foxed Kumschick to retake second. That seemed to settle it and it looked all but over as Eyre, who had held off Bahlsen from the start, lapped Abbott's Ensign. Behind him, Bahlsen locked up and slid into the back of the Williams, the resulting damaged suspension putting Richard onto the grass at the next corner and down to a seventh place finish. Speaking afterwards Hubertus was heard to explain that he knew he was going to hit the Williams and tried to aim for the centre-rear of the car - the gearbox - to avoid spinning Eyre out.
Folch took a popular victory, one place better than last year, the Simon Hadfield run FW08C running faultlessly all weekend. Dayton and Kumschick completed a Williams 1-2-3, with Wrigley heading class D in 5th behind Bahlsen with Nick May's March 811 in 6th. It was the second consecutive points scoring finish for the driver. Eyre was 7th with Pane finally collecting maximum Class B points. Sid Hole celebrated his 60th birthday with Class A victory in Dayton's Brabham BT33 with Bahlsen setting fastest lap.
The results mean that Wrigley tops the leader board on 20 points, a maximum haul so far for the Class D man. Kumschick is second on 14 with 3 class B runners (Gallego-13, Pane-13 and Crowson-12) close behind.
The next round is at Donington on Monday 3rd May.
