Bumper grids and mouth-watering machinery are a feature of the Masters Historic racing grids at the Spa Six Hours.
An evocative FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship 28-car grid is headed by the Hesketh 308 of Michael Lyons who has been dominant this season so far. Against him comes the Tyrrell 012 of Ian Simmonds and the ever-improving Greg Thornton in his Lotus 92/5.
Simon Fish (Ensign N180) took victory at Spa in 2012 and will be keen to place himself at the head of the pack, while Steve Hartley (Arrows A4) and Marc Devis (Arrows A3) shouldn’t be discounted either. The pre-1978 category will be disputed by Katsu Kubota (Lotus 72) and the later 76/1 of Andrew Beaumont, with the early Williams’ of Nick Padmore and Daniel Rollinger in touch as well.
The FIA Masters Historic Sports Car entry is an eclectic one with modern McLaren GT racer Zak Brown forsaking his MP4-12C to share Roger Wills’ M1C. They take on regular pace-setters Leo Voyazides/Simon Hadfield and the similar cars of Carlos Monteverde/Gary Pearson, David Hart, Steve Tandy, Tarek Mahmoud/Nigel Greensall, Chris Beighton and Grant Tromans/Martin Stretton. Against the big-bangers come Chevrons aplenty, plus Porsches, Ford GT40s, Coopers, the rare Daren, Abarth Osella and Elvas in a 57-strong grid.
A massive grid of Pre-66 GT cars does battle in the Gentlemen Drivers race, where Jaguar E-types take on AC Cobras. One of the busiest drivers will be Frank Stippler who shares Marcus von Oeyenhausen’s E-type as well as racing at the Nurburgring in a modern GT car the same weekend! Leo Voyazides/Simon Hadfield will be potential winners in Leo’s AC Cobra against Bizzarinis, Morgans, Lotus’, Sunbeams Tigers and TVRs in a grid full of variety.
A regular feature of the Spa Six Hours event, the Top Hat grid, boasts a 66-strong field in which Leo Voyazides’s Ford Falcon squares up against a mass of Mustangs, a multitude of Minis and a plethora of Porsches in a mixed sports and saloon encounter.
Can Am cars will take on 3-litre sports-prototypes in the Can Am Interserie Challenge, where Andy Newall’s McLaren M8F faces the March 717 of Frank Bradley and Peter Schleifer’s McLaren M6B, whilst Leo Voyazides (Lola T280) and Michele Liguori (Lola T292) head the sports-racers.
Qualifying takes place on Friday September 20th with race action across Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd September.
