BAHLSEN VICTORIOUS AFTER MISTAKE BY KUMSCHIC - DELANE TAKES CLASS TITLE
The FIA TGP World Championship was in fine form at Brno in the Czech Republic last weekend with Hubertus Bahlsen taking the flag ahead of Fredy Kumschick whilst behind them the battle for championship and class honours was a real scorcher. In class A, John Delane’s victory for his Tyrrell 001 means he takes the class crown while Rodrigo Gallego and Mike Wrigley are now separated by a mere 5 points but face stiff challenges from class competitors at the next race. The championship will now be decided at the final round for the third year running which takes place at Estoril on October 10th.
With a new face on the grid in the form of the superb TGP debutante, Peter Williams in his March 761, Round 7 of the FIA TGP World Championship had a highly competitive look about it. Williams’ car is a sister car of championship & class B leader Rodrigo Gallego & so it was with real interest that the field looked on once Williams had qualified almost 2 seconds faster than his Portuguese rival. Mike Wrigley, Gallego’s closest title contender, would have been pleased once he saw that Williams AND John Crowson (Ensign N175) – who’s class B car’s preparation has been taken over by James Watt Automotive for the last 2 races (the same crew that run Wrigley) – were ahead of Gallego. But Wrigley’s plans went awry with Steve Hartley (Arrows A6) half a second faster than his Tyrrell 012/3 and Mauro Pane (Lotus 92) hot on his heels putting the pressure on.
The race started in spectacular fashion. As the red lights blinked out, Kumschick had the better of Bahlsen and lead him into the first corner and around the first lap but meanwhile the action was kicking off back down the field. Williams made a slow start and Dan Collins, behind him on the grid got a tank slapper on as he grabbed second moving out to the centre of the track to pass the March. The cars were close and with Collins out of shape there were reports that the rear end caught Williams. Collins denied any contact but nevertheless, Williams turned hard left as the remainder of the field sped towards him and was fortunate not to be collected by anyone. Williams eventually stoped with the nose of his car buried in the armco, his race run before it really got going. As he said afterwards: "It was all going great until the red light went out…" It must be said that his performance first time out in TGP was excellent and his team, headed by Nick Foy, performed brilliantly. If he competed a full season he would certainly be a favourite for the championship title.
With Williams in the wall and Collins limping round to marshal post 3 before the first lap had even finished, people turned their attention back to the race. On lap 2, Bahlsen got past Kumschick as the latter made an uncharacteristic error running wide onto the grass and allowing his fellow Swiss past. It was a lead Bahlsen would not relinquish as he made fastest lap on the way to the flag. Strangely, his brakes locked on just as he crossed the finish line but it wasn’t enough for Kumschick whose title challenge is now over. Richard Eyre (Williams FW08C) was third, another podium for the competitive Essex racer and his Robin Hooker Prepared car.
Steve Hartley had the better of Wrigley all weekend and the Arrows driver never came under pressure from the reigning champion as he took his first podium for some time. Mauro Pane, driving the newly rebuilt Lotus 92 for the first time made an excellent showing, bringing the untried car home in 6th position ahead of David Abbott (Ensign N180).
But it was behind Abbott that the fun and games were going on. Gallego and Crowson had traded places and times throughout the weekend and ran together on the track. There is bad blood between the two following a coming together in 2003 at Monza. That time Gallego was forced out of the session and got out of his car screaming Portuguese expletives. This time, Crowson got him in good fashion, finishing ahead but a mere hundredth of a second. Gallego hopped out of his car at the finish demanding his right to make protest and claiming to have been roughed off the track by Crowson. The race director had not noticed anything untoward on the cameras around the circuit and after an hour the complaints had died down. Gallego settled for second in class ahead of Frank Lyons and will go into his home GP at Estoril with a five point lead over Wrigley.
Ian Barrowman, Nico Bindels and John Delane scrapped it out for the duration of the race, finishing in that order with the latter taking the class A title in the process and Bindels finishing a race for the first time in his RAM-March. Barrowman meanwhile moves further up the points table to second in class. Paul Tattersall and Andrea Bahlsen closed out the field with Pietro Ratti and Judy Lyons both failing to finish the race.
The final round is on Sunday 10th October and is set to be something very special. Already the entry list features 31 fantastic Grand Prix cars and includes an ex-Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 312T2 driver by ace driver, John Bosch. The Barron Racing competitor will contest Class B and put Gallego under even more pressure to perform in front of his home crowd whilst Steve Hartley and Mauro Pane will be looking to put the mockers on Wrigley’s chances of a second consecutive championship title. Duncan Dayton and Christian Glasel are also scheduled to make appearances, the two super fast drivers pitting themselves against TGP regulars Kumschick, Bahlsen and Eyre. Spaniard Joaquin Folch returns to race again as does Donington and Zolder winner, John Wilson. It promises to be a spectacular finale to the year.
