37 years to the month after Jim Clark was tragically killed in a F2 car at Hockenheim, the FIA TGP Championship made the pilgrimage to the Black Forest circuit to star as the feature race at the Jim Clark Memorial event, the first such historic meeting at the circuit and at which the four classes of TGP machines were all represented for round 1 of the 2005 championship.
Qualifying saw Christian Glasel’s Brabham BT49 take pole position with a time of 1:34.681, a staggering 1.2 seconds ahead of Duncan Dayton’s Williams FW07. More remarkable was the fact that Glasel had not driven on the current circuit configuration before and with his intention to compete all TGP rounds in 2005, his credentials as a potential champion are well underlined. Hubertus Bahlsen’s Arrows A4 completed the top three in Class C. Mention must go however to Dan Collins in the Classic Team lotus 91/10 who qualified an excellent 5th.
Steve Hartley brought his Arrows A6 to 6th on the grid, the first of the class D cars to figure. The Mirage Motorsport prepared car was flying in qualifying. His qualifying time of 1:38.053 just a second ahead of the Lotus 82 of Mauro Pane, the Italian driving the car expertly prepared by his F1 Storiche outfit. Reigning Champion, Rodrigo Gallego (Minardi F1-185), was third in class as he struggled to get used to his new ride.
Immediately behind Pane on the grid was TGP newcomer, Peter Sowerby (Arrows A3/4) who made a very impressive showing in his first single-seater event. Misfortune was to trouble him at the start of the race and he would finish 8th (5th in class C) but he is certain to pose a threat to the established TGP front runners.
John Bosch was the fastest Class B man during qualifying in his beautiful Ferrari 312 T3. The Barron Racing machine – one of several Ferraris brought to the event by Bosch – proved a bit of a handful during set up and the race with fuel filter problems besetting the Dutchman but when it did run smoothly for the 2nd qualifying session, Bosch was undoubtedly quick. Peter Wunsch (Wolf WR2), the eventual Class B winner, was just under a second slower than Bosch in qualifying, with TGP Chairman, Tony Smith (Williams FW06) a similar gap back.
The effervescent Class A Champion, John Delane put his Tyrrell 001 top of the class with Ean Pugh’s Brabham BT34 and Judy Lyons’ Surtees TS9B behind.
The Race:
Rain in the morning looked ominous but had blown over by the time the race started at a bleary 11.55. With 28 cars on the grid (2 Nico Bindels and Sowerby started from pitlane), the race got under way smoothly. Glasel made a clean start. Behind him, Dayton seemed to struggle and would not make it round for the end of the first lap, the pivot bracket for the accelerator pedal breaking and ending the hopes of his Hoole Racing team engineers who had worked hard through the night to replace his mis-firing Cosworth DFV. With Dayton out of the equation, it was up to Richard Eyre (Williams FW08), John Wilson (Tyrrell 011) and Bahlsen to mount a challenge. It was not to be however.
On lap 3, Bahlsen crossed the line with a rooster tail of oily smoke bellowing out of his stricken block and proceeded to take the first corner dumping lots of it all over the racing line before he noticed and stopped. This played merry hell with those cars coming up behind him and several pirouetted artistically through the bend before the oil flags were shown. The red flag dropped shortly afterwards and the cars returned to the grid. Wilson stopped on his start position waving his arms frantically to the Victoria Garage team that runs his Tyrrell; a persistent electrical problem that had plaugued him throughout the weekend returned to finish him off.
As the marshals got the grid in order, the still impressive field worked on the cars. Dan Collins suffered from fuel vaporisation problems and was forced off into the pit lane to cure them. Alain de Wagter, another rookie to TGP, had lost first gear and would restart at the back of the grid. Both Sowerby and Bindels took the second green light, a result of the grid being formed in the order the cars crossed the line at the end of the lap prior to the red flag.
From the restart there was no catching Glasel. Richard Eyre made a valiant effort in the Robin Hooker prepared Williams but Glasel was simply too quick and finished the remaining 10 laps nearly 26 seconds in front. Hartley came home third ahead of team mate David Abbott (Ensign N180) who only just held off the challenge from yet another Arrows and another rookie, Janine Payne who had a great race to finish 5th in her first TGP event. Peter Wunsch was a very strong class B winner in 6th place ahead of Gallego and Sowerby. Alistair Morrison (Tyrrell 012-3) had Abba Kogan’s McLaren M23 just 2 seconds behind with Delane an excited follower.
Frank Lyons (Hesketh 308) was in front of Tony Smith who had quite remarkably managed to disconnect his battery with his foot during the first lap, got out of the car, realised the problem, cured it and restarted. De Wagter recovered from his problems to make it home 14th overall.
One of several unique features of the TGP grid was Sid Hoole’s Lotus 80-2 which has to be one of the longest GP cars ever built and raced having been restored beautifully by Hoole racing over the last 2 years. He came in 15th ahead of the improving Pietro Ratti (Copersucar F5A) and the Wolf WR1/2 of yet another new face, Jean Louis Duret. terry sayles, in his first drive in his newly purchased Osella FA1 C/D was hot on Duret’s heels with Ean Pugh and Judy Lyons sandwiching a disappointed Bosch.
It was a great way to start the season. Jim Clark’s sisters were at the circuit to rededicate the memorial to their brother, which added poignancy to the whole show that was well attended by spectators and competitors alike. TGP moves on to Monza in May for the Coppa Intereuropa. The spectacularly high numbers of competitors that featured at Hockenheim would be bettered at Monza if regulations permitted. There have been a whopping 35 entries received by the organisers who can practice 36 cars but only start 30 in the race. With the Marlboror masters event at Zandvoort following, its been a great start to what promises to be a great year for TGP.
