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CHRISTIAN GLASEL TRIUMPHS TO TAKE HIS FIRST TITLE...
by Oliver McCrudden
And so, for the fourth year running, the TGP title fight went down to the wire with Estoril circuit once again hosting a shoot out between the contenders: Christian Glasel (Brabham BT49D) and John Bosch (Ferrari 312 T3). Both had already scooped their individual class honours but Glasel came to Estoril needing just a brace of points from the final race to claim the title but was faced with the prospect of contending with a rejuvenated Richard Eyre (Williams FW08), Joaquin Folch (Williams FW08) and a returning Duncan Dayton (Williams FW07). Eyre has finally taken his cars in-house and set up RJM Motorsport to run both his TGP and Group C machines. With one GPC win under his belt on the Saturday, he was in a confident mood. Folch was forced to miss the last race at Brands Hatch for personal reasons but returned keen to make amends whilst Dayton, who won at Silverstone when Glasel was absent from the event, is always hard to beat.
Bosch – equally dominant in class over the year – was this time up against a former TGP champion, Martin Stretton returning to TGP again fully registered for FIA points in his super fast Tyrrell P34. Indeed, on a blisteringly hot Friday afternoon, the speed gun waved about by your tgpf1.com reporter (still reeling from an altercation from a Gendarme with a similar weapon post-Magny Cours…) showed that it was Stretton who had the highest straight-line speed at a rapid 174mph down the straight, nearly 10mph quicker than most others.
Whilst the racing is always competitive in TGP, the fight for titles was all but over prior to the weekend. Steve Hartley (Arrows A6) was already Class D champion ahead of Terry Sayles whose first year in the Osella has proven to be character building one for the veteran racer. Alistair Morrison (Tyrrell 012-5) and Rodrigo Gallego (Minardi 185) have both had indifferent seasons in the D class for flat-bottomed cars; Gallego’s was compounded by a local journalist smashing the Minardi into a wall whilst testing it at the end of the weekend. The journalist was heard accelerating hard before an ominous silence prevailed around the circuit. He was found with the front end of the car untidily rearranged and one of his fingers broken and was reported to be ‘crying like a child’. The talk is of his piece appearing in the magazine as an article on how hard it is to drive a TGP car in the wet…
With Bosch and Glasel also confirmed as winners of their respective classes, the only other gap left to fill was the Class A slot in which John Delane (Tyrrell 001) had a 6-point lead over Ean Pugh (Brabham BT34). Both drivers qualified but when Sunday came, the 20-week drought that Portugal had experienced had most definitely ended and Pugh, without a set of wets or the inclination to risk things, opted out of the race. That meant that Delane was automatically champion in class.
In qualifying, Glasel took pole and a precious extra point by one hundredth of a second from the Williams FW08s of Folch and Eyre. Dayton suffered from a jammed starter and could only manage 5 minutes of the second session that was not enough to put him up near the front and it may have contributed to his part in a first corner incident which put Eyre and Dan Collins (Lotus 91-10) out early.
As Glasel made the most of the clear track afforded him, Hartley set after Folch. The Arrows driver nearly didn’t make the race at all; as the cars rolled out of the garages it was noted that his tail light was not on. When he pulled up on the grid, the Mirage team set about it, butchering the tail light from Pugh’s Brabham and securing the replacement with a blend of tank-tape and cable-ties. It was on as the cars left the grid, but went out shortly afterwards; it would create a bit of a stir later when, following reports of the faulty light, Hartley received a black and orange flag that became a full black when he failed to spot it on three consecutive laps. He stayed out and, when Folch lifted off thinking the flag was directed at him, got past into second and held on to it to the chequered flag. Unfortunately for him, he was directed straight to the stewards room post-race where the stewards suddenly discovered that the regulations state that a car must start with a light but if it goes out during the race it is not an infringement of the rules. Whilst Hartley was in front of the stewards, Folch and Bosch joined Glasel on the podium and Joaquin Folch walked off with his trophy but he gamely put the disappointment aside and went out for a post-race celebration…
Nico Bindels (Lotus 87) had a great drive in what has been a markedly improved season for the Luxembourg-based racer. Finishing ahead of Dayton and Stretton is no mean feat and with last year’s champion, Gallego and Janine Payne (Arrows A4), Morrison and De Wagter (Surtees TS16) behind with Delane, can be pleased with his performance. Janine must also be congratulated for putting a strong performance in the circumstances.
Glasel was Champion and deservedly so. With 10 starts, 10 fastest laps and 9 podium finishes in 2005, he has finally converted his and the car’s potential into the coveted title win for a Class C driver. Fredy Kumschick, who prepares the Brabham was able to at last claim the trophy that he so narrowly missed out on in previous years but it was his young German protégé who received the standing ovation from his fellow competitors at the post-race prize presentation.