2009
Die – zumindest in akustischer Hinsicht – spektakulärste Performance des Wochenendes zeigten beim ADAC Eifelrennen die Fahrzeuge aus der Historischen Formel-1-Meisterschaft der FIA. Der Italiener Mauro Pane war als Führender angereist, dem die Aufmerksamkeit aber auch aus ganz anderen Gründen sicher war: Er pilotierte mit dem sechsrädrigen Tyrrell P34/5 den einzig jemals erfolgreich im Rennen eingesetzten Formel-1-Sixwheeler. „Das ist schon ein großartiges Auto“, grinste Pane, der sich beim Eifelrennen sichtlich wohl fühlte. „Dies ist fantastisches Event, bei dem sich für mich die sehr guten Erfahrungen bestätigen, die ich mit deutschen Organisatoren schon oft gemacht habe: Alles ist gut organisiert, es gibt keine Verzögerungen oder unvorhersehbaren Änderungen.“ Einzig auf die Möglichkeit, das Fahrzeug im Rahmen einer Revivalfahrt den Fans entlang der Nordschleife zu präsentieren, verzichtete er: „Ich wollte nichts riskieren, schließlich führe ich die Meisterschaft derzeit an“, warb er um Verständnis. Während Pane den Anspruch auf die Spitzenposition bei den beiden Läufen des Wochenendes mit Siegen in der Klasse der Post-1971-Fahrzeuge ohne Ground Effect unterstrich, bestimmten andere das Geschehen an der Spitze: Der Brite Peter Sowerby (Williams FW07C-14) gewann den ersten Lauf, Joaquim Folch (Spanien, Williams FW08-05) holten die Gesamtsiege. Beide traten in der Klasse der nach 1971 gebauten Ground-Effect-Fahrzeuge an.
Joaquin Folch wins at Spa RMU Classic
HFO at Spa 2009 - Race Report
by Dan Collins
The 2009 FIA Historic Formula One Championship kicked off at Spa which delivered surprising fine weather for most of the weekend. With 25 cars entered, there was plenty of on track action and the obligatory first corner incident.
Friday Free Practice
Friday morning dawned bright and sunny. It seems that the only place on the planet which will benefit from global warming is the lovely circuit of Spa Francorchamps.
A superb grid of 26 Historic Formula One Cars suffered its first retirement when the newly re-built Fittipaldi of Jean-Michel Martin was found to have problems with its steering rack. The replacement parts could not be finished in time and so, regretfully, Jean-Michel was forced to withdraw without turning a wheel. Jean-Michel stayed with us for the weekend and intends to compete for the rest of the season.
On track, we were joined by new-comer Giancarlo Casoli in a magnificent Ferrari T312, flat 12, sadly, despite successful winter tests, a gearbox problem sidelined Giancarlo – who also intends to compete in the rest of the Championship. Bill Coombs, in the ex-Max Samuel Camps Tyrrell 009-01, also joined us for the first of a number of events. Bill runs the racing schools at Thruxton, Pembrey and Croft for the BARC but had never seen Spa before so was delighted to be in the top ten.
To the surprise of many of our regular competitors, Friday’s timesheets were headed by Peter Meyrick’s son Andy followed by Steve Hartley, Joaquin Folch, an improving Dan Collins and Hubertus Bahlsen in Andrea’s Tyrrell 008.
Saturday Qualifying 1
Once again it was dry and sunny and normal service was resumed as Joaquin Folch, revelling in the predictability of the newly re-built Brabham BT49, headed the timesheet. Over 2 seconds behind Joaquin, Rowland Kinch, Andy Meyrick & Steve Hartley, with less than 3/10ths of asecond between them, took second, third & fourth places with Bobby Verdon-Roe & Dan Collins hot on their heels.
Abba Kogan, forsaking his beloved Matras and trying a ground effect Arrows, stayed just ahead of Hubertus in the Tyrrell. A failure in the “measuring department” caused Richard Eyre’s times to be excluded from the first practice session as his skirts were well under the 40mm limit. Unfortunately, Bill Coomb’s engine suffered a bearing failure and he was unable to qualify and with no spare, was forced to spectate for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday Qualifying 2
Second practice, unbelievably also dry, was generally slower as a result of a significant oil slick laid all the way through Radillion and Eau Rouge by a sick Formula Junior car in the previous session. Joaquin, retaining his first place, but allowing Andy Meyrick to grab second place from Rowland Kinch. Class D Leader Steve Hartley retained fourth place, Class B Leader Bobby Verdon-Roe retained fifth whilst Richard Eyre struggled to get on terms with Abba Kogan who retained eighth place.
Sunday Warm-up
Despite an overnight shower, the track was damp but drying for the warm up on Sunday morning. A combination of new slicks and a damp track proved difficult for many drivers and particularly for Dan Collins who spun the Lotus 91 going over the brow of Eau Rouge, bending a wheel but, fortunately, causing no major damage. Sadly, a broken rear wheel hub meant that Hubertus was forced to retire as no spares were available.
Sunday Race
By start time, 1.35 p.m., the weather was perfect for racing. Stefano Rosina, unsure of his engine, opted to start from pit-lane and Michel Baudoin was unable to take the start due to a stone becoming wedged between the brake calliper and the wheel on the green flag lap!
At the front, Andy Meyrick made a text-book start and headed Rowland KInch into La Source, followed closely by Joaquin Folch. Behind these three, confusion reigned! Dan Collins had a vivid view, recorded on his in car video, of Peter Meyrick attempting a dive down the inside of Steve Hartley from some way back. It was a little ambitious and Steve would not have seen the March coming from his track position.
The inevitable collision resulted in Steve’ Arrows being launched high enough by Peter’s front wheel, for all of us on the pit-lane to see fresh air beneath. For a moment, Dan thought he might be able to dive underneath the Arrows! Steve retired on the spot but Peter carried on with little damage.
With most of the field having scattered to take avoiding action, up front, Joaquin soon disposed of Rowland. Andy resisted Joaquin’s attempts to pass him a little longer and even re-passed the Brabham but had to give best on lap 5. Twenty seconds behind these three, Bobby Verdon-Roe was delighted to inherit third place when Rowland’s throttle linkage broke.
Further down the field Peter Dunn, Peter Meyrick and Abba Kogan stayed “glued” together for the whole ten laps, whilst Richard Eyre was able to keep them in sight but unable to close in.
Stefano Rosina’s brave attempt came to nought and he switched off on lap 4 before the engine problem became terminal.
Dan Collins also retired the Lotus on lap 4 with an engine emitting clouds of blue smoke and Dan muttering something like “no wonder everyone was flying past me on the bloody straight”.
David Abbott’s shoulder, an old war wound (or so he claims!) was giving him so much pain that he was unable to turn the steering and he retired on lap 7.
Patrick D’Abreby made several trips to the pits to cure fuel pressure problems, eventually finishing fourteenth.
Joaquin took the chequered flag and it was delightful to see two new faces on the podium, Andy Meyrick in second and Bobby Verdon-Roe in third place.
A delighted Terry Sayles took first place in Class D.
With Bobby Verdon-Roe and Joaquin Folch sharing the lead in the FIA Historic Formula One Championship, we move on to Monza 6th/7th June – where we expect an even bigger grid and hopefully fewer early season teething troubles!
All results are here.
Race At Monza
The Build Up
A maximum 30 car grid was entered to contest the FIA Historic Formula One championship event held at the 57 Coppa Intereuropa Storica meeting at Monza and 26 cars filled the long Monza start grid on Sunday afternoon as a result of a few qualifying woes.
This iconic Italian venue always attracts a full compliment of local pilots who, coupled with the burgeoning regular runners this season, makes the HFO grid the healthiest in the historic racing scene. Mauro Pane’s F1 Storiche squad included the March 741 of Stefano Rosina, the Shadow DN3 of Yves Saguarto, the Theodore of lawyer, Luciano Quaggia, and the glorious Ferrari 312T of Walter Burani. A further example of this beautiful Prancing Horse was the entry from fashion magnate Gianfranco Casoli. David Abbott debuted his new Mirage assembled Arrows A4 and Manfred Rossi joined the HFO ranks for the first time in the Kerry Adams tended Martini & Rossi liveried Brabham BT43.
Joaquin Folch in the Brabham BT49 had annexed pole just ahead of Rowland Kinch in his Arrows A4, Bobby Verdon-Roe’s brilliant McLaren M23 and, in a bizzare timekeepers mix-up which saw him awarded an incorrect time, David Abbott’s Arrows. Former HFO Champion Steve Hartley failed to start having had the gearbox casing crack wide open. The Blackburn engineer even took hold of the mig-welder himself in an attempt to get the car to the grid.
Another non starter was Hubertus Bahlsen following some low level aerobatics during qualifying which removed a few parts from his Arrows.
Class B cars always show well at Monza, perhaps it’s the lower frontal area that gains straight line benefits. The March of Peter Meyrick rounded out the top ten after qualifying behind Peter Wuensch’s Hall & Hall Wolf WR1 and the MEC Auto March of Rodrigo Gallego who had a troubled practice with broken gearbox and then damaged driveshaft. Peter Dunn started from the back of the grid having had to miss official qualifying through attending to family matters in the UK on Saturday. His 12th place finish was a credit.
Tony Smith changed the ignition trigger on his Williams before the race but a misfire persisted on the green flag lap and he headed straight for the pits, no doubt satisfied with winning in his glorious Ferrari Dino in the earlier front engined GP car event.
Sunday Race
A sun baked crowd watched the Parmalat Brabham confidently lead the cars onto the grid at the end of the green flag lap only for the clutch pedal to go to the floor as the Spaniard selected first. Both hands shot into the air and the skilled Monza marshals threw a mass of yellow flags instantly as starter John Felix hit the start delayed lights. The number 7 was wheeled to the pit road as the grid reformed for the renewed count-down.
Verdon-Roe beat Kinch to the first chicane and Dan Collins out dragged Abbott on the way there. It all went wrong for Collins as he spun away third place exiting the chicane and re-joined in last place. Further up the track, Kinch regained the lead from Verdon-Roe who held second place for six laps until an injection trumpet came loose and the engine died.
Abba Kogan’s Arrows passed the similar car of Abbott and ran third on the first lap but a couple of chicane cutting manoeuvres dropped him down the field. Richard Eyre’s tenacity saw him benefit as the race progressed, only to relinquish third in the final three hectic laps.
Meanwhile, Folch had started from the pit road and a brilliant drive through the field, which included fastest lap of the race, saw the Spaniard’s Kumschick Racing prepared car finish third overall.
Katsu Kubota’s Colin Bennett-tended class B March 761 was a sensation working up from 8th on the grip to claim second spot on lap seven with the engine grenading on the slowing down lap, delaying the popular Japanese from his podium celebrations! HFO newcomer Frank Sytner took fourth in his Dunn Racing Hesketh having been up to third.
Best charge of the day was certainly that of the flying Folch who cut through the field with fastest lap to take a remarkable third place and the Championship lead.
Joaquin finishes 4th in Class at Brands
Kinch completes historic Brands win
10:45am Tuesday 7th July 2009
ROWLAND Kinch secured an impressive victory in his Arrows A4-2 in the third round of the FIA Historic Formula One Championship.
Having started from third, Kinch had dropped to fifth before an incident between the March 761/6s of Katsu Kubota and Peter Meyrick promoted him two places.
Kinch then passed the fast-starting McLaren M26/5 of Bobby Verdon-Roe to take second, before hunting down the lead Brbaham BT49C-10 of Joaquin Folch.
With Kinch in a comfortable lead, the race was red flagged two laps from the end after an incident involving Peter Dunn's March 761/4 on the outside of Westfield Bend.
He said: “It was great fun and I have to say thank you to the team for giving me a great car.
“It all came together in the race, and once I found where I was faster than the others and just kept my head.
“Now I’m just looking forward to the next race. Hopefully I can win there as well.”
Folch had been unable to keep pace with Kinch’s Arrows, but looked certain to secure second until transmission problems befell his Bernie Ecclestone-prepared Brabham with six laps remaining.
Instead, the runner-up spot was inherited by Verdon-Roe, the only other driver to come near the pace of the front two.
He said: “I got a great start and perhaps I could have even snatched the lead, although that would have been greedy.
“I saw I was clear of Peter Meyrick and cut to the inside of Katsu Kubota.
“Luckily my judgement was spot on.
“It was very good fun and I’m happy to take second.”
Peter Wuensch took third, although the German was under increasing pressure from Peter Dunn’s March before the latter's accident at Westfield.
Wuensch admitted: “I had good luck beacuse other drivers in the race were unlucky.
“It’s the third time I have raced at Brands Hatch and I really enjoy it.
“Today has been another happy day.”
Joaquin finishes 3rd after race thru the field
Rowland Kinch put the boot into the opposition with a lights to flag victory at Donington last weekend to take maximum points in his quest to top the points table for this year’s FIA Historic Formula One Championship. The G-Cat Arrows started from pole and was never headed, finishing nearly 15 seconds ahead of Steve Hartley’s rapidly improving Mirage Arrows and Joaquin Folch’s Kumschick Williams which had started from the back of the grid.
This HFO meeting was a hurriedly organised replacement for the aborted Interlagos event, the Donington meeting taking place as part of the Superleague Formula spectacular. “We worked with Superleague last year at Estoril and have had full co-operation with them again here in the UK,” said HFO co-ordinator, Stuart McCrudden.
Whilst prior travel and holiday arrangements conspired to limit the HFO grid to 16 cars, the regular front runners were all present. The monsoon that covered most of the UK on Saturday afternoon washed out the second qualifying session so the grid was formed on the damp first run. Kinch took pole from Bobby Verdon-Roe’s McLaren with Hartley third, Folch in the Brabham, Frank Sytner’s Hesketh, Richard Eyre’s Williams, Peter Dunn’s March and Dave Abbott in his new Arrows. Katsu Kubota had gone into the gravel and was going to have to start way down the grid.
In Sunday morning’s 10 minute warm-up Folch’s car had fuel pressure problems which could not be identified accurately enough for security so with just 20 minutes to go to the start, Freddy Kumschick decided to off load the Williams from the truck and hastily get it scrutineered and fuelled for the race although of course the Spaniard had to start from the back of the grid just as he had done at Monza. Could he drive through the field again to get a foot on the podium?
From pole Kinch was never headed whilst Hartley out jumped Verdon-Roe with Sytner and Eyre chasing. Kubota had gear selection problems from the start and Abba Kogan stalled his Williams and was last away. Kinch set fastest race lap on his 2nd tour. Eyre battled past Verdon-Roe only for his fuel pressure to die on lap 10. Abbott broke a drive shaft and Giancarlo Casoli apparently ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap. Frank Sytner’s run ended early with handling problems having had to remove the damaged front wing after just six laps. “There was absolutely zero front grip after we took the wing off and that really is no fun at all, so I brought it in rather than risk anything else,” said the Monaco resident.
Peter Dunn finished 5th ahead of Abba Kogan with a fast finishing Katsu Kubota 7th, Tony Smith 8th and Michel Baudoin 9th, Casoli classified 10th with Terry Sayles pretty Osella 11th and class D winner.
What of Folch? By lap 5 he was up to 8th, by lap 8 he held fifth and kept on working the Williams hard. “This car is much more physical to drive than the Brabham and 18 laps round here is pretty hard anyway,” reported the Spaniard wiping away the sweat as he mounted the podium to take a hard earned third place trophy.
Verdon-Roe has been carefully collecting points and leads the Championship by a single point from Kinch with Folch just five points further back. The next race is the traditional double-header at the Eifelrennen meet at the Nurburgring at the end of September and the finale will be at Paul Ricard at the very end of October. It seems highly likely that the result will, as is often the case, go right down to the wire at the last race of the season. Whoever collects the trophy will have had a remarkably close run season.
Joaquin drives Williams after BT49 engine problem
Out of the truck & thru the field in less than 1h!
Joaquin storms to a 3rd and 1st place finish!
And so it goes if you go racing with your wife!
Joaquin Folch: FIA World Champion
If you ever wanted to see a heartbeat finale, then you should have been at Circuit Paul Ricard on November 1st. The situation was simple. Joaquin had to win the Class C race with fastest lap or the championship was lost. After a successful test in mid October at Le Castellet we all knew that nothing was lost but a lot to gain if all plays out well.
Qualifying was running well even if Joaquin was only second fastest with young Andy Meyrick gunning all down with a March 761. A stunning performance of Andy and we wish him all the best to catch a seat in a DTM 2010 car.
But back to Paul Ricard. Sunday November 1st, grey clouds and 18 Degrees C and tension was high. The grid packed with more than 20 historic F1 cars, the drivers awaiting the start of the race. But then, Joaquin lets the clutch go just centimeters and only seconds before the red lights go out and race starts. Joaquin hesitates a fraction of a second, long enough to block Martin Stretton approaching from behind. Martin's right front wheel connects with Joachin's left rear wheel... Martin's Lotus becomes airborne before landing hard but safe. Not worried about what happened behind him, Joaquin charged down the straight confirming his second spot in the first corner. Shock and disbelieve was painted on the faces of the members of Team Kumschick Racing. But there was no time to waste. Joaquin's car was apparently ok, his times were fine and he was able to hold on to storming young Andy Meyrick. Fastest lap in lap 2 and 8 long laps to go. Will the car hold up? will Kinch recover from a bad start or will Rob Hall be able to catch and overtake Joaquin? Well all played out like a fairy tale. Joaquin finished second in the field and first in Class. Play, Set and Match! Yes Joaquin Folch and Team Kumschick Racing are FIA World Champions again!
(pictures are here)
We are the champions!
Joaquin did it again and so did we
(C) 2004 - All rights reserved