 |
European Touring Car Championship 1984 Round 11 Zolder |
 |
|
European Touring Car Championship 1984 Round 11 Zolder |
|
Volvo victorious
M
agnificent win for Granberg/Kvist Volvo Turbo - Walkinshaw's third places secures
Drives title - Race interrupted by torrential downpour - Serious incident involving Guitteny's
Bastos BMW. After looking potential winners for most of the season, the Swedish Volvo 240 turbos finally came
good at Zolder with Ulf Granberg and Robert Kvist taking the flag and serving notice that the Volvo
is going to be the car to beat in ETC next year. However, having carefully nurtured the Jaguar
Legend this season, Tom Walkinshaw finally brought it to fruition by finishing third, and in so
doing winning the title he narrowly missed last year. QUALIFYING It has to be said that no one was really surprised when the Jaguar team mono-polised the front
three slots on the grid at Zolder. Unbelieveably, this was to he the ninth time in 11 races that the
three XJSs had led the field away. At Vallelunga only two of the cars were at the front, while at
Spa, where the team only fielded two cars, they had both been on the front row. That must be some
kind of record, and very impressive too. At Zolder, though, it was not as easy as it had been in the past. In prerace testing the Volvos
had put up some very impressive times and come qualifying they so nearly upset the Jaguar qualifying
record. Having lived through the nightmare of Silverstone, Tom Walkinshaw was more determined than
ever that he was not going to lose the title this time. In the dry first practice Tom went out early,
did a couple of winding up laps, and then went for it. Two flying laps and a safe pole position. As
it turned out Tom was to qualify both the front row Jaguars. The Enzo Calderari/David Sears car was looking a bit of a handful early on with Enzo twice taking
to the grass at Sterrewachtbocht, the tight lefthander after the pits. The Jag looked positively
unstable under braking, weaving alarmingly as the Swiss driver fought the car. After a further
excursion when he straightlined the chicane behind the pits. Enzo came in and Tom Walkinshaw decided that it was time to have a go himself, with the two
Swedish Volvos looking very threatening. With the car on some soft new rear rubber and some older
fronts, out he went, began to wind up and then came into the pits with a puncture. It was the Volvo
menace again. Coming through the hairpin Tom had run over the remains of the front lights of one of
the Belgian Volvos. Out he went again, and the Jags were one-two-three once more. "I was glad I got held up by a VW
Golf," admitted the Scotsman, "I might have knocked myself off pole!" Win Percy and Chuck NichoIson
found themselves demoted to third in their brand new XJS - its predecessor having heen sent to the
breakers yard after the Woodcote accident. "What Woodcote accident?" asked Chuck Nicholson. "I don't
know what you are talking about!" For the second time this year, the Jaguars were using water injected brakes - to slow the heavy
cars down as disc temperatures rose above 600 degrees at this notoriously bad circuit for brakes.
It seemed to work well. After practice, the Calderari/Sears Jag had a new engine put in, but with
rain in the second session, only Win Percy went out to sort out a wet set up. The Volvo threat, in qualifying at least, had been thwarted, but the `flying bricks' looked very
fast indeed, particutarty when Granberg went out, throwing his 240 about merrily and splitting the
Jaguars until 'Uncle Tom' went out. With Eje Elgh racing F2 in Japan his partner for the weekend was
to he Robert Kvist. The Lindstrom/Olofson car was not tar behind and sailed through practice without a problem. Since
his assault on the armco in practice at Silverstone, the Lindstrom car had been hack to Sweden to
have its chassis retwisted, and was in perfect shape. The BMW challenge was led by Hans Stuck and Dieter Quester, on Pirellis for the second race
running. Hans was not overly worried about the pace of the Jags: "They can't go that fast in the
race." The second Schnitzer car was only two places behind and fastest of all in the wet second
session with Berger at the wheel. "I had a lot of trouble with the traffic," commented the AT S man.
"I kept trying to find a gap to make my qualifying run, and in the end I did not have the tyres warm
enough. I could go half a second quicker, for sure, no problem." Splitting the two Schnitzer cars was the first of the Rovers. With Steve Soper and Jeff Allam
already in Australia in preparation for the Bathurst 1000 Kms, there were only two Vitesses at
Zolder and it was Armin Hahne who led the way, despite having to miss 40 mins of the first session
to have a rear axle changed. His major problem, like many others, was traffic; 48 cars trying to
qualify together made Zolder look like Piccadilly Circus. Armin, in particular, had problems with
the Belgian Volvos. "Next time, I buy them some mirrors," he commented. The second, Gitanes sponsored, Rover was two slots behind, with Tony Pond and Eddy Joosen
troubled by a touch of understeer. Further back, the only championship threat to Walkinshaw, the
Kelleners/Brancatelli BMW Italia car was having serious problems with both electrics and the setup,
but still managed to outqualify the team's second car, which Umberto Grano put into a wall coming
out of the Jacky Ickxbocht. The damage was slight, although the bodywork looked severely worse for
wear. The Belgian Volvos were on the pace too, despite both sporting damaged front ends. The second session started wet and became worse. but everyone was kept happy by Hans Stuck, as
ever, a joy to watch. The Volvos looked terrifying in the rain, incredibly quick in a straight-line.
but all over the place in the corners, while the Bastos BMWs of Guitteny/Gartner and Thibault/Vojtech
indulged themselves in some lovely power slides, trying to make up for a poor first practice. RACE The Sunday morning warmup was overcast, but the sun was making some attempt to fight through. Tom
Walkinshaw led them out, but it was the Granberg Volvo that topped the time lists ahead of
Walkinshaw, Ravaglia, Kelleners and Stuck, but they were all very close indeed. The race it seemed was all going to be about tactics and it was a nervous Tom Walkinshaw who
stood in the pits watching Hans Heyer. Tom was playing it safe, ready to jump into whichever Jaguar
was in the best position at the first driver change. From the rolling start Hans led with Win Percy
tucking in behind him, but the third Jaguar was quickly displaced by Granberg. As the pundits nodded
knowingly, the three Jags and the two Volvos pulled quickly away from the rest, followed by Quester
and Berger, although the latter was quickly past and in hot pursuit, driving impressively quicker
than the other BeeEm men. Behind these two there was a wonderful battle in the early laps as the two Rovers took on the two
BMW Italia cars with Delcourt's Belgian Volvo hanging in there. At the front it was quickly clear that the Volvos had not been sandbagging and Granberg made
short work of Percy and set off in pursuit of the leader. Lindstrom, too, was making progress,
passing Calderari and beginning to home in on the next Jag in his path. All was not well, however,
and soon after Granberg took the lead, Lindstrom came into the pitlane on three cylinders,
for a lightning spark plug change. Elsewhere, BMWs were making early stops with brakes smoking
alarmingly. Once in the lead Granberg let the Volvo go and was pulling away at over a second a lap, with
Lindstrom charging through the field to make up lost ground. The battle for seventh place continued
apace with the Rover and Eggenberger camps disputing every inch of the road. Close to the end of the first hour Win Percy brought his Jaguar into the pits with overheating
problems. Although Chuck Nicholson took the car out, its race was run and it was to retire just as
the rains came. For half an hour a storm had been gradually moving towards Zolder. It looked like Silverstone all
over again. And when it came, it came with a vengeance a flash of lightning and then chaos.
Both the Jaguars had made their first stop so the order was Granberg 50 secs clear of Berger, with
Lindstrom by now back in third ahead of Quester and the first of the Belgian Volvos. For two laps
the survivors struggled round. Berger went missing, his BMW skating into the barriers at the
Kanaalbocht with a gaggle of Alfas performing synchronised spins. Out of the murk came a circuit
incident car, then another and it was clear that there had been a big accident somewhere. A few
moments later out came the pace cars - for the third consecutive race - but on this occasion they
picked up the leader. As the murk began to clear, it seemed as if the huge Texaco advertising
hoarding was a little askew down at Sterrewachtbocht and then suddenly you could see why. There was
a BMW, or at least the remains of one, perched on top of the barrier with its nose buried in the
Texaco sign. News filtered back that the driver, Lucien Guitteny, was unhurt, but two journalists
had been injured. For nearly 10 laps the field circulated
behind the two pace cars and everyone tried to sort out who was where, frantic pitstops having sent
everyone into a state of confusion. Granberg was still in the lead behind the first pace car while
his pursuers were lined up behind the second, waiting to do battle, Stuck, Walkinshaw and Lindstrom
waiting for the off again. When it came, there developed a magnificent battle between Walkinshaw and
Stuck with Olofson not quite able to hang on. Twenty laps later, with the dry line getting wider
and wider as cars went in search of water, Stuck dived for the pits - the first man out on slicks.
In went Tom for some grooved slicks and rejoined 1.2 secs behind the BMW, then they were all coming
in again, the last to go being the leading car itself. When it came out of the pits, we had a race
on our hands, Granberg, Stuck and Walkinshaw all within striking distance. If this was not enough, Olofson began to close in, these four now well ahead of the pursuers, led
by Marc Duez, who was enjoying a battle with Win Percy who had taken over from Enzo Calderari. They were getting closer when, with only 20 laps to go, Stuck came through in the lead. Down at
the hairpin Granberg, in overtaking some backmarkers, had gone wide onto the grass and spun. Twenty
laps to go and 6 secs to catch. Round came Granberg taking 2 secs a lap off Stuck. Two seconds a lap! The sheer power of the
Volvo and the determination of Granberg was something to behold. Poor old Hans Stuck just had to
watch as the Volvo whistled through to retake the lead. But the fun was not over jet. With only a handful of laps left, Olofson homed in on Walkinshaw and for three laps they were
nose to tail. Then at the chicane behind the pits, the dispute was settled as they came upon Marc
Duez. The Jaguar went down the inside and the Volvo went for the outside - crash, bang, wallop!
Tom was over the hill and away leaving Duez and Olofson to extract themselves from the mud and work
out the damage. Both pitted, the Rover with a mauled rear end and the Volvo with dents all over it.
The Swedish team whipped out the crowbars and Olofson was despatched again, but by then Walkinshaw
was far enough ahead. Special Thanks To: Glyn Parham and Paul Adams.
|
|
© RWP dec. 2004
