GT & Sports Car Cup Race Report: Autodromo Internacional Algarve

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR RACE WINNERS
Autodromo Internacional Algarve - 30 October 2022
Andrew Haddon & Andy Wolfe

Haddon / Wolfe Find Perfection in Portugal

Driving their Lotus Elan 26R with pace and precision on the Autodromo Internacional Algarve’s switchback circuit, hewn into the hills inland from Portimao, Andrew Haddon and Andy Wolfe won a thrilling two-hour GT & Sports Car Cup seasonal finale on Sunday, October 30. The Britons reprised their very wet 2020 Castle Combe victory, albeit with southern Portugal bathed in glorious sunshine over a spectacular annual Algarve Classic Festival weekend.

Haddon and Wolfe - Spa Six Hours winners in 2009 and ’16 respectively - did not have things easy. Helped by well-drilled pit stops orchestrated by the Wolfe Manufacturing team they eked a one-lap advantage over French GTSCC debutants Xavier and Olivier Galant in their Shelby American Cobra Coupe. They finished a circuit ahead of the sleek Cooper Monaco sports racer of Justin and Ben Maeers, finished by hotshoe preparer Charlie Martin, although its fuel tank ran dry on the final lap.

The top six was completed by Elan pairings Steve Jones/Chris Atkinson (26R) and Robin Ellis/Julian Thomas (Shapecraft Coupe) and the GT3 class-winning Austin-Healey 3000 of Mark Holme/Jeremy Welch. Their closest rivals David Smithies/Chris Clarkson finished 78 seconds behind, on the same lap. Another breathless fight decided GT2, Mark Hope/Jason Minshaw (MG B) beating Marc Gordon (Lotus Elite) by 1m43s after the bold soloist was forced to make a late stop for a splash of fuel.

QUALIFYING

The Algarve Classic Festival has been a popular finale to the GTSCC programme for many years, and when the sun shines on the magnificent Portuguese F1 circuit, it’s easy to see why. Paulo Pinheiro and the Autodromo Internacional Algarve team made us exceptionally welcome this year, providing an additional free practice session on Thursday afternoon for competitors, who had made the long trip. Superbly catered hospitality was, as always, part of the offer which attracted drivers from France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as the strong UK contingent which underpins the travelling circus, plus a local team. Being on track at the same time on all three days enabled support crews and holidaying families to settle into a rhythm leaving plenty of time to relax in the evenings.

With welcome newcomers - and some late subscribers not wishing to miss out on fun in the sun and legendary camaraderie. Pleasingly, it also saw the renaissance of the series’ Sports Racing element, with Jaguar C and D-types and a two-litre Coventry-Climax FPF-engined Cooper Monaco T49 joining the fray. We even picked up an Invitation entry from Ellie Birchenhough, who proudly continues the tradition of her late father Tony’s Dorset Racing team, a successful two-litre sportscar racing participant in Portugal and Angola, the friendly nation’s West African enclave, back in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, Richard Hywel-Evans's Cobra’s engine blew inside two laps of Thursday testing. Chris Chiles Cobra headed Friday’s timesheets on 2m07.465s, but Olivier Galant was barely a second shy in the rampant Cobra coupe. The Cooper was third quickest, also inside 2:10, shadowed by the swiftest Elan in which Haddon and Wolfe’s intent was clear from the off.

On Friday Galant improved to 2:06.815 (78.78mph) and claimed pole, with the Cooper closest on 2:07.820 and Chiles third on 2:08.340 and the top Elan on 2:09.682 for a fine fourth. With French superstar Benoit Tréluyer (45), Audi’s three-time Le Mans 24 Hours victor, heading their driving strength in both cars, father and son Nick and Rob Jarvis were delighted to have their Jaguar E-type and Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray share row three on 2:10.639 and 2:11.131 respectively.

The Elans of Robin Ellis/Julian Thomas and local heroes Diogo Ferrao/Goncalo Gomes, split by Tony Best/Charlie Jones-Best (E-type) and GT3 leaders Mark Holme/Jeremy Welch (Austin-Healey 3000) on 2:14.443 completed the top 10. Steve Jones/Chris Atkinson (Elan) and Paul Pochciol/James Hanson (Jaguar D-type) were next, followed on row seven by the Triumph-powered Morgan +4 SLRs of Simon Orebi Gann/Calum Lockie and John Emberson/Billy Bellinger, separated by 0.063s! The latter, a giant-slayer at Castle Combe in September, still had Thursday’s intermittent misfire which baffled Foxcraft Racing’s crew, but their hopes of matching the quicker Austin-Healeys in GT3 remained high.

Rudiger Friedrichs and Swiss Formula Junior to HGPCA F1 racer Philipp Buhofer in Rudi’s C-type, sat 15th, ahead of a quartet of Healey 3000s. Of these, David Smithies/Chris Clarkson and Mark Pangborn/Harvey Woods were 0.134 apart, a fine effort by ‘Pangio’ who had gratefully taken up Clarkson’s offer of his own car, when Mark’s was crashed in treacherous conditions at Spa last month.

Swedes Nils-Fredrik Nyblaeus/Johan Rosendahl were 18th in the former’s machine, ahead of Paul and George Ingram. The dad-and-lad’s Q-time was fractionally better than those of Allan Ross-Jones/Mark Hales (Triumph TR4) and US-domiciled Briton Kyle Tilley, who tempted former Formula Ford and Super Vee racer dad Charles out of retirement to share his GT2-leading Lotus Elite. Kyle’s best lap, incidentally, was 2:21.377s.

Jason Minshaw was four tenths shy in Mark Hope’s MGB, with Mark Gordon’s Elite on their heels. George Grant/Paul Woolmer and Brian and Barbara Lambert wound up 0.041s apart in their Bs. Birchenhough/Nick Topliss (Cooper S) and Richard and Alice Locke in the Windmill & Lewis MGB were the last to record times. Muirhead’s Healey didn’t complete a lap. Only by changing the normally bulletproof MSD electronic ignition box for conventional points was its engine coaxed into life for raceday.

RACE

As the 28-car field descended onto the start straight plateau, Chiles Jr dropped the hammers to unleash Ford V8 power and charged ahead in the midnight blue Cobra, pursued by Haddon’s white Elan and Justin Maeers in the rapid Cooper. While the race would be between these three crews for the majority of its duration, there was no shortage of action in the thick of the pack.

Nick Jarvis held fourth at the end of the opening lap, with GT3 pacesetter Holme’s Healey, Hanson in Pochciol’s D-type, Xavier Galant, Friedrichs, Ferrao, Jones-Best, Ellis and Rob Jarvis’ Corvette rounding out the top dozen, with Atkinson’s Elan in his mirrors. The Healeys of Pangborn, Nyblaeus, Smithies and Paul Ingram - later to pit with a misfire, eradicated by changing the distributor cap and condenser - led the GT3 chase, pursued by Ross-Jones’ TR4 and Kyle Tilley, flying along in the GT2 leading Elite. Muirhead, Grant, Emberson, Gordon, Brian Lambert, Orebi-Gann, Hope, Alice Locke and Birchenhough’s Mini rounded out the field.

As Maeers and Haddon traded places, Tilley retired after five laps with a diff problem, leaving Gordon in the other Elite to take the GT2 battle to the MGBs. ‘Pangio’s Healey cut-out inexplicably within 10 laps and would not restart, ending a galant effort prematurely. Both Jarvis entries fell before half-way - the Jag with a collapsed wheel bearing and the Chevy with diff failure - as did Emberson’s Morgan, hobbled from the start by a misfire and Friedrichs’ usually reliable C-type having lost its clutch.

Chiles led to the first of two scheduled stops 26 laps in, around half-distance, whereupon the Haddon/Wolfe Elan seized the initiative. Gary Spencer’s CRC crew changed the Cobra’s more heavily loaded left rear tyre and sent Senior on his way. He put in a 27-minute stint, during which Ben Maeers clawed past into second, before handing back to his son. Chris Jr pushed-on in style and was making consistent ground towards the leading pair, when a carburettor problem led to one of the Weber 48 IDAs over-fuelling its cylinders. At that the now dormant beast was pushed away.

The metronomic Elan and the Cooper continued to race hard in the countdown to the chequered flag, but the latter - now with Charlie Martin up - ran out of fuel on its penultimate lap. Only two laps before, Charlie has set the race’s fastest lap of 2m07.621s (81.53mph). That rewarded Equipe Galant, for which young Olivier had taken over the Cobra Daytona Coupe from father Xavier from mid-pack and driven it beautifully. Having covered 54 laps to the Elan’s 55, they finished an excellent second, earning a tricolour flag over the podium.

Despite not taking the chequer, the Cooper was classified third on the prevailing regulations [it doesn’t work that way at Le Mans, where historically there have been some cruel breakages in the marathon’s dying embers], on 53 laps. The Elans of Atkinson/Jones and Ellis/Thomas covered the same number of laps, less than 18 seconds apart, third and fourth in GT4. The Portuguese-entered 26R of 2014 Spa Six Hours winner Ferrao and 1996 European Formula Opel Lotus vice-champion Gomes placed seventh overall, a lap adrift of them.

Holme and Welch kept the former’s big Healey in the top six for the majority of the race and earned sixth with GT3 honours, having only ceded the class lead during the first pit-stop phase. The Jones-Best/Best E-type led the chase initially, but after a couple of exchanges lost silver and eighth overall to Smithies/Clarkson’s Healey at three-quarters’ distance. Second sports racer home was the Hanson/Pochciol D-type in 10th place, but the Muirhead/Welch Healey was just 4.691s behind at the close, having enjoyed 11 laps ahead during the middle stint when Jeremy was on board.

Nyblaeus/Rosendahl completed a top four lockout in GT3 in 12th place, eight seconds clear of Ross-Jones/Hales’ TR4. With best laps 0.7s apart, the Hope/Minshaw MG B came home 48 seconds ahead of Gordon’s Elite in the tussle for GT2 honours, resolved by Marc’s fuel stop. Two laps down, Brian Lambert’s dogged pursuit of the Grant/Woolmer and last lap pass earned him and Barbara - the ‘Coupes des Dames’ winner - a memorable third in class by 0.495s.

Invitee Ellie B’s Mini and Richard and Alice Locke’s MGB were seven seconds apart at the finish and the last cars to take the chequered flag. When Orebi Gann climbed back into his Morgan - which Lockie had brought up to 11th - its engine was misfiring and with it jumping out of gear, retiring it was not a difficult decision.

The GT & Sports Car Cup, which has been going to Portimao since 2011, will return to the Algarve Classic Festival on 27/28/29 October 2023 for its end of season round, with our full 2023 calendar being announced very shortly.

Report by Marcus Pye

GTSCC WINNERS
Andrew Haddon & Andy Wolfe

GTSCC CLASS WINNERS
SP1 - Justin & Ben Maeers & Charlie Martin - Cooper Monaco T49
GT2 - Mark Hope & Jason Minshaw - MG B
GT3 - Mark Holme & Jeremy Welch - Austin Healey 3000
GT4 - Andrew Haddon & Andy Wolfe - Lotus Elan

GTSCC 'Driver of the Day' - Mark Pangborn & Harvey Woods - Austin Healey 3000
Royal Automobile Club ‘Family Award’ - Tony Best & Charlie Jones-Best - Jaguar E-type