AvD Historic Race Cup celebrates classic formula racing at SUPERSPA

On the first weekend of August the AvD Historic Race Cup, jointly organized by the Historic Racecar Association (HRA) from Germany and FFR-FOR from Belgium, celebrated historic formula racing. They did so with three packed starting grids at SUPERSPA, on the spectacular Formula 1 track of Spa-Francorchamps.

In Race 1 on Sunday morning Stephan Lechine (#189) and Valerio Leone (#80) in their F3s (GO1) dominated the field, closely followed by Marvin Brandl (#26) and Jochen Thissen (#28) in their Formula Opels, crossing the line as 3rd and 4th respectively. Elio Cocciarelli (#1) was the best in the GO2 (F3 Pre-1985) class , after struggling with his clutch for much of the race. Onno Zuidema (#69) was the fastest FF 2000, ending the race as 7th overall, while Stefan Kramer (#10) won GO3, crossing the finish line as 10th. In the Sports 2000 (GO6) class Roberto Cocciarelli (#601) was the winner while Winfried Kornmeyer (#222) won the GO7 class.

In Race 2 the HRA GO1, GO2, GO5 and GO7 were joined by the FF Zetec and FF 1600 from the FFR-FOR. After Valerio Leone (#80) dropped out of the race due to ignition problems, Stephan Lechine (#189) had to slog it out with Dirk Kornmeyer (#222) and Elio Cocciarelli (#1) in their pre-85 F3s. In the GO5 and GO7 classes, Toni Krumbach (#555)) and Winfried Kornmeyer #2), as solo starters, had no competition. The FF1600 class though was heavily contested with 15 cars on the grid. David McArthur (#15) won this class, closely followed by Pascal Monbarron (#96) and John Svensson (#135), while Christophe Hansoul (#21) was unbeatable in the FF Zetec class.

In Race 3 the FF 1600, FF 2000, FF Zetec and Formula Opels from the FFR-FOR shared the track with the HRA GO3 (FF 2000), GO5 (FF1600) and GO6 (Sports 2000). After leading the race in his Formula Opel from the start, David Schneider (#129) dropped out of the race after 4 laps. This left Jochen Thissen (#28), Alan Williamson (#60) and Marvin Brandl (#26) to compete for the podium. Behind the trio, Henk van der Spoel (#69) and Stefan Kramer (#333) fought for a long time for 4th and 5th place, with Van der Spoel ultimately beating Kramer and winning the FF 2000 class. Cristophe Hansoul (# 21) and Thomas McArthur (#17) crossed the finish line in sixth and seventh place, winning the FF Zetec and FF 1600 classes respectively. The race between Roberto Cocciarelli (#601) and Harald Schmeyer (#692) competed till the very end in the GO6 class, with Cocciarelli having a lead of only 0,441 seconds when they crossed the line. In the GO5 class it was Toni Krumbach (#555) who took the laurels.

“The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is very popular with racing drivers, which is why we had the biggest number of AvD Historic Race Cup participants since quite a while,” says FFR-FOR series coordinator Wilco Ibes. “With 41 FFR-FOR entries and 33 from the HRA we booked 3 races and split up our series in such a way that all drivers could compete twice.” HRA series coordinator Marcel Biehl agrees: “Spa is simply a track that every motorsport enthusiast likes and where everyone loves to race.”

The HRA and FFR-FOR drivers now have a few weeks off before the last two events of the season. From 30 September to 2 October the AvD Historic Race Cup will participate in the ADAC Racing Weekend at Hockenheim, followed two weeks later by the Westfalen Trophy at the Nürburgring.

With 41 FFR-FOR entries and 33 from the HRA SUPERSPA saw the biggest number of AvD Historic Race Cup participants since quite a while.
In Race 2 Christophe Hansoul (#21) won the FF Zetec class, crossing the line as 7th overall.
Jochen Thissen (#28) in his Formula Opel was the winner of Race 3.

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