CER Race Valencia.

[henk4]

The CER race in Valencia on the saturday before the 1000 km LMS race provided a very entertaining event, not in the least because of the fierce battle for the lead between Bill Binney (Lola T212, the former Birrane car) and Alan Timpaney (Chevron B19). Both had qualified on the front of the grid, with Timpaney just 0.008 seconds slower than his "team-boss" in LMP2.

The race started with Bill in the lead, buth soon Alan took over the lead, but then again the lead changed from time to time. In the meantime the Swiss driver Marc Luco, with his Porsche 908/3 (a twin turbo 936 lookalike once prepared by Joest) came menacingly close up to second place. Luco had won the Monza race and was determined to repeat that in Valencia. Unfortunately the car suffered technical problems and had to retire. After the mandatory pitstops Alan continued to drive but Bill had given his place to Chris Bunscombe, who managed to quickly reel in a tiring Timpany.
The chase by third placed Olivier Cazalieres in his Chevron B21 came a little late, inspite of him being the fastest man on the track.

So it was all joy for the Binney team on Saturday, probably some sort of an ex-ante compensation for the results on Sunday. Forfeiting the warm-up ("the car was already good enough") their race lasted only 22 laps, after which an engine bearing had enough and forced withdrawel.

The CER field was nicely packed again, with four M1 Procars, two interesting Alpines, a Ford GT40, which blew its gearbox in practice, four Chevron B16s, whereby John Sheldon once more took the honours.

A short pictorial review is in here

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame...em.php&rid=143

[John Turner]

Many thanks for the report Henk, but the link seems to take us to the main event rather than the historics, and I don't seem to be able to locate a pictorial review which is specifically of the CER race. Am I missing something, here?

[henk4]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Many thanks for the report Henk, but the link seems to take us to the main event rather than the historics, and I don't seem to be able to locate a pictorial review which is specifically of the CER race. Am I missing something, here?

you should go into the slide show, and they you will encounter the classics.....they are on page 4 and 5, twenty shots in total...

[John Turner]

You mean we have to wade through all those 'moderns' to get to them; very crafty!

[henk4]

Originally Posted by John Turner

You mean we have to wade through all those 'moderns' to get to them; very crafty!

you can skip them, page by page, so three clicks and you are into the classics.....

[John Turner]

Sorry; I was teasing you a bit!

Seriously, this is what we want to encourage. Reports, reviews (pictorial or otherwise) and/or relevant links to cover as much of the historic racing scene from all over the world. It is pleasing to see that this is beginning to happen.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Sorry; I was teasing you a bit!

I know, but I did not want to come up with a statement like: Close your eyes and swallow

(btw, in the Monza LMS report on UCP there is also a selection of CER activities...)

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame...em.php&rid=137

only 10 pics though...

[smh]

Guess you were at the race then Henke? Its nice to see someone taking an interest in the "support races".....
Bill's car had a fair amount of work after its little shunt at Monza, one of the M1 BM's nudged Bill in the air coming into the first corner resulting in a buzzed engine, and when it landed it broke the planet gears, twisted the gearbox casing and stripped the crownwheel of several teeth.... So the result this time was very welcome (and a relief!) We were enjoying the race from the pitlane as you probably realised, Bill, Alan and Chris are all driving the LMP together. Chris hadnt driven anything like the Lola before and only got 15 mins in it in qualifying as Bill was enjoying himself. And ignoring the IN board so the times he put in were pretty good considering the time he had in the car. Saying that Bill had only driven it for 30 mins previously, as at Monza he shared it with Mr Birraine and had a very very short race...

[smh]

I took 2 photos, a "can you spot whats not right in this picture... The second pic shows the answer....



Can you spot it??