The Circuito de Jerez-Ángel Nieto was dressed to perfection to host the 4th edition of the Jerez Historic Festival, where the competitions organised by Race Ready were the headliners. In a long-awaited return to a much-loved motor sport venue on the Iberian Peninsula, the dynamic Carrera Los 80 squad provided two interesting races with Touring and GT cars that made us dream of the 1980s and 1990s.
Early on Saturday afternoon, in the first race of the weekend, there was a continuation of the "arm wrestle" from the morning qualifying session between Pedro Bastos Rezende and the Bruno Santos/Claudio Vieira duo, both in Porsche 911 3.0 RS. The two German cars prepared by Aurora Motorsport took turns at the front of the race, with Bastos Rezende coming out on top in the final moments of the contest, which also earned him victory in the GT Cup class.
As well as second place in the race, Bruno Santos/Claudio Vieira also took the best lap of the race and second place in the GT COPA class. The third car to cross the finish line was also a GT COPA Porsche 911, in this case the 2.8 RS of the AMARacing duo, Mário Meireles and Vasco Nina, who were making their Carrera Los 80 debut.
With no arguments to match the Porsche, the Group 1 Ford Escort RS2000, prepared by Curated Garage, with Francisco Freitas and former British Touring Car star Steve Soper at the wheel, drove a flawless race to finish in fourth place. The following positions were occupied by Teo Antonio Palomo, the best of the Spanish contingent in the race, at the wheel of his BMW 325i E36, and Toni Garcia, who celebrated his triumph in the T2000 in a Honda Civic. Rui Moura and António Duarte, in the VW Golf Mk1, were the winners in Group 2.
With the rain returning in force mid-morning on Sunday, the starting grid took a conscious stance for the second Carrera Los 80 race, which became an even more demanding challenge for drivers and machines.
Despite the different track conditions, the story of the first race repeated itself at the start of the second, with the Porsche of Bastos Rezende and the Bruno Santos/Claudio Vieira duo battling it out for the top spot at the tenth of a second. Unfortunately for the spectators, the 911 3.0 RS of Bruno Santos/Claudio Vieira, which had been in the lead, ended up falling behind in the second half of the race, dropping to fourth place, thus allowing Bastos Rezende a more peaceful finish on his way to a second win in the race and in the GT Cup.
The second car to cross the finish line was the Ford Escort of Francisco Freitas and Steve Soper, with the latter showing why he once won some of the great Touring Car classics, such as the 24 Hours of Spa, the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring or the Guia Race in Macau. Only fourteen seconds separated the first two to see the chequered flag.
After the setback in the first race, Lucas González and Jorge López, who shared the wheel of a beautiful Porsche 968, were third, finishing in second place in the GT Cup, ahead of Bruno Santos/Claudio Vieira.
Fifth to finish the race was André Cardal's Toyota MR2, which rounded off his debut weekend at Carrera Los 80 with a very positive performance in a car that was unusual on Iberian tracks and was competing for the first time. Teo Antonio Palomo finished next, while Juan Alonso and Gonzálo Alonso, in a Honda Civic, claimed victory in the T2000.
In the three-way duel for Group 2 victory, Rui Moura and António Duarte, in the Keep on Racing Golf MK1, beat César Freitas' BMW 323 and Francisco Moreno's Ford Escort MK1.
After its visit to Andaluzia, the Carrera Los 80 will bid farewell to the 2023 season at the Autódromo do Estoril, when the Estoril Endurance Festival takes place on the first weekend of December. In an event that combines the season-ending Iberian Historic Endurance race and the 500 km Estoril for modern cars, this is an opportunity to see and revisit some of the iconic machines from the 1980s and 1990s speeding around Portugal's oldest racetrack.
