The Iberian Historic Endurance squad, with its eclectic mix, adorned themselves in Liqui Moly colors for the Estoril Classics. They participated in the qualifying session this afternoon, which determined the starting grid for tomorrow's eagerly awaited race.
The most prestigious classic car series on the Iberian Peninsula delivered an exciting qualifying session to the large crowd in the stands at the Autódromo do Estoril. During this session, the Merlyn MK4 driven by Carlos Barbot and Pedro Matos recorded the best time of 1:58.593. The Foguete Racing duo, who also secured pole position in the GTP & Sportscar class, will share the front row of the starting grid with Bruno Santos' Porsche 911 3.0 RS. This Porsche was the fastest among the cars in the H-1976 class, with its fastest lap being just three tenths of a second slower than the British-built lightweight prototype.
For the fifth race of the season, the second row of the starting grid will feature the impressive Ford GT40s driven by Paulo Lima and Christian Oldendorff, who initially entered his Alfa Romeo GTAm. In a qualifying session ran in intense heat, challenging both drivers and their machines, Pedro Bastos Rezende and Cláudio Vieira secured the third row of the starting grid with their Porsche 911 3.0 RS cars.
In this qualifying session, where teams had to balance the challenge of achieving fast times with fine-tuning their settings for Sunday's race, the Shelby Cobra Daytona, driven by the French-speaking duo Brice Pineau and Olivier Muytjens, emerged as the fastest in the H-1965 class. Meanwhile, Portuguese drivers Domingos de Sousa Coutinho and Ricardo Pereira, renowned experts of the Cascais racing track, drove their BMW 2800 SC to set the best H-1971 class time.
Among the competitors in the Gentleman Driver Spirit (GDS) category, João Neves and Francisco Gonçalves stood out with their Datsun 1200, a model with a rich history in Portuguese motorsport.
With the motto "Relaxed Historic Racing" and the goal of providing exciting classic races for Gentlemen Drivers at the best events and circuits in Southern Europe, there is no Historic Endurance event where the Index of Performance is not awarded. The winner of this classification, typically coming from vehicles with smaller engine capacity, will receive an exclusive timepiece from the Swiss watchmaker Cuervo y Sobrinos.
The Historic Endurance race will bring the 2023 Estoril Classics to a thrilling close, and the race is set to kick off at 5:30 PM. Prepare for 50 minutes of heart-pounding action and suspense, all of which you can catch in real-time on the Estoril Classics Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/EstorilClassics) or the Race Ready YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@racereadyhistoricracingbyd6318).
