- Lars Rolner celebrates again at Estoril
- Portuguese drivers win in the H-1965 and H-1971 categories
- Iberian duo wins in the Index of Performance
The Iberian Historic Endurance had the honor of closing the hostilities of the sixth edition of Estoril Classics.
After yesterday's qualifying session, during which the Lars Rolner/Patrick Simon duo prevailed with their greater experience over the competition, today the Martini Racing Porsche 911 3.0 RS took victory from the start. The winner of the same race last year and the former Le Mans Series champion (FLM class in 2011) quickly took the lead in the race and not even the two safety-car periods to remove stranded cars from the track prevented their triumphant progress.
Carlos Barbot e Pedro Matos foram os segundos classificados, mesmo tendo perdido algumas posições nos momentos iniciais da corrida, a dupla do Lotus Elan 26R soube tirar partido dos períodos com o carro de segurança em pista, para recuperar tempo perdido e avançar lugares na classificação para o triunfo na categoria H-1965.
The third place in the race, and second among the H-1976, was decided after a spectacular duel between four Porsche 911 3.0 RS and had heated moments, to the point where we saw three cars fighting for position under braking in turn 1. Portuguese pair Bruno Duarte/Filipe Jesus returned to the podium in the Iberian Historic Endurance, after beating Annette Rolner/Pierre-Alain Thibaut and Fernando Soares. The fifth place in the class was won by Filipe Nogueira (Ford Escort), which was his best result of the season.
After a fierce fight with the 911 3.0 RS of Annette Rolner and former Belgian Touring Car Champion Pierre-Alain Thibaut, the Jaguar E-Type which the German Rhea Sautter shares with the well-known English historic racer Andrew Newall ended up second in the H-1965 class. Palle Pedersen finished third in the category, and had he not spun with just over ten minutes to go, his result could have been even better.
Among the H-1971 cars, Miguel Ferreira and Francisco Carvalho led comfortably in the first twenty minutes, until the mechanics of their Ford Escort RS16000 betrayed them, something that unfortunately also took the duo Mário Silva/Carlos Tavares out of the race. Joaquim Soares (Lotus Elan) managed to repeat the Portimão's first place, imposing himself over the Quadrifoglio's armada. The German driver Christian Oldendorff in the rare Alfa Romeo GTA Corsa was second and the Portuguese pair Jorge Santos/Alcides Petiz (Alfa Romeo GTAm) completed the podium.
In the Gentlemen Driver Spirit (GDS) class, which gathers all cars equipped with engines up to 1300cc and all Touring cars up to 2000cc, Michel Mora (Porsche 911 SWB) had a good race until his compatriot Philippe Quiriere (Morris Cooper S) was forced to abandon. The 911 SWB entered by the trio Nuno Nunes/Piero dal Maso/José Carvalhosa was second, immediately followed by Piero dal Maso in a sister car.
Index of Performance: victory for Moriyon/Carvalhosa and watch for Oldendorff
Expectations were equally high for the victory in the Performance Index, a classification that once again awarded a specimen of the Swiss watchmaker Cuervos Y Sobrinos. In a day that went perfectly for the cars from Zuffenhausen, as it had happened in the "Algarve Summer Party", the Iberian duo Pedro Moriyon/José Carvalhosa was the best classified, however, since the trophy sponsored by Cuervos Y Sobrinos cannot be offered to previous winners, it was Christian Oldendorff's turn to take home one of these fine pieces of prestigious watchmaking.
Diogo Ferrão, Race Ready CEO, said: "The 2022 Estoril Classics event is always very special, due to the large public present and the relevance that it has in the international calendar, obtaining a good result becomes even more important when compared to other races. We had a lot of emotion on track and a great show to close an event that will certainly remain in everyone's memory!"
With two more races to go this year, the "No Crashing, No Cheating, No Complaining" competition now heads to north of Spain for two races at the modern Circuit de Navarra on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd October.
