Gallery: Group C and Endurance Legends Highlights of Peter Auto Opener
Peter-Auto’s season started at with the Espíritu de Montjuïc at with series such as Group C, Endurance Racing Legends running as two of the eight grids the French organisers have assembled for 2019.
The season-starter saw some intriguing cars return to racing with a Ferrari 250 GTO (1962), a 3.8-litre low-drag lightweight E-Type Jaguar (1963), an Alfa Romeo T33/TT3 (1972), a Lotus Esprit (1979), a Lola T600 (1981) and a Sauber C8 (1986) all back in competitive action.
The Lola T600 GTP was one of the first of the new generation of 1980s sportscars, and Lola’s first coupe since the T70 in the 1960s, and was immediately successful, Brian Redman taking four wins on the way to the 1981 IMSA title, the T600 finally toppling the Porsche 935 from its position of dominance. Philip Scemama raced his 1981 T600 in the one hour Classic Endurance Racing 2 race at Barcelona, but retired after nine laps.
Henrik Lindberg was out in the Group C race in a 1986 Sauber C8, wearing the distinctive Kouros livery the cars wore in 1986 in the World Endurance Championship. The C8 gave the Sauber team its first ever championship race win at a rain lashed Nurburgring that season, Mike Thackwell and Henri Pescarolo. Only three C8s were ever built.
The Endurance Racing Legends for cars from the 1990s and 2000s saw a race win for Shaun Lynn in a 2003 Bentley Speed 8 in Saturday’s opening race - the first race win the model since its Le Mans success in 2003? The Bentley did not start Sunday’s race.
Selected Results:
Endurance Racing Legends
Race One:
1 Shaun Lynn (Bentley Speed 8) 18 Laps 31m35.747s (161.3kph)
2 Michel Lecourt/Raymond Narac (Ferrari 333SP) +15.523s
3 Xavier Micheron (Lola B98/210)
4 Xavier Galant (Panoz Esperante GTR1)
5 Olivier Tancogne (Dodge Viper GTS/R)
6 Franck Morel (Ferrari F430 GTC Evo)
Fastest Lap: Lynn 1m41.021s (168.5kph)
Race Two:
1 Narac/Lecourt 17 Laps 30m31.389s (157.1kph)
2 Rui Aguas/Kriton Lendoudis (Aston Martin DBR9) +20.861s
3 Mirco Seiler/Andre Wiget (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 R)
4 Franck Morel (Chrysler ViperGTS/R)
5 Florent Jean (Ferrari F430 GTC Evo)
6 Tancogne
FL: Lecourt 1m41.112s (168.3kph)
Group C
Race One
1 Mike Wrigley (Spice SE89C) 21 Laps 1h06m45.480s (97.6kph)
2 Tony Sinclair (Spice SE90C) +35.416s
3 Ivan Vercoutere/Alex Muller (Jaguar XJR11)
4 Shaun Lynn (Jaguar XJR9)
5 Max von Braunmuhl (Porsche 962C)
6 Philippe Colancon (Tiga GC289)
FL: Dominique Guenat (Peugeot 905 EV1B) 1m40.152s (169.9kph)
Race Two:
1 Guenat 25 Laps 45m39.624s (155.1mph)
2 Kriton Lendoudis (Mercedes Benz C11) +32.220s
3 Wrigley
4 Sinclair
5 Pierre-Alain France/Erwin France (Nissan R90 CK)
6 Lynn
FL: Guenat 1m40.458s (169.4kph)
Pictures: Photo Classic Racing/Fotorissima/Julien Hergault
