Spa Classic: Shared joy of the Bernese 🎥

With 339 different historic vehicles, the Spa Classic from May 17 to 19 registered a record number of participants for the Belgian event of the racing series organized by Peter Auto from Paris. As at the season opener in Barcelona, a number of Swiss Historic Racers put in a brilliant performance. First and foremost the two Bernese Christian Trotter and Michael Erlich with their beautiful BMW 3.0 CSL from 1975.

Two Bernese on the front row of the grid
Closed, they occupied the first row of the grid in the giant field of 50 touring cars from the former Group 2 and the early years of Group A. As a tribute to the 24 Hours of Spa, which for decades were reserved for these touring cars (now GT3), there was a night race on Saturday and a second one-hour run during the day on Sunday.

Complicating matters in the first race was the onset of rain, which forced the drivers to change tires. Erlich won with a 1'46 minute lead over another BMW coupe and 2'27 minutes ahead of Traber. The garage owner from Toffen took revenge by winning on Sunday, while Erlich remained on the track. Maxime Guenat ensured a Swiss double victory with second place in the equally sensational 1975 Ford Capri RS3100.

Fast Swiss Cobra pilots
Charles Firmenich/Henri Moser brought their Jägermeister BMW home in fifth place behind a 1973 Capri 2600 RS and the 1972 Ford Escort 1600 RS driven by the fast Belgian Caroline Grifnee. The Geneva duo shone in the two-hour Sixties' Endurance race, which had been started behind the safety car due to the wet conditions, with a second place. Only a Belgian team with an identical 1964 Shelby Cobra 289 finished 27 seconds ahead of them after 34 laps on the 7.004-kilometer GP circuit.

In fourth place behind a Jaguar E missed Yves Scemama and Frenchman Yvan Mahé with their rare Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé just missed the podium. Philipp Oettli followed with his 1963 Cobra in the slipstream of Afschin Fatemi's Porsche 904 GTS of the same age, also in a good sixth position.

Memories of the early Group C
Yves' brother Philippe Scemama ensured a historic victory within the Classic Endurance Racing Series in the field of sports cars from 1972 and GT from 1975. With a 1981 Lola T600, one of the first cars from the legendary Group C and IMSA-GTP, the man from Neuchâtel won the overall classification.

Pole setter Maxime Guenat retired with his Lola T286 four laps before the end of the race. Yves Scemama (Toj SC206) finished a lap down behind Urs Beck in the Porsche 935 K3 (3rd GT2) in 8th place. defending champion Beat Eggimann had to park his Cheetah G601 after 33 minutes with a puncture.

In the CER1 field of older sports protos and GT cars, the following made it through Toni Seiler and son Mirko Seiler with the 1968 Lola T70 MkIII after one hour over the full distance. They finished 8th overall and 5th in class.

Peter Vögele was the second best of about a dozen Swiss in his Porsche 908/3 in 15th place in this impressive field. In the Greatest's Trophy of GT cars from the fifties and sixties, the following placed Carlo Vögele with the family-owned 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ finished 6th and 4th in the two races.

The 17-minute video magazine for the Spa Classic 2019 can be viewed at the following link:

Next round in nearby Burgundy
The next event - with the same race fields and additional French participants - as well as the FIA Lurani Trophy for Formula Junior race cars is the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or in Dijon-Prenois from June 7 to 9 (Whitsun). The former GP circuit, venue of the last Swiss GP in 1982, can be reached in just under three hours from Bern and in around two and a half hours from Basel. Similarly close to German-speaking Switzerland, only the Monza Classic will be held thereafter from September 20 to 22.

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