Monza Historic: Nothing works without gasoline 🎥
BEAUTIFUL WINS AND BITTER FAILURES At the Monza Historic, the Swiss drivers put in a good performance as usual. Two had miscalculated the fuel consumption, but one won from the last starting position. Short highlights without "disturbing" commentary - enjoy the pure engine sound and a few action scenes also from Swiss cars at the Monza Historic [...]
Short highlights without "disturbing" commentary - enjoy the pure engine sound and a few action scenes also from Swiss cars at the Monza Historic 2020.
Although many regulars of the Peter Auto organization stayed away from the Monza Historic due to travel restrictions, nice fields came together on the third weekend of September. And as usual, the Swiss drivers were everywhere at the front.
However, the high speeds reached at the Autodromo di Monza, even with historic racing cars, took their toll on two of them.
Too small tanks in the sports cars
Toni Seiler, for example, was well on his way to the podium in the CER1 (Classic Endurance Racing) category for sports cars and GT vehicles up to 1971. On the penultimate lap of the one-hour race, the light blue Lola T70 rolled out of the race in third place without fuel. The 93-liter tank had proved too small for the high speed (over 250 km/h on the home straight).
The tank capacity in the Porsche 917 of Monegasque Claudio Roddaro was enough to take the win ahead of the Lola pack that had still dominated in practice. Seiler was still classified seventh. In a good sixth place, Peter Vögele in the Porsche 908/3 made it over the full distance.
Scemama before Eggimann
In the field of CER2 of the 70s and early 80s racing sports cars, Philippe Scemama in the Lola T600 was alone on a wide tide. His brother Yves, last victorious at Le Castellet in the original Warsteiner-TOJ SC304, decided against racing at Monza because of his participation in an event in the USA and the associated quarantine regulations.
Philippe Scemama completed the 30 laps in the 1981 sports prototype with an average speed of 181.6 km/h. Beat Eggimann, in the fastest two-liter car (Swiss-built Cheetah G601), was a deserved second, but only eleven seconds behind.
Philipp Brühwiler would have ensured a triple Swiss victory if - you guessed it - his Chevron B26 hadn't run out of gas on the penultimate lap.
Clear victory for trotter
In the legendary Group 2 touring cars, Christian Traber in his BMW 3.0 CSL celebrated a fine start-finish victory. He was initially challenged by Christophe Van Vliet in the Ford Capri 3100 RS and Michael Erlich in his BMW 3.0 CSL.
However, the Frenchman soon retired with drive problems that led to an accident. And the notary from Belp had to park his car with a broken drive bevel gear in the differential. What remained for him was the fastest race lap.
Laps behind the then lone Christian Traber, Charles Firmenich and Henri Moser in the ex-Jägermeister BMW CSL came in second, followed by three more modern BMW 635 CSi from Group A of the 1980s. After the retirement of the third-placed Italian Franco Meiners in the Ford Escort 1600 RS, Peter Vögele in seventh place in his Escort BDA was the best representative from the class up to two liters.
Such a penalty does not have to be
The Shelby Cobra of Urs Beck and his racing partner David Hart (NL) also finished first overall in the field of 42 cars from the Sixties' Endurance after two hours. Because the submitted FIA car passport had expired ("the application for a new one had been submitted, but someone in Paris had deleted it by mistake") there was an incomprehensible time penalty of three minutes, which dropped the duo back to 5th place.
So Lecourt/Narac from France in the rare Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé came to victory and the Romands Firmenich/Moser in their Shelby Cobra 289 to third place.
Ambush winner
Finally, Remo Lips caused astonishment in the Greatest's Trophy for special racing sports cars. Because car owner Arnold Meier was not feeling well on race day, he left the 1961 Ferrari 250 SWB to Remo Lips. Because the experienced Zurich native had not completed a practice lap with his boss's car, he had to start from the back row for the first race.
Lips, who raced in the ADAC GT Masters two years ago, quickly moved up into the midfield. And when it started to rain in the last 15 of the approximately 40 minutes of racing, he was clearly faster than everyone else. When Lips overtook the leading Bizzarini 5300 GT in the final lap, his surprise victory was perfect.
In the second race on a dry track, only a Lister Jaguar and the Bizzarini were faster than the Ferrari driver thanks to top speed on the straights.
Remo Lips: "I like to drive hard in the rain. It's nice when my boss allows me to go full throttle with this valuable car."
