Classic: The best came at the end
In addition to the two overall victories by Christian Traber in field 1 and Bernard Thuner in field 5, there was another Swiss success at the end of the Le Mans Classic 2016. Sportgarage Graber won both team classifications. Some teams are assigned random start numbers by the organizer, while others deliberately choose their numbers themselves. Like Christian [...]
Some teams are assigned random start numbers by the organizer, while others deliberately choose them themselves. Like Christian Traber, the owner and managing director of Sportgarage Graber in Toffen. This is because at the end, the laps completed by all six vehicles with the same start number in the fields from six eras are added together and used for the overall standings. So it was only some time after the final finish that it emerged that Switzerland had a third overall winner at the 2016 Le Mans Classic.
Christian Traber/Spencer Trenery in the Talbot Lago, Erich Traber/Bruce Trenery/Jürg König in the Fiat 8V Zagato, Clive Joy/Patrick Simon in the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta, Thomas Studer in the Shelby Mustang GT350, Peter Vögele in the Porsche 917 and Christian Traber/Peter Mülder in the BMW M1 Procar contributed to the victory in the team and index rankings with their number of laps and their running times. The French team with starting number 12 and the British team with starting number 57 took the places of honor. After all, 65 teams of six and 16 others with five or fewer cars started were classified.
Reward for the professional preparation and discipline of the drivers
"We had no idea that we would win," says a delighted team boss Christian Traber, whose sprightly father Erich was the oldest driver ever at 86 years of age, who, like all competitors, had to present a current racing license. "All the drivers are both customers and friends of ours. This is a fantastic result that we are all proud of. Because the Le Mans Classic is the biggest, toughest and best thing you can win as a team in historic racing worldwide. It requires professional preparation, a professional race service and, of course, drivers who bring their vehicles to the finish line quickly, safely and without damage time and time again."
www.grabersportgarage.ch
Photos: Archive, Peter Wyss
