Estoril Classics: Solo for Yves Scemama 🎥
SMALL, BUT FINE Significantly fewer participants than usual traveled to Portugal for the last Classic Racing event of the Peter Auto agency. So the Swiss presence was also small. For Yves Scemama it was worth it. Wordless but action-packed cross-section of the Estoril Classics 2020. Yves Scemama's only equal in the field of 13 sports cars and [...]
Wordless but action-packed cross-section of the Estoril Classics 2020.
Yves Scemama's only equal opponent in the field of 13 sports cars and GTs of the late 1970s and early 1980s (CER2) at the Circuito Estoril near the Portuguese capital Lisbon was his brother Philippe. While Yves started at the front of the field in his Toj SC304 with Cosworth V8 engine, Philippe had to take the back of the grid in his Lola T600 Chevrolet after a technical problem in practice.
Pair of brothers ahead
Within a lap, the latter was in second position, but failed to catch up directly with the front-runner from his own family. On the contrary, Francisco Lara Resende, who had started from the penultimate row, closed in on him in the smaller Chevron B36 and overtook the former IMSA sports prototype of the man from Neuchâtel.
The Brazilian then set off in pursuit of the Swiss three-liter sports car in which Heinz Schulthess had intended to compete at Le Mans in 1976 but ended this adventure prematurely after technical problems in practice.
One wins, the other crashes
Lara Resende cut her teeth on Yves Scemama. In the end, he had to admit defeat only by car lengths.
For Philippe Scemama, however, the one-hour race ended prematurely after 37 minutes due to a sudden accident on the home straight.
In the older race cars with Le Mans history (CER1), Marc de Siebenthal and Henrique Gemperle brought their Chevron B8 to fifth place overall and third in the class up to two liters. After the retirement of the McLaren M8C DFV, which was fastest in practice, the Lola T70 of David Hart and Nicky Pastorelli won unchallenged from start to finish.
Capri Festival
In the absence of the two BMW 3.5 CSLs of Michael Erlich and Christian Traber, who were always fighting for the wins, the equally fast Ford Capri 3100 RSs set the pace in the Group 2 touring cars.
The Cologne-Capri, which was put on pole position in qualifying by ex-IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti with a clear best time, dropped back early with engine problems and dropped out for that reason later in the race after Zak Brown, the fast McLaren Racing CEO, took over the wheel.
And another podium for Yves Scemema
As at the season opener of the 2020 Classic Endurance Racing Series, which consists of only three events, at Le Castellet, Belgium's Christophe Van Riet took victory ahead of Frenchmen Yves and Guillaume Mahé.
With a lightning start, Yves Scemama immediately moved up to third position in the somewhat older and weaker 1972 Ford Capri 2600 RS. The driver from Neuchâtel defended this position for an hour against a Group A BMW 635 CSi and thus celebrated his second podium at the Estoril Classics.
Without former Geneva GT3 driver Henri Moser as a strong partner, Charles Firmenich only managed eighth place in his 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL in historic Jägermeister colors.
