Belgian Historic Cup                                                                                                                         The Belgian Historic Cup is a championship for youngtimers and classic cars ( GTs and touring cars). This weekend 56 cars were entered including some participants from overseas (United Kingdom). During the qualification on Friday no other driver could beat the laptimes from Eike Wellhouse in his splendid Lister Jaguar. Second on the grid was Jan van Genderen in a Porsche 911 RS. An unusual entry for this race was the 1953 Studebaker Commander from Belgium driver Geert Boels. This impressive car competed in the famous Carrera Panamericana. For the Belgian Historic Cup the car was completely rebuilt including a complete modification of the suspension setup. The powerful Studebaker (500+ Bhp) was sixth on the grid. In the first race on Saturday Eike Wellhouse proved to be fastest creating a gap of eleven seconds between himself and the Chevrolet Camaro of Dutchman Jan Schippers.    

All Types of Cars in the Belgian Historic Cup	Jaguar 420G Saloon	Winner of the Belgian Historic Cup - Lister Jaguar	Studebaker Commander

  Third place went to the Ford Escort RS1800 of Mark Wright. The gorgeous Lotus Elan 26R driven by Serge Lebeau finished in fourth place followed by Geer Boels. The start of the second race on Sunday developed into a complete mess. This was due to the fact that the safety car drove much too fast during the formation lap. On the starting grid there was chaos due to empty places because several cars didn’t enter the race. The organisation decided to enter the safety car again and after 15 minutes (!) the race continued. The result was a race of just fifteen minutes and again Wellhouse was the quickest of the pack. Jan Schippers managed to finish second again. Luc Moortgat crossed the finishline in third in his Porsche 911 SC RS. Studebaker driver Geert Boels was unlucky this time as he was disqualified from the race because a minor repair just before the start was carried out in the paddock and not in the pitlane.    

Mini Marcos and Vauxhall Magnum in the Spa Ardennes Challenge	Ferrari 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer	High revving BDA engine under the bonnet of an Escort RS1600 Mk1	French Cooper S in the Spa Ardennes Challenge

    Spa Ardennes Challenge                                                                                                                       This challenge is a 100 minute race for sportscars, GTs and touring cars. The entry list this year consisted of 54 cars ranging from 7 litre Ram Cobra's and Mustangs, Porsche 911 RS,Aston Martin's, Jaguar D-Type Replicas, Alfa Romeo Bertones, Ford Escort Mk I BDA, MGBs, Austin Healeys, 6 Crossle's and a beautiful Ferrari 365 GT4 BB. Friday was set aside for training and qualifying with an ambient temperature of 35 degrees Celsius and a track temperature of 51 degrees Celsius ! The lightweight Crossle 9 S driven by Mark Hobbs and Jez Clark surprised many other drivers by setting a pole position time on the 3rd qualifying lap. The always fast and spectacular RAM Cobra of Phil James and Cheng Lim were 2nd on the grid with 3rd grid spot being taken by Arnie Black (Crossle driver and managing director) and Gwyn Pollard. Many were concerned at the high temperatures being reached by both engines and tyres for the race on Saturday. But at 14.30 h. Saturday-afternoon and with the race scheduled to start at 16.20 h., a huge thunderstorm rolled in and soaked the waiting competitors and forced many into a panic as they had to re-plan their race strategy with the choice of tyres and the amount of fuel.  

MGC GT finished 5th in the Spa Ardennes Challenge	Spectacularly driven Ford Escort RS 1600	Alfa Romeo 2A000 GTAm finished seventh in the Spa Ardennes Challenge	Cobra still in front of four Crossles

  Just before the start of the race the weather changed completely again and the track dried out very quickly and most competitors switched back to dry settings. The rolling start took place at 4pm and within a split second the Cobra passed the Crossle using all its power heading down into the famous Eau Rouge complex. But after 6 laps of extreme pressure by the Crossle’s the Cobra driver started missing the apexes because the tyres were starting to show signs of overheating. So the Crossle driven by Jez Clark took the lead but on the same lap the organisation showed him a warning board for a 'drive through' penalty. After 75 seconds he was back on track and started to catch up with the frontrunners. After 20 flat out laps Jez was in second position again when he came in for refuelling and driver change over. Despite two safety car issues Mark Hobbs crossed the finish line a comfortable 33 seconds ahead of the second place Crossle of Gwynn Pollard who had chased hard, with Chen Lim (RAM Cobra) just over 3 seconds behind in third place. A remarkable fifth place went to Andy Young in a MGC GT.  

DKW F12 and Porsche 356 in the Classic Series	Lotus Elan 26R finished  third in both Classic Series races	Smoking front tyres of a quick Mini Cooper S	AC Shelby Cobra won  the first  Classic Series race

  Classic K Historic Touringcars and GTs The “Classic K” series is a new series designed to attract those competitors who want to race their FIA Appendix K cars in a strictly controlled, value for money series at the top circuits in the UK, as well as at invitation events at Spa and the Nurburgring. The series is designed to attract owners of 4 and 6 cylinder GT & Touring Cars which have, as a model, international competition history and which were available prior to 31 Dec 1965. At Spa this series was supplemented by German drivers from the HTGT race series. Two thirty minutes races, held on Sunday, saw a variety of cars filling the grid such as Lotus Elan, Chevrolet Corvette, Jaguar E Type, Ferrari 250 GT SWB, Shelby AC Cobra, DKW F-12 to name a few. In the first race Dutchman Armand Adriaans (Shelby Cobra) scored a victory when Georg Nolte (Ford GT40) was excluded from this race. The Germans Perry and Norbert Gross, driving a Ford Falcon Sprint finished second. In the second race that afternoon the victory was in a reversed order. German Robert Krug in his Lotus Elan 26R scored two third places.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Spa 100 Miles Trophy Thirty-two cars from the seventies and eighties filled the grid for a 100 mile race. The majority of the entries were Porsches 911s and BMW 325i s but also some non German cars were entered like two Ford Capris, two Escorts, a Lola T492, March 81S/2, Chevron B16 and a very quick Renault Alpine A110. During practice the former Group 5 Kremer-Porsche 935 K3 of Austrian driver Armin Zumtobel set the fastest time followed by his fellow countryman Paul Koppenwallner in a Chevron B16. Third on the grid was Christian Nowak in a CN-Cobra. From the start of the race the Kremer-Porsche was in the leading position until a mechanical failure on lap 9 caused it’s retirement. For the next five laps the lead was taken by the CN-Cobra but a pitstop during lap 15 saw the car drop back into second position behind Paul Koppenwallner (Chevron B16) who claimed victory. Third was German Stefan Oberdörsterin in a Porsche 911 RS 3.0. A remarkable fourth place was scored by Jens Schäfer in the Renault Alpine A110 1600s.  

MGB GT V8	Kremer Porsche K3	Spa Long Distance Cup	Low Drag E Type Jaguar

   Spa Long Distance Cup  The 4 Hour race for the "Spa Long Distance Masters Cup" was the main attraction of the weekend. Forty entries were from the participants of the German Yokohama FHR Endurance Cup as this race counts as qualification for this German Cup and another twelve entries came from the British Masters Series. All the ingredients for an exciting race were present including perfect weather and high temperatures. Although it was a fair race around 13 cars didn’t finish the race due to technical failures. The winners of this race Schmeyer/Hug were forced to start from the pitlane because they drove off too late for the start of the race. However, during the four hours duration of the race they were able to overtake the whole field in their Lola T492.They even managed to win the race two laps in front of the second place…. But as their car was a Sports2000 entry it didn’t count for the FHR overall victory. The AC Shelby Cobra of Paul Ingram, Chris Chiles and Chris Chiles Jr. settled for second place, ahead of a Marcos 1800GT driven by Alan Tice and Chris Conoley. A funny incident occured when the organisation decided to give a Lotus Elan driver from the Master Series a drive-through-penalty so the black flag and a board with the car-number was used to let the driver know he had to drive into the pitlane. Four times he passed the start-finishing line without noticing anything. So the organisation showed him just the black flag but he still didn’t notice the signals. After six laps his own pitcrew were able to warn him that the race was over… Finally arriving in the pitlane he jumped out of his car and ran to the organisation and blamed them that he was falsely accused !   

Alfa Romeo SZ Giulietta	Healey 3000 Pitstop during the Spa Long Distance Cup	Triumph TR4	Winner of the Spa Long Distance Cup Lola T492