52nd BELMOT-Oldtimer Grand Prix 2025: Masters Racing Legends for 66/85 F1 Cars

Mike Cantillon put on a dominant showing in the first Masters Racing Legends race at the Oldtimer Grand Prix event, as the Irishman’s Williams FW07C surged away from pole to claim a convincing win on a very wet Nürburgring. Having recorded fastest laps of the race that were three to four seconds quicker than any of his rivals could manage, Cantillon eased off towards the end but proved how treacherous the conditions at the Eifel circuit were by doing a full 360 going into his final lap in a first corner that drivers described as ‘like driving on ice’…

“It was great”, said a jubilant Cantillon. “Obviously I was able to get a clean start from turn two. I just got my head down and the guys were on the radio talking to me about every lap and the gaps I had. I seem to have managed the tyres, and knew that I didn’t have to push too hard, since I was terrified of throwing it off. I don’t know if you saw it, but I had a huge spin in the first corner at the last lap, so I was lucky to get away with that. That last corner is lethal. They’ve re-tarmacked that whole patch, so when the rain gets on it it’s just ice everywhere!”

Cantillon was initially chased by Matthew Wrigley’s Tyrrell 011 but in the melée involved in a fierce four-car battle over second place, a damaged front wing led to the champion’s early departure from the race. Jamie Constable (Tyrrell 011) and Werner d’Ansembourg (in his father’s Williams FW07C replacing the Brabham BT49C that broke down in pre-event testing) took up the gauntlet, the pair having passed front-row starter Yutaka Toriba in another FW07C. D’Ansembourg tried every move that he could but Constable created the widest Tyrrell even seen to successfully defend his second place.

“It needed to get very, very wide!” Constable agreed. “It was great, because the track was changing. Every lap it was getting a bit drier, and each one of us tried to work out where he’s quicker. After the chicane I could get the gap, but he was very quick down the hill, so it was just a balance of knowing where he was going to come. But on the last lap he was definitely keen on getting in front! It was fun, a lot of fun.”

“He was elbows out all the way – as he should obviously, it’s for a podium position – but that was brilliant”, said d’Ansembourg. “It was so much fun and honestly, as long as I’m in the mix, I’m happy. As long as there’s a step on the podium, but congrats to both of them. It did click with the other car. There were a couple of mistakes that I did that were very, very scary. But the car is great. I mean, it’s a championship-winning car, you really can’t complain.”

Behind Ken Tyrrell (Tyrrell 011), Dan Gore (Tyrrell 010) and Warren Briggs (McLaren M29), James Hagan (Tyrrell 011B) did well to bag a comfortable post-82 class win from Valerio Leone’s Arrows A6, while Marty Bullock (Williams FW06), John Spiers (March 761) and Peter Williams (Lec CRP1) were involved in a fierce, race-long, three-way battle for ultimate pre-78 class glory, Spiers pipping Williams for second place on the penultimate lap.

“A trial by endurance that was, I think”, said Bullock. “This corner down the bottom was ridiculous. I don’t know whether they greased it up before we started, but it was no worse than driving on ice! Towards the end, it got a bit drier and you got a little bit braver here and there, but one nibble at the kerb and you’re all over the place. So yeah, a good result, and the car’s in one piece, so that’s very good!”

“It was so much fun”, said Spiers, “battles going on all the time. Today the car felt beautiful. The last 24 hours, I started feel a bit of confidence in the car and that makes so much difference. So yeah, very, very happy.”

“It was a good scrap”, said Williams. “Should have been second, but there you go. Easy to make a little mistake, and you’ve got to let them go.”

While the weather had been more favourable than initially predicted, the Nürburgring was hit by a massive downpour after all on Saturday afternoon, right about when the Masters Racing Legends grid was preparing to line up for its first race at the Oldtimer Grand Prix meeting. Two Williams FW07C chassis monopolised the front row, with Mike Cantillon on pole and Yutaka Toriba sat besides him. Noah’s Ark continued on row two with the Tyrrell 011s of Jamie Constable and Matt Wrigley, while Werner d’Ansembourg (in his father’s FW07C after the gearbox on his regular Brabham BT49 faltered in pre-event testing) and Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29 occupied the third row. Steve Brooks (Lotus 91) and Ken Tyrrell (Tyrrell 011) were on row four. Valerio Leone’s leading post-82-class Arrows A6 was ninth, while Marty Bullock’s Williams FW06 had inherited pre-78 class pole after Max Werner’s Hesketh 308C had been dropped a couple of grid spots due to a qualifying infringement, and would eventually be a non-starter.

Fortunately, the worst of the weather had blown over when the cars were set to go, and the sun graced the grid when it roared off for its formation lap. The track was still extremely wet, though. Sadly, Jonathan Holtzman’s Lotus 87B was left standing on the grid, but the American was pushed on his way just in time. Cantillon immediately pushed to create a gap, while the two Tyrrells and d’Ansembourg were all over Toriba on the opening lap, and in fact got through before they reached the chicane. Wrigley himself then put some space between himself and Constable. Brooks and Briggs now hunted down Toriba, while Tyrrell fought over eighth with Steve Hartley’s McLaren MP4/1. Dan Gore’s Tyrrell 010 had risen to tenth ahead of James Hagan, who now led the post-82 class ahead of Leone. Bullock had remained the pre-78 leader ahead of John Spiers’ March 761 and Peter Williams in the Lec CRP1.

On lap 2, a giant fastest lap of the race put Cantillon 6.5 seconds in front of Wrigley, with Contable and d’Ansembourg contesting third place, two seconds down on Wrigley. Behind Brooks and Briggs, now having swapped places, Tyrrell had lost the close attention of Hartley, as the McLaren had been spotted slowing at the back of the circuit. Gore thus inherited ninth ahead Hagan and Leone. Meanwhile, Alessandro Chahwan’s March 821 was sandwiched in between the pre-78 frontrunners Bullock, Spiers and Williams. Arthur Bruckner’s Arrows A6 was next, followed by Stanley Fulton’s Penske PC3, that had spun on the opening lap.

Cantillon’s monster pace continued unabated on the next few laps as the Williams now gapped the pursuing Tyrrell by 13 seconds – and that Tyrrell was Constable’s on lap 4, as Wrigley had dropped to fourth behind d’Ansembourg, and with his Tyrrell’s front wing at an angle following contact, he was unlikely to finish the race well up. Another fastest lap of the race – an incredible three seconds quicker than Constable’s best – created a 16-second lap for the unassailable leader. Constable and d’Ansembourg continued to argue over second place, with Toriba a further three seconds adrift. Brooks had now got ahead of Wrigley, who valiantly went on in his ailing Tyrrell before he finally surrendered at the end of lap 6, having been shown the ‘meatball’ flag.

Now in conservation mode, Cantillon started to protect his lead on a drying track, maintaining a 14-second advantage to his two main rivals. Further back, Hagan continued to keep Leone at bay for the post-82 lead, the Monegasque now 25 seconds adrift, while Bullock, Williams and Spiers were just tenths apart in their struggle for pre-78 glory.

As the times dropped well below the 2-minute mark, Cantillon ran home an entirely dominant win from pole, but behind the Irishman the fight for second place was far from over. In fact, Toriba was closing back in on Constable and d’Ansembourg for a three-way fight. In fifth, Ken Tyrrell was 16 seconds down on the trio, while being chased by Brooks, Gore and Briggs, the latter having dropped a place to Gore’s Tyrrell 010. Hagan had the post-82 class win in the pocket, but the pre-78 battle wasn’t done yet, as Spiers pipped Williams for second place on the penultimate lap.

While Cantillon cruised to the line in victorious mode, Constable made his Tyrrell as wide as he could to narrowly hold on to second ahead of d’Ansembourg and Toriba. Tyrrell finished fifth, 32 seconds down on the winner, trailed home by Brooks, Gore and Briggs, while Hagan pocketed the post-82 class win ahead of Leone. In 11th overall, Bullock took pre-78 class victory from Spiers and Williams, the three finishing ahead of Chahwan, Holtzman, Bruckner and Fulton.

Mike Cantillon made it two from two in the second Masters Racing Legends race at the Oldtimer Grand Prix, the Irishman working his way to the front from fifth on the partially reversed grid. Hitting the front after a fight with Yutaka Toriba’s similar Williams FW07C that lasted for several laps, Cantillon led home a train of no less than three FW07Cs, as Werner d’Ansembourg’s example pipped Toriba for second place into the final corner. Remarkably and heroically, Cantillon crossed the line with a slow left rear puncture, allowing the top three to finish within a second from each other.

“What can I say? That was very, very special”, said a beaming Cantillon. “I really wasn’t expecting that. There were some serious fast guys up in front of me, but we actually got a really great first lap in. The car felt amazing, a huge thanks to Front Row. We were picking them off and it was so exciting out there. As I came up to Yutaka going into the final corner, ‘Jukester’ goes wide and I keep to the inside and I just literally clipped his left rear, and the wing just disappeared. Then it was just a matter of trying to stick with it, but they were catching, catching, catching. What was it over the line? A couple of tenths? I didn’t actually feel the flat tyre, it was more to do with the wing and the balance of the car – I just couldn’t get the turn-in on the fast stuff.”

“On the opening lap I could overtake Ken Tyrrell”, said Toriba, “and after that it was going very well. But then I was caught by backmarkers when Mike was following me – it was annoying, I couldn’t overtake them in a good way. And then I made quite a big mistake and he overtook me. Then in the last corner Werner passed me too. He’s a young driver and knows how to race! I shouldn’t have made that space for him, but he sneaked in and took it. But this is the first time I am here and I’m quite satisfied with the result.”

D’Ansembourg had been in an enduring battle with Jamie Constable’s Tyrrell 011 for the second time in two days but managed to clear the Tyrrell towards the end before closing up on the two leading Williams machines and splitting them on the run towards the line. Constable finished fourth, two seconds down on the leading Williams trio, with Steve Brooks (Lotus 91) leading a group of pursuers that included polesitter Ken Tyrrell (Tyrrell 011), the resurgent Matt Wrigley (rebounding from damage to his Tyrrell 011 on the previous day) and Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29.

“I’m not sure how much was on screen, but in the seat of the car, it was very eventful, the whole race from start to finish!”, said d’Ansembourg. “I said yesterday was the most fun I’ve ever had. Well, I’d like to take that back and say that today actually was. And with Jamie, what a fight, what a fight… After yesterday I had to be more on my tiptoes and really think about it. And yeah, I managed a sneaky move that last turn, so great fun.”

Meanwhile, Valerio Leone (Arrows A6) got one back over Saturday’s post-82 class winner James Hagan (Tyrrell 011B) by finishing ninth overall, ahead of Dan Gore (Tyrrell 010), Hagan and Jonathan Holtzman (Lotus 87B). In 13th overall, Marty Bullock also bagged his second win of the weekend, his Williams FW06 leading home Stanley Fulton’s Penske PC3 for pre-78 class victory. The engine in Peter Williams’ Lec CRP1 expired four laps from the end but he was still classified third in class, as John Spiers’ March 761 had succumbed to engine issues as early as lap 1.

“Yeah, two from two, but only just so!”, said Bullock. “The engine was spluttering a bit towards the finish. We just made it as the other guy came up, so we’re very lucky. It was a good race. I had a lot of fun at the beginning, racing with James Hagan, and then the Lotus of Jonathan Holtzman as well. So it was exciting, and I must confess, with it being dry today, we had a lot more fun than yesterday.”

“Everybody got the drop on me at the start and that’s okay, because I don’t want any incidents in turn one”, said Fulton. “A car spun out of turn one so I was able to avoid him. The race was rather uneventful until I started having passing traffic coming up on me. It did influence me – one time before turn eight, I put two off, and the two off stayed a while. I was like, sheesh, here I am driving half on the track! But I was able to come on without incident, so I got around fine. With three laps to go, I wasn’t showing any more speed and said, okay, just take it home.”

On a much drier Sunday morning in the Eifel, the Masters Racing Legends grid prepared to start their second race at the Nürburgring, with Ken Tyrrell’s Tyrrell 011 on pole on the partially reversed grid. Yutaka Toriba’s Williams FW07C sat on the front row for the second time in days, while row two was shared by Werner d’Ansembourg’s FW07C and Jamie Constable’s 011, with Saturday’s winner Mike Cantillon on row three in the third FW07C along with Steve Brooks in the Lotus 91.

On the opening lap, Tyrrell was put under huge pressure by Toriba and was outbraked into turn 1 on the second tour around the ‘Ring. Cantillon, meanwhile, was already up into third, having passed d’Ansembourg and Constable, while Hartley concluded a miserable weekend in his McLaren MP4/1 by reporting to the pits. John Spiers was also in the wars with his March 761, his Cosworth DFV suffering from an issue, allowing Marty Bullock in the Williams FW06 to have some air between himself and pre-78 class rival Peter Williams in the Lec CRP1. A bit further up, Valerio Leone’s Arrows A6 had passed James Hagan’s Tyrrell 011B for the post-82 class lead and was ninth behind Steve Brooks, Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29 and Dan Gore in the Tyrrell 010.

At the front, Toriba was now chased by Cantillon, the Irishman having pipped Tyrrell for second place, while Constable found a way past d’Ansembourg for fourth. Meanwhile, in tenth, Matthew Wrigley was working his way through the field after his Tyrrell 011 had been a DNF in the first race.

Going into lap 5, Toriba hung on but behind the leading pair – now having broken away by eight seconds – Constable and d’Ansembourg had demoted Tyrrell to fifth. The American now had the Lotus of Steve Brooks full in his mirrors, with Briggs keeping a close look. Six seconds further adrift was Wrigley, who had got in front of post-82 class leader Leone and Gore, while Hagan was dealing with pre-78 class leader Bullock and the Lotus 87B of Jonathan Holtzman. Alessandro Chahwan’s March 811 was another 26 seconds down, the Argentine driver followed by Williams, while Stanley Fulton’s Penske PC3 had moved into third in the pre-78 class.

On lap 7, the Toriba/Cantillon battle raged on, the pair now split by seven tenths, while Constable and d’Ansembourg – once again circulating together as they had done on Saturday – had reduced their deficit to seven seconds. Then a gap of five seconds opened up to Tyrrell, Brooks and Briggs, while Wrigley had almost caught up with that group of three. Leone looked strong for the post-82 class win in ninth, while Bullock in 13th overall continued to rule in the pre-78 class. His rival Peter Williams, though, was out with a blown engine.

Then on lap 8, Toriba finally gave in to Cantillon’s challenge, and once the Irishman was passed he opened up a gap of 2.4 seconds on lap 9. Behind them, d’Ansembourg and Constable had also swapped places while continuing to close on Toriba, while Wrigley was up into seventh ahead of Briggs. Right in front of them, Brooks had demoted Tyrrell to sixth, which meant that on lap 8 the first eight had all exchanged positions!

As the clock wound down to zero, Cantillon managed his lead to around two seconds in a Williams FW07C 1-2-3, but d’Ansembourg was now right up with Toriba. Hurried up by the Belgian, the Japanese driver went on a refreshed attack on the lead but at the same time had d’Ansembourg pushing him to the maximum, and into the final corner the youngster pipped Toriba for second place to cement a 1-2 for his Front Row team. Once in parc fermé, it emerged that Cantillon had not just struggled with a clipped front wing but also with a slow puncture on the left rear tyre, crippling his pace towards the end.

Constable remained fourth ahead of Brooks, Tyrrell, Wrigley and Briggs, while Leone secured the post-82 class win in ninth. Gore was tenth ahead of post-82 runner-up Hagan and Holtzman, while Bullock took his second pre-78 class win of the weekend, followed home by Fulton and the retired but classified Williams.