Historic GP Zandvoort 2024: Masters Endurance Legends

Jamie Constable was declared the winner of the second Masters Endurance Legends race at Zandvoort despite crossing the line in second place, as the Zytek 04S was handed the win when Marco Werner was slammed with a five-second time penalty for avoidable contact during his passing manoeuvre on Constable. Constable had led from Werner’s teammate Nick Padmore in a safety-car-punctuated opening phase of the race before Werner in the LMP2 Lola B12/80 pushed through to beat Constable on the road. It was Constable’s second win of the Historic Grand Prix weekend.

“It was fun”, said Constable. “I think Marco had an off, my brakes didn’t seem to work and I went off, which brought us back together. And then we were quick in different places, he was very quick around the tight stuff, I was quick around the straights. He was on the exit at one of the tight ones, he came on my inside, he sort of pushed me into the gravel and got through that way. But he’s a great driver, it’s great racing with him.”

“It was a race with a lot of action”, Werner agreed, before disagreeing with the stewards’ decision. “After Jamie’s pit stop I came close to him, but then I had a problem. Everything was blinking in my display and I was rolling out of speed. I made a complete switch off and restarted the system – and it worked! But then I said, okay, it’s done, he’s away. But then I saw him again – very slow and making a mistake. Then we went like this to the slow left hander and from the left I went in. Then you see that he moved to the inside and there was contact. I got a penalty, but I couldn’t understand. It looks when somebody is making a mistake and you take the chance to overtake them is forbidden. For me, it’s the wrong decision, but it’s not the point to make a protest, this is historic racing.”

Well behind the two leaders, the David & Olivier Hart Renault RS01 and Jack Fabby/Alfie Briggs Duqueine D08 took third and fourth while each grabbing a convincing class victory, the Renault in GTs, the Duqueine in LMP3.

“It was a good race, this time”, said young Hart. “Yesterday, our door went open in every corner, so we had to fix that. Then at one time I almost caught and passed Marco – it was close. But we finished third, best of the rest. An LMP2 and an LMP1 car ahead of us, so what more could we have done?”

Local hero Mathijs Bakker took his GT1 Viper GTS-R to fifth overall and second in the GT class as he fought Victor Jabouille’s similar GT2-spec Viper for the entire race. When Jabouille was penalised for a short mandatory pitstop, the battle was over. Coming from behind, the Mark Drain/Andrew Haddon completed a strong race in sixth overall to take second place in the LMP3 class.

The Masters programme on the Sunday of the Historic Grand Prix event at Zandvoort went thundering on with the second Masters Endurance Legends race, Jamie Constable’s Zytek 04S leading away from Nick Padmore in the Lotus-liveried Lola B12/80 and Ron Maydon in the Ligier JSP3. Sadly, the Bob Blain/Mikkel Mac HPD-Honda ARX-03B was a non-starter after its off in the first race.

However, the race got off on the wrong foot as the safety car was out almost immediately, as Maydon’s Ligier went off and needed to be pulled free before it could take its place at the back of the queue. This moved up the Renault RS01 of David Hart one place, followed by Chris Atkinson in the ORECA FLM09, Jack Fabby in the rival Duqueine D08, Cor Euser’s Marcos Mantara LM600evo and Victor Jabouille’s GT2-spec Chrysler Viper GTS-R. Behind them, Georg Hallau’s Norma M2000-1 seemed to have passed Mark Drain’s Ligier JSP3 just before the finish line. 

At the restart, Constable put his foot down to lead Padmore by 1.3 seconds going into lap 5, with David Hart having to deal with Fabby, whose Duqueine was now up into fourth place. Sadly, this proved another false dawn, as the safety car was back out yet again as the gearbox on Euser’s Marcos seemed to have locked solid before it hit the barrier going into the Gerlachbocht.

Then, as soon as the safety car was ready to pull into the pits, the pit window opened – Padmore, Hart Sr, Drain and Kari Makela in the Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 were the drivers electing to pit at this first opportunity. Marco Werner would take over from Padmore while Andrew Haddon got into Drain’s Ligier. Next time, around Fabby came in to have Alfie Briggs step into the Duqueine, with Hallau also opting to pit – but he would have to do it one more time, as his drivethrough penalty was now officially announced. Constable marched on in the lead, followed by Mathijs Bakker in the GT1 Viper GTS-R campaigned on Saturday by his son-in-law Joshua Kreuger, with Jabouille in third. Meanwhile, Atkinson pitted to be relieved by James Hagan.

On lap 10, the leader was in, followed by the pair of Vipers. Constable rejoined three seconds in front of Werner, but the game was on as the German pumped in the fastest lap of the race. 17 seconds down the road Olivier Hart was third in the leading GT car, with Alfie Briggs fourth in the leading LMP3 machine. Then followed Jabouille, Bakker, Hagan, Hallau, Makela and Haddon, the latter homing in on the Finn’s Aston Martin. Jabouille jumping Bakker at the stops, however, had everything to do with stopping too short, a misdemeanour for which the Frenchman was under investigation.

One lap later, however, the game was gone again, as Werner had lost a sizeable amount of time with a complete systems failure in the first sector to hand second place to Hart Jr. Having rebooted the system and regaining his rhythm, Werner was soon back past the Dutch youngster but now trailed Constable by 19 ticks. But then Constable himself made a mistake that allowed Werner to close back up to three seconds again!

Eight minutes remained on the clock, and with Jabouille in to serve the penalty that was handed out following his pitstop infringement, Constable led Werner by a decreasing margin, as the Zytek now had a mere 1.5 seconds in hands over the LMP2 Lola. Hart Jr remained third, 12 seconds adrift, with Briggs a further 14 seconds down in fourth. Bakker was back in second place in the GT class, ahead of Jabouille, who now also had Hallau ahead of him while Hagan was snapping at his heels.

On lap 17, the gap between Constable and Werner was reduced to six tenths but the Englishman was holding firm throughout the next tour. On lap 19, though, the German was through, now being hounded by the Zytek. Further back, Hallau had run into trouble, and moments later, the Norma was seen trundling into the pits.

In the final three laps, Werner was determined not to give it away, as the Lola strode away to a three-second lead over Constable at the chequered flag. However, the sting was in the tail, as Werner was handed a five-second time penalty for avoidable contact while passing Constable into turn 9, handing back the win to Constable! Hart Jr was a distant third and the clear GT class winner, with Briggs an equally lonely fourth and the LMP3 class victor. Bakker was fifth overall and second in the GT class, while Haddon secured second place in the LMP3 class with sixth overall. Victor Jabouille salvaged third in the GT class, as the second Viper ended up in seventh overall ahead of the Atkinson/Hagan ORECA, Makela’s Aston Martin and Maydon’s Ligier JSP3.