Historic GP Zandvoort 2024: Masters Racing Legends for 66/85 F1 Cars

Marco Werner’s Lotus 87B hit the front on the opening lap to lead a six-car train to the finish of a hugely exciting first Masters Racing Legends race of the Historic Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort. Behind the German, Nick Padmore came out on top in a mighty scrap to claim both second overall and the pre-78 class win in his Lotus 77, while completing a 1-2 for his German team.

Reigning champion Ken Tyrrell fought his way through to the front, as his Tyrrell 011 got in front of Lukas Halusa’s Williams FW08 and profited from contact between Matthew Wrigley’s Tyrrell 011 and the polesitting 1983-spec Tyrrell 011 of Jamie Constable, both of whom were also in the mix for the win. Constable managed to continue in fifth overall to win the post-82 Lauda class for flat-bottomed cars.

Behind Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29, Jordan Grogor and Greg Caton brought home their respective Maki F101C and March 741 to second and third places in the pre-78 Fittipaldi class, the Japanese-built Maki in the process scoring its best result in its 49-year history! Georg Hallau’s Ensign N183 took ninth to finish second in the Lauda class while Peter Williams’ Lec CRP1 completed the top ten. Meanwhile, Simon Fish crossed the line in fifth overall but was given a 10-second time penalty for overtaking under safety-car conditions.

In the final race before the lunch break, 24 Formula One cars poured onto the main straight for their first Masters Racing Legends race of the weekend, with poleman Jamie Constable leading away in the Tyrrell 011, while Yutaka Toriba’s damaged Williams FW07C and Mathieu Baumel’s ATS D4 were non-starters. Soon, Marco Werner was through in the Lotus 87B to grab the lead on the opening lap, chased by Constable, Matt Wrigley in another Tyrrell 011, Nick Padmore in the class-leading pre-78 Lotus 77, Lukas Halusa in the Williams FW08 and Ken Tyrrell’s Tyrrell 011, as Andy Soucek’s race in the Arrows A3 was over before it started, the Spaniard retiring to the pits after the first lap was completed.

On lap 2, Padmore was up to his usual giant-slaying action as he hauled the Lotus 77 into third place overall, while Simon Fish forced his Arrows A4 ahead of Ken Tyrrell. For the moment, Werner d’Ansembourg’s Williams FW07C, Mark Hazell’s Williams FW08B and Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29 rounded out the top ten. In 11th overall, Jordan Grogor was second in the pre-78 class, hauling the Maki F101C up to a place where it had never been in period, while further back Greg Caton’s March 741 and Peter Williams in the Lec CRP1 warred over third in class.

Next time around, the top four were still covered by less than two seconds while Tyrrell had retaken Fish for sixth. Briggs was up into eighth, followed by the rest, as d’Ansembourg went missing on lap 4 before he reported to the pits with bent steering. This allowed Georg Hallau to move his post-82 Ensign N183 into tenth overall and second in the Lauda class behind Constable’s Tyrrell 011 in second overall.

Five laps into the race, the top four had grown into a top six covered by two seconds, while Fish was only five seconds away in seventh. On lap 6, though, Werner completed a strong lap to break free by 1.6 seconds while Wrigley retook Padmore for third. Further back, Grogor consolidated his ninth place overall to remain second in the pre-78 class while Caton had dropped Williams by four seconds to strengthen his third place in class.

Now past the halfway mark, Werner was still controlling the lead but it was all change against behind the German, as Padmore hit back to pass both Wrigley and Constable for second overall, while the two Tyrrell 011s also switched places, as Constable began to lose ground. On lap 8, the 1983-spec Tyrrell had dropped two more places while Ken Tyrrell had passed Halusa for fourth, as excitement kept on raging to wow the Dutch crowd in a full grandstand.

On lap 9, Padmore had cut Werner’s lead to a mere three tenths as affairs hotted up even more at the sharp end, the top five still covered by 1.5 seconds. Constable kept running but was sixth, while on the fringes of the top ten, Greg Caton had taken Georg Hallau for tenth overall.

Then, all the excitement came to a premature end when the safety car was sent out after contact between the two Tyrrell 011s of Wrigley and Constable. And so the race finished under yellow, with Werner as the winner, Padmore in second place and the pre-78 class victor, while Tyrrell inherited third ahead of Halusa and Constable who managed to continue in sixth overall, losing another place to Fish in the process. Briggs headed Grogor, who took second place in the pre-78 class, with Caton completing that podium. Hallau was tenth while claiming second in the Lauda class. However, when Fish was handed a 10-second time penalty for overtaking Constable under yellow, everyone from sixth down to 13th place moved up a place.

Lukas Halusa drove a barnstormer of a race to bag his second overall win in Masters Racing Legends, as the Austrian’s Williams FW08 charged up the order from fifth on the grid to beat defending champion Ken Tyrrell who in the Tyrrell 011 took his second podium of a fruitful Historic Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort.

“I’m super happy. It was so much fun”, said a jubilant Halusa whose race proved to be much more eventful than it looked from the outside. “There was a first-lap incident where I went around the outside of Jamie in the bowl and he didn’t see me, so his front right collected my back left. That span him around. I originally thought I had a flat, as it didn’t quite feel right. But then I came in and the mechanics said that it was all good. So I put it out of my mind and just did the same thing at the restart. For me, it was knowing that Marco, Nick and Ken were all behind me, so I was just trying to get through the guys in front to try and pull a gap, which I managed to do. Then I started getting a misfire at the end of the penultimate lap, so my heart was in my throat! Even just down the straight, Ken caught like 50 metres on me. I thought, oh no, after all that work… But in the end, it was 0.3 seconds over the line. So one more lap and I would have had no chance.”

“It would have been good to have qualified a little bit better”, said Tyrrell. “We had some bad luck in qualifying, but did pretty well in the race. I was happy to make it through some of the traffic and move up and be with the fast guys. So it was good. It’s a fantastic track, fantastic enthusiasm by everybody. Fun to be here, for sure. And this weather doesn’t hurt!”

Coming all the way from the back in a frantic race, Matthew Wrigley shone to clinch third and make it two Tyrrell 011s in the top-three, having battled with Lotus pair Nick Padmore and Marco Werner most of the race. Saturday’s winner Werner in the end snatched fourth in the Lotus 87B while Padmore doubled up on pre-78 class wins in his Lotus 77.

“From P18 or P19, whatever it was, I certainly wasn’t expecting a podium!” said Wrigley. “When I made the first start, I got past about five cars, so the red flag was a bit annoying. And then I did an even better start! So yeah, it was a great result. People were very fair out there and left me plenty of space to come through. To be honest, not finishing that first race makes the weekend very hard to come back from, but that’s motor racing.”

“I had a great race”, said Padmore. “I started on new tyres, first excuse, and they were fantastic for five laps. And then I just cooked the rear tyres and that was it. So I decided I was going to be drifting for the last sort of ten minutes. So it was great fun, but another class win and nice to be up among the ground-effect cars. And love being here, it’s mega!”

In sixth, Kiwi Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29 fought off a strong challenge from a gaggle of cars that included Werner d’Ansembourg’s Williams FW07C, Simon Fish’s Arrows A4 and Andy Soucek’s Arrows A3, with the Belgian and the Spaniard also completing recovery drives from the back.

Greg Caton’s March 741 and Jordan Grogor’s Maki F101C started from the front row but inevitably faded to tenth and 11th overall to still claim second and third in the pre-78 category. In 12th overall, Georg Hallau won the post-82 class in his Theodore N183, profiting from the early demise of Jamie Constable’s Tyrrell 011B.

The Masters Racing Legends were the last Masters grid of the weekend to go, treating the Dutch crowd to a bonanza of 26  Formula One cars from the 3-litre era. Heading the reversed grid for Saturday’s first nine were the unlikely duo – in terms of period competitiveness at least – of Greg Caton in the ex-Reine Wisell March 741 and Jordan Grogor in the Maki F101C, followed by Warren Briggs in the McLaren M29, Jamie Constable in the Tyrrell 011B, Lukas Halusa in the Williams FW08, Ken Tyrrell in the Tyrrell 011 and Nick Padmore in the Lotus 77.

Race 1 winner Marco Werner’s Lotus 87B went missing, however, as of course did Yutaka Toriba’s Williams FW07C after its unfortunate crash in Friday qualifying, but moments after the green flag was given, Werner joined from the back, a fuel-pump change having been completed after all.

At the start, Caton went off into the lead from Grogor and Constable but a few corners later yellows were out and the safety car was called – moments later, however, this was converted into a red flag. It transpired that Jamie Constable’s Tyrrell 011 had gone off after he inadvertently locked a wheel with a rival, while Mathieu Baumel’s ATS D4 had got caught up in a moment for Stanley Fulton’s Penske PC3, with the track needing to be cleared for a full restart in the original starting order, apart from Geoffroy Rivet’s Trojan T103 that would start from the pitlane.

On the first lap, Caton still led but had Halusa chasing him, followed by Tyrrell, Briggs, Padmore, a resurgent Werner (now able to start from his own spot), Grogor, Hallau and an equally resurgent Wrigley, with Fish also coming from behind to be back in the top ten. On lap 2, Caton held on from Halusa and Tyrrell, but Padmore and Werner were up into fourth and fifth while Wrigley was harrassing Briggs for sixth.

Going into lap 4, Caton had finally succumbed to Halusa and Tyrrell, while Padmore and Werner kept pressing on, now joined by Wrigley. Briggs still had a gap of six seconds to Fish, as the first seven were covered by an equal amount of ticks. Grogor and Hallau still completed the top ten, but Werner d’Ansembourg in the Williams FW07C and Andy Soucek’s Arrows A3 – both also having been forced to start from the back – were firmly knocking on their door.

While Halusa still led Tyrrell, it was all change behind them, as Werner had dropped a few places, with Padmore, Wrigley and Caton all moving up a spot, but Werner was soon back past Caton who then had to watch Briggs pass him as well. Behind them, Soucek and d’Ansembourg had indeed relieved Grogor and Hallau from their top-ten positions while also switching order in between them. Padmore once again led the pre-78 class from Caton and Grogor, while following Constable’s demise Georg Hallau now led the post-82 class. 

The frantic pace was such that less than eight minutes still remained when Halusa continued to extend his lead over Tyrrell to 2.5 seconds, while Padmore and Wrigley seemed stuck four seconds further down the road. Werner on his turn wasn’t making an impression on Wrigley either, the German now trailing the Derbyshire man by 1.6 seconds.

On lap 8, Halusa’s lead had slightly shrunk to 1.5 seconds, but the Austrian looked well in control. Behind them, though, Wrigley had made a successful move on Padmore to be third while further back Briggs was falling into the clutches of Fish, who had found a way past Caton. Soucek and d’Ansembourg were still ninth and tenth. On lap 9, though, they both made it past Caton.

Three more minutes remained, and Halusa controlled the pace to keep Tyrrell at 1.6 seconds while Wrigley was looking a certain third, seven seconds behind the leader. Werner, meanwhile, had passed Padmore for fourth but the Lotus 77 was still a sure bet for the class win. Behind Fish, d’Ansembourg and Soucek had switched order once again, the Belgian now ahead of the Spaniard.

One more lap remained, as Halusa took it in his stride, as the Amsterdam resident won his ‘home race’ by three tenths to claim his second overall Masters Racing Legends victory – but a long time after his first win at Barcelona in 2022. Wrigley was third ahead of Werner while Padmore brought home the pre-78 class win, with Caton and Grogor second and third in class, in tenth and 11th overall respectively. In sixth, Briggs led home a train of four cars that included d’Ansembourg, Fish and Soucek. In 12th overall, Hallau’s Theodore N183 grabbed the post-82 class win.