Historic GP Zandvoort 2024: Masters Sports Car Legends

Felix Haas and Michael Lyons claimed a solid win from the front in the first of two Masters Sports Car Legends races during the Historic Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort. The pair needed to fend off challenges from the Lola T70 Mk3Bs of Italo-American Jason Wright and Dutchmen David & Olivier Hart. While Wright finished a close second after a late safety car, the Dutch Lola was forced out with gearbox failure shortly after the cycle of mandatory mid-race pitstops.

“Felix did a really nice job”, said Lyons. “We didn’t have a perfect run in qualifying from his side and We were working a little bit with the car, but yeah, it was really nice to see his lap times were really strong in the beginning. He was able to lead from pole position and gave me the car in the perfect place, really.” 

“I wanted to be first after all the driver changes, and that’s what we did!” said a satisfied Haas.

“Oh, I love this track, and I love the T70”, said a beaming Wright. “I had a good race with old man Hart. And young man Hart! He’s a bit quicker than me, but not much! But I have to say that my brand new engine blew up at Spa two weeks ago, and this is my spare, which is down on power. So, that’s my excuse…”

Michael Gans ran well to take third place in his Lola T290, while in fourth overall John Spiers and Nigel Greensall claimed pre-66 Hulme class honours in their McLaren M1B. In fifth, Julian Thomas and David Denyer won the Bonnier class in their Chevron B8, as their class rivals Peter Thompson and Charles Allison finished two overall positions behind in their similar Chevron. Meanwhile, Ron Sanen drove a strong race on his Masters debut but the Belgian’s Chevron B36 was penalised for failing to do its mandatory stop.

“I was very satisfied”, said Gans. “I managed to sort of hold my position as well as could be expected and tried to chase Jason. Towards the end of the race, I was getting closer and closer. But I ran out of time and skill, I think! But it was good. It was a good race. I liked it a lot. It was a great track. The weather has been perfect. And now I have to figure out how I can go as fast as I used to go around here…”

The battle for the GT class win saw the contenders drop out with issues, as both Nicky Pastorelli’s Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ and the Yelmer Buurman/Alexander van der Lof Chevrolet Corvette Stingray were forced into the pits.

In bright spring weather, the Masters Sports Car Legends grid lined up for its first of two 40-minute races. The Harts had been forced to switch to their Lola T70 Mk3B after their Ferrari 512M had sustained gearbox damage in Friday’s qualifying session. The Lola would start from the back, but was up into ninth place after a demon opening lap. Felix led at the front, his Lola T294 up four seconds on Jason Wright’s Lola T70 Mk3B, the American in turn chased by countryman Michael Gans in the Lola T290, Julian Thomas in the fast-starting Chevron B8 and John Spiers in the class-leading pre-66 McLaren M1B. Ron Sanen remained sixth in the Chevron B36, followed by Jordan Grogor in the second M1B, with John Sheldon’s Chevron B16 and Gary Furst’s Lola T212 quarrelling over tenth place. 

With the second lap over, Haas had extended his lead to six seconds, with David Hart joining at the back of the pursuing group, the Dutchman now up into sixth place. Meanwhile, further back, a big battle was going on between Ingo Strolz in the Lola T210, Billy Bellinger in the Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ and the two leading GT cars, Yelmer Buurman in the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray ahead of Nicky Pastorelli in the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’.

Wright had now properly heated up his tyres to narrow the gap to Haas to four seconds while Hart Sr had made up three more places to be third on lap 4. Gans and Thomas followed at close quarters but Spiers was falling into the clutches of Sanen. Spiers had one worry less, though, as Grogor was into the pits, suffering from brake issues with the rival McLaren M1B.

With fastest lap of the race, David Hart claimed second place going into lap 6 and was lapping two seconds quicker than Haas up front. Wright wasn’t allowing Hart to run free, though, as he in turn beat the Dutchman’s fastest time. Some 38 seconds down the road, Bellinger had crept into the top ten at the cost of Sheldon and Strolz, while Pastorelli had passed Buurman in the Dutch quarrel over the GT class lead. Meanwhile, Sanen had cleared Spiers for sixth place, as the other McLaren had lost ground with a temporary off. Next time around, Buurman was the next to be in trouble with his brakes, the Corvette coming in to effectively hand the GT class win to Pastorelli.

As the pit window opened, the top three were running similar lap times and covering a space of four seconds. Gans trailed the trio by eight seconds and had three ticks in hand over Thomas. On lap 9, the Lolas of Hart and Wright came in simultaneously, the former handing over to son Olivier, with Spiers joining them to hand the McLaren to Nigel Greensall. On lap 10, Sheldon was the next one in, followed by Pastorelli, while going into lap 11, the leader pitted to hand the Lola T294 to Michael Lyons who would need to serve his elite-driver penalty through a longer pitstop. Gans was in at the same time. Strolz, Thompson and Thomas came in on lap 12, Charles Allison and David Denyer taking the places of Thompson and Thomas respectively.

Sanen would have been the last of the frontrunners to stop, but on his Masters debut the Belgian missed the pit window. This meant that the Chevron B36 led when the stops were done, with Wright and Hart Jr some 30 seconds back. On lap 13, though, the young Dutchman was seen slowing and next time around he was into the pits with gearbox failure. This handed Lyons the effective second place, now ten seconds down on Wright, but that would soon be close to zero, as the safety car was called for John Sheldon’s Chevron B16 grounding to a halt on his out lap.

With five minutes to go, the field was released, and in a blink, Lyons was into the lead, immediately putting four seconds up on Wright, as Gans and Greensall followed through past Sanen who was given a 90-second stop-and-go penalty for failing to do his mandatory stop. Denyer led the Bonnier-class chase, with Ahlers in the Cooper Monaco in between himself and Allison in the other Chevron B8. Behind them, Pastorelli pitted, reporting a vibration, which turned out to be caused by a water leak. He had still done enough laps to be classified tenth, though.

At the front, Lyons reeled off the remaining two laps to win from Wright, Gans and Greensall, the latter claiming pre-66 Hulme class honour for himself and John Spiers, with Gary Furst’s Lola T212 inheriting Sanen’s place. The Thomas/Denyer Chevron B8 won the Bonnier class from the Thompson/Allison example while the Bellinger/Ahlers Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ took second in the Hulme class.

Felix Haas and Michael Lyons seemed to have pulled the shortest straw in a concatenation of mid-race safety car, red flag and full-course yellow situations that allowed Jason Wright’s Lola T70 Mk3B into a clear lead of 25 seconds shortly after the midway point of Zandvoort’s second Masters Sports Car Legends race, but Lyons took the Lola T294 by the horns to home in on Wright and regain the lead that Haas had pulled out on his opening stint.

“I had a good start at the beginning, but the safety-car phase was not for me”, said Haas. “After that, we had clutch problems during the race. And then, at the restart I made a mistake as I couldn’t find the third gear. Then it was a full-course yellow, and suddenly we were back in the field. But Michael did a great job afterwards, and I was confident and satisfied with my performance.”

“The Lola was really, really fun. I love this car, in this track, it’s fantastic”, said Lyons. “We made a few changes from yesterday, and it’s the first time we run the new tyre on the car. It worked really, really well. Obviously, Jason got a big advantage because he boxed under the full-course yellow. So it meant we had some work to do. But I loved driving the car. It was fantastic.”

“I wasn’t really on the case”, said Wright, “but I was lucky, you know. The car didn’t have the grip it had yesterday. Maybe I was a little bit lazy, but yesterday I drove much better.”

Behind the unleashed Lyons and Wright, local heroes David & Olivier Hart wrestled a down-on-power T70 Mk3B to third while in fourth overall, David Denyer and Julian Thomas grabbed a strong Bonnier class win in their Chevron B8. Gary Furst was in the mix all race to take fifth in his Lola T212.

In sixth overall, John Spiers and Nigel Greensall cornered the pre-66 Hulme class win in their McLaren M1B after an early challenge by Billy Bellinger in the Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ shared with Keith Ahlers. Their class rival Jordan Grogor, however, suffered a big off when his McLaren M1B went straight on at Tarzan corner, bringing out the red flag. The race was resumed after a brief pause for repairs to the barriers.

On a bright Sunday morning, the Masters Sports Car Legends entrants gathered for their second 40-minute race of the Historic Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort, now in the order in which they finished Saturday’s race. Felix Haas led away in the open-top Lola T294, chased by Jason Wright in the T70 Mk3B coupé, but Michael Gans went missing, as the American’s Lola T290 was hit by a broken driveshaft. Nicky Pastorelli’s Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ was another absentee, leaving the Alexander van der Lof/Yelmer Buurman Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as the only GT representative. 

Following a storming opening lap, Haas immediately put space between himself and Wright, while David Hart had an equally storming opening lap to be up to third already, the T70 ahead of John Spiers in the McLaren M1B – but it transpired that Hart’s progress had been the result of a false start. Ron Sanen remained in fifth in the Chevron B36, duelling with Gary Furst’s Lola T212.

As Haas led by eight seconds going into lap 3, David Denyer and Charles Allison disputed the Bonnier class lead in their Chevron B8s, while Billy Bellinger in the Cooper Monaco ‘King Cobra’ kept a watchful eye in eighth, keeping Jordan Grogor in the second M1B at bay. John Sheldon’s Chevron B16 was tenth ahead of Ingo Strolz in the Lola T210.

On lap 3, Sanen reported to the pits with fuel-pressure issues, allowing his pursuers to all move up a spot, while Hart gained a place on Wright to be second, now ten seconds adrift of Haas, going into lap 4. Behind Wright, Spiers continued to lead the pre-66 Hulme class, now harried by Denyer who had broken free of his rival Allison. In fact, while Denyer had cleared Furst, Allison had been passed by Bellinger, so now there were two cars in between the two B8s. However, later in the lap, Denyer’s work was undone when he spun at Scheivlak to see his rivals stream past. He managed to get the Chevron going and resumed in eighth position, behind Grogor and just ahead of Allison.

Just as David Hart was handed a five-second time penalty for his jump start, the safety car was out as Jordan Grogor’s McLaren M1B had gone straight on to hit the barriers at Tarzan, the circuit’s daunting first corner. Soon, though, the safety-car situation was converted into a red flag, allowing for the swift and safe clearance of the heavily damaged car. Meanwhile, Allison’s Chevron B8 would not leave the pits for the restart, the car having suffered a failed rear bearing. On the other hand, Sanen would take the opportunity to rejoin the race.

Right after the restart, the pit window was opened, so on the next lap Haas, Hart, Spiers, Sheldon and Strolz were all-in. Haas would make way for Michael Lyons,  Olivier Hart would step into Hart Sr’s Lola, while Nigel Greensall would switch with Spiers. Wright, Furst, Denyer and Bellinger elected to continue for the moment, but Van der Lof was in for Yelmer Buurman just at the moment a full-course yellow was deployed, which was of course used by Wright, Furst, Denyer and Bellinger to take their stop. Denyer would step out for Julian Thomas while Keith Ahlers took over from Bellinger. They all left the pits when the FCY was revoked.

So now, with 15 minutes left to run, Wright found himself in a clear lead of 25 seconds over his strongest rivals Lyons and Hart Jr. Thomas ran second overall, having passed Furst, with Ahlers now chased by Lyons and Hart. Greensall was a further 18 seconds behind, due to his elite-driver time penalty at the stops, with Strolz and Sheldon next, as Buurman came into the pits for a problem with the Corvette but would soon be back out again.

Five minutes later, Wright led Thomas by three seconds and Furst by five, while Lyons and Hart had passed Ahlers for fourth and fifth respectively. However, Lyons’ pace was such that he could still catch and pass Wright, as he set a stunning fastest lap of the race to leave Hart Jr trailing by 11 seconds, accumulated in three laps. Behind them, Greensall also passed Ahlers to reclaim the Hulme class lead.

In fact, the gap between Lyons and Wright was down to just three seconds as the young Briton had usurped both Furst and Thomas on lap 14, so now it would just be a matter of time. Some six minutes remained when Lyons completed the pass for the lead to rapidly disappear on the horizon. Meanwhile, a down-on-power Lola T70 Mk3B thwarted Olivier Hart’s efforts to close on Furst and Thomas in front of him, as the opposite began to happen, the young Dutchman now losing ground to the T212 ahead of him.

As the race clock approached zero, Lyons ran out the remaining laps to come home the convincing winner with a massive 42-second lead over Wright. Having rediscovered his pace in the final few laps, Hart Jr managed to clear Furst and Thomas after all to take the final podium spot, while Julian Thomas grabbed a strong fourth and the Bonnier class win for himself and David Denyer. Furst was fifth ahead of Hulme class winners Spiers/Greensall, Strolz and Sheldon, while the Bellinger/Ahlers took second in the Hulme class. Yelmer Buurman completed a troubled run with the Corvette but still took GT class honours.