Spa Six Hours 2023: Masters Gentlemen Drivers & Pre-66 Touring Cars

John Spiers and Nigel Greensall bagged one more Masters Gentlemen Drivers win with another strong run in their TVR Griffith. Spiers did most of the heavy lifting by passing John Pearson in the Pearson Jaguar E-type late into his opening stint to lead before handing the wheel to Greensall. Overcoming his elite-driver penalty, Greensall returned the Griffith to the front on lap 22 and after that paced himself to win by 2.3 seconds from Gary Pearson.

“It was fantastic”, said Greensall while Spiers was unable to take the podium, already in his Maserati 250F for the second Historic Grand Prix Car Association race of the weekend. “We talked about the race before the start and I said to John, be patient, let the race come to you as the track dries out a little bit. And he drove a brilliant, brilliant stint. Then when I got in, it was the case of me just driving qualifying laps every time, just totally flat out every single lap. And it’s lovely when it’s wet and dry, it’s just brilliant.”

“It was a great race at the start, wasn’t it? Five of them sort of going for it”, said Pearson about the eventful opening stint of his brother John. “Yeah, after the change, Nigel passed me at the back there, using his grunt, but then I was able to sort of just stay with him. We were both on it!”

The unchallenged CLP class winner, Giles Dawson was never out of the top three to grab a mighty third overall in his Lotus Elan 26R, trailing the two bigger cars by a mere 18 seconds at the chequered flag. In eighth, the Robin Ward/Ron Maydon Ginetta G4R took second in the CLP class while Ward starred to haul the Ginetta from last to a momentary first at the stops. Meanwhile, Rüdi Friedrichs won the A class by taking his Jaguar C-type to ninth overall. In C2, the Doug Muirhead/Jeremy Welch Austin Healey 3000 faltered on the final lap to hand the class win to the similar machine of Bruce Montgomery.

“I thought I was going to lead overall!” said Dawson of his entertaining fight with John Pearson in his opening stint, “but John knew exactly where to put the E-type to stop me getting through. And then he backed me up into the touring car, Sam came past – I thought, let him have a go at him. But none of us managed to get past, I nearly had him out of the pits, side by side. It was just a mega run. An hour and a half is a long time round here, though…”

In the touring car section, Sam Tordoff ran home a largely unchallenged win in the Ford Falcon. Jake Hill and Rob Fenn shared a Ford Mustang on their way to second place while Richard McAlpine took third in another Falcon. James Hagan and Stephen Mawhinney cornered the Cortina class win from Mark Drain and Giulio & Andrea Frasson, after a challenge from Adam Cunnington faded early on.

“It was good, very good”, said Tordoff. “Tricky with the conditions, but got away and enjoyed a great battle with the GT cars.”

On a very foggy Saturday morning at Spa, the combined Masters Gentlemen Drivers & Pre-66 Touring Car grid rolled out for their respective 90-minute and 60-minute races at the Six Hours meeting. As we approached the scheduled start time, the fog had lifted enough around the paddock area, but in the upper parts of the track it needed a few more minutes to clear. At the front, John Spiers took off in his TVR Griffith, chased by a trio of E-type Jags and Niko Ditting’s Cobra Daytona Coupé. Further back, though, negotiating the chicane ahead of the start had proved troublesome for Harry Barton’s BMW 1800 tiSA and Maxime Castelein’s Lola Mk1.

Into the opening lap, John Pearson had the bit between his teeth as he hauled his Pearsons E-type to the front from fifth on the grid. From sixth, he was followed through by Giles Dawson, in the little Lotus Elan 26R, while Spiers was now chased by a fully awake Sam Tordoff in the leading touring car. Count Marcus von Oeynhausen was fifth in the German E-type, with BTCC star Jake Hill already up to sixth in Rob Fenn’s Mustang. Then followed Michael Funke and Lee Mowle in another pair of E-types, while in tenth overall Billy Bellinger led C2 in the Morgan SLR shared with Keith Ahlers.

While Dawson’s Elan continued to push Pearson’s Jag, Tordoff passed Spiers for third into lap 2. Further back, though, Bellinger was forced to abandon his promising tenth place overall with a pitstop that elevated Charles Allison’s AC Cobra into the top ten, chased by Rüdi Friedrichs’ C-type and the remarkable Robin Ward who in two laps had hauled the Ginetta G4R from 32nd and last on the grid to 12th.

As Spiers settled into his rhythm producing a fastest lap of the race, the order of his pursuers had shuffled up, Funke and Ditting now in fifth and sixth ahead of Hill, Von Oeynhausen, Mowle and Allison, all still within 20 seconds of each other. After Bellinger’s demise, Bruce Montgomery led an Austin Healey 3000 1-2-3 in C2, with Caroline Rossi a close second and Doug Muirhead further back in third. In 19th and 20th overall, James Hagan and Adam Cunnington fought over the Cortina class lead.

After five laps and 15 minutes of Spa-Francorchamps, Pearson and Dawson were still split by a mere half second, with Tordoff following two ticks in arrears, the Falcon having two seconds in hand over Spiers, who in turn held a two-second advantage over Funke. Ditting ran sixth, nine seconds down on the leader, with an 11-second gap to Hill in seventh. Mowle and Von Oeynhausen continued to content eighth place while Ward had made it into the top ten, displacing Allison. Felix Haas in the second TVR was up next, ahead of his countryman Friedrichs, while in 14th, Richard McAlpine’s was third in the touring-car race. Right behind the Ford Falcon, Caroline Rossi had passed Montgomery for the C2 class lead.

At the front, though, Tordoff seemed in trouble, as the front spoiler of his Falcon was flapping about. Despite that, he profited from a small error from Dawson to move up into second overall, followed through by Spiers, as the touring-car grid approached their pit window – a good moment for Tordoff’s crew to have a look at the damage. Further back, though, Cunnington was out of the Lotus Cortina lead battle, with Hagan now well ahead of the examples of Peter Reynolds, Mark Drain and Giulio Frasson.

From 15th overall, McAlpine was the first touring car driver to come in for his mandatory stop, right at the moment that Funke’s Jaguar stopped in a safe spot at the Raidillon. The next time around, Tordoff was in, along with Reynolds who handed the Cortina over to Daniel Quintero, with Jake Hill in next to hand the wheel to Rob Fenn. Niko Ditting’s stop in the Cobra Daytona Coupé, though, was unscheduled, allowing Mowle and Ward to move up another place.

Up at the front, Spiers was producing a demon opening stint to pass Pearson and lead into lap 11. The TVR Griffith then pushed through to lead by 2.7 seconds, as Dawson began to harry the E-type as well. Then a big gap opened up to fourth-placed Robin Ward who had passed the Jaguars of Mowle and Von Oeynhausen, with Haas and Allison up next. The touring car stops done, Tordoff still led, now with 24 seconds in hand over Fenn, with McAlpine in third. Stephen Mawhinney in James Hagan’s Cortina led the 1.6-litre class ahead of Quintero, Drain and Andrea Frasson having taken over from Giulio.

On lap 13, it was the GTs’ turn to come in for their mandatory stops, and Allison was the first to do so, handing over to Jon Payne who was subbing for Peter Thompson on the weekend, soon followed by Felix Haas, with Michael Lyons stepping in. Further back, Ditting’s Daytona Cobra that had been seen smoking stopped out on the circuit. On lap 14, the leader was in to give the TVR Griffith to Nigel Greensall, with Pearson (handing over to brother Gary), Dawson, Mowle (relieved by Phil Keen) following on the next tour. For one lap, this left Ward in the lead, allowing the Ginetta to complete a last-to-first stint before Ron Maydon took over its wheel. At the same time, Andy Newall got into Count von Oeynhausen’s E-type.

With Greensall serving his elite-driver penalty with a longer pitstop, a new order soon panned out after the stops. Gary Pearson now led Dawson by two seconds, with Greensall needing to cover 27 seconds to regain the lead. However, circling four seconds faster than Pearson, the mission looked all but impossible. Tordoff was fourth – and first of the touring cars – while Maydon was fifth overall and second in the CLP class, now 51 seconds in arrears of the leader, but he would need to fend off two E-types in the hands of the quick Andy Newall and Phil Keen, with Lyons in eighth in the second TVR. Fenn’s Mustang was ninth overall ahead of Friedrichs’ C-type, while in C2, Jeremy Welch had asserted himself in the lead in Muirhead’s Healey, the quick driver/preparer now ahead of Manfredo Rossi and Bruce Montgomery.

Meanwhile among the touring cars, Tordoff ran home the win ahead of the Hill/Fenn Mustang and McAlpine’s other Falcon. Mawhinney won the Cortina class from Drain and the Frassons, as the Reynolds/Quintero example faltered with two minutes left on the clock.

Now the focus shifted to the GTs at the front of the field, where Gary Pearson had left Dawson behind by four seconds, but Greensall was closing in fast on both of them, trailing Pearson by 17 seconds on lap 19. In fourth, Maydon had both E-types hot on his heels now, Keen and Newall having swapped places in the meantime. Turning up another wick into laps 20 and 21, Greensall took away six seconds each lap to be second on lap 21 and reclaim the lead on lap 22. Keen and Newall had both vaulted Maydon but were trailing the lead group by well over a minute. Behind Lyons in eighth, Jon Payne had moved Allison’s Cobra back into the top ten, having passed Friedrichs for ninth. Welch was in command in C2, with Montgomery now back into second ahead of the Rossi machine. Meanwhile, the Chris Jolly/Steve Farthing Shelby Mustang GT350 retired from 15th place with a broken gearbox.

Having hit the front, Greensall slowed his pace, as the remaining GTs still had some 17 minutes to cover. Dawson was a safe third and the unchallenged CLP class leader while Keen was fourth, a minute and eight seconds away from the leader. Behind Keen, Lyons was on a late-race charge, not just having passed Maydon but also quickly reeling in a slowing Newall and completing the pass on lap 24. In C2, Alexander Kolb had put on a similar charge to be third in class behind Welch and Montgomery.

In the final ten minutes, Greensall continued to pace himself, keeping the gap to Pearson at around two seconds to win after 30 laps of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Dawson won the CLP class while claiming a stunning third overall, 18 seconds down on the winner, and a mighty 45 seconds ahead of the Lee Mowle/Phil Keen E-type. The Haas/Lyons Griffith was fifth ahead of the Von Oeynhausen/Newall E-type, with the Ward/Maydon Ginetta claiming second in the CLP class in eighth overall, Jon Payne in the Allison/Payne just pipping Maydon at the line. Friedrichs won the A class in ninth while a shock retirement for Welch on the final lap handed Bruce Montgomery the C2 class win. Muirhead and Welch were still classified second in class ahead of Kolb. In 15th overall, the Michael Hinderer/Christian Traber Porsche 904 GTS took third in the CLP class ahead of Carl & Billy Nairn’s Elan.