Spa Six Hours 2024: Masters Gentlemen Drivers & Pre-66 Touring Cars

Julian Thomas brought home a strong Masters Gentlemen Drivers win at Spa by fending off an early challenge from Nigel Greensall in John Spiers’ TVR Griffith and containing a late surge from Olivier Hart in the AC Cobra shared with Bram Bontrup – and all that while the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé driver had to contend with a safety car cutting away his lead as well as coming in for an unnecessary stop ahead of the pit window! A second safety car right at the end then allowed Thomas to wrap it all up in relative peace.

“It was a bit confusing at the end. I didn’t know whether the safety car was the end of the race or we had one more lap!” said Thomas about the final minutes of his race. “But up to then, at the start it was great. I was just about keeping Greensall at bay then I don’t know, something happened to his car. Then I just put my head down and tried to create a gap and came in a lap too early to go back out again. Lucky I didn’t lose anything! And then it was just a sprint to the finish.”

In the end, the epic Silverstone clash between Thomas and Hart Jnr never materialised, Thomas’ having built a strong enough lead, but the Bontrup/Hart Cobra did manage to claim second ahead of the Vincent Gaye/Phil Keen Jaguar E-type and the Spiers/Greensall TVR. In fifth, sixth and seventh, the John & Gary Pearson E-type, Count Marcus von Oeynhausen’s E-type and the Mike Whitaker/John Davison Griffith were all handicapped by a drivethrough penalty for jumping the start, dropping them out of contention for third.

“Yeah, the race was fun”, said Hart. “My ex-boss Bram started first, and he was doing well. It’s his first season now, and it’s hard to start on pole. He did a great job, and then we got a lucky safety car, and I could catch up with the whole field and just pass everyone quickly and manage the brakes because they were really, really soft the whole race. But we’re here, and we’re second, so I’m happy.”

“It was a good race”, said Keen. “Vincent started, did a great job. And obviously the safety car helped us bring us back into play. And then we managed to finish third. So yeah, very good.”

In tenth overall, Roger Wills dominated the CLP class in his Lotus Elan, leading home the similar machines of Andrew Jamieson and Christoph & Nicolai Kjaergaard, after an early challenge from the George McDonald/Sharon Adelman Ginetta G4R slowly faded. Healey-equipped Dutchman Jaap Sinke beat the Welch Healeys twice in C2, as he first got the better of Jeremy Welch in Nils-Fredrik Nyblaeus’ example and in his second stint held off a second challenge from Welch in Doug Muirhead’s car. Bruce Montgomery came through to claim third in class in another Austin Healey 3000.

The top contenders in the concurrent 60-minute Pre-66 Touring Car race provided loads of entertainment, with Michael Whitaker Jnr’s Ford Mustang eventually coming out on top, with early leader Robin Ward in the Ford Falcon a close second, and the Michael Russell/Neil Chilleystone Mustang not far away in third. Richard McAlpine was in on the action too before his Falcon ground to a halt halfway into the race. The Peter Reynolds/Daniel Quintero Lotus Cortina took the 2-litre class from the Paula Rettenmaier/Will Nuthall Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA.

In a dry and sunny spell during a generally wet weekend at the Spa Six Hours, the Masters Gentlemen Drivers field came out for their mid-day 90-minuter, with the Masters Pre-66 Touring Car machines doing their 60 minutes concurrently. Bram Bontrup led away in the pole-sitting AC Cobra but was soon swamped by Julian Thomas in the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé, followed through by a fast-starting Nigel Greensall in the TVR Griffith, John Pearson in the Jaguar E-type, Christophe Van Riet in another Cobra and Vincent Gaye in the second E-type. Into the first lap, Greensall was found to be on a charge, moving up into the lead, while Van Riet pounced on Pearson for third. Behind Bontrup, Count Marcus von Oeynhausen moved up past Bas Jansen in the Cobra, and then the E-type passed Bontrup’s Cobra too.

In a wild opening lap, Robin Ward managed to get the leading touring car up to eighth overall, with Michael Whitaker Jnr’s Ford Mustang chasing the Ford Falcon from 14th overall. Michael Russell’s Mustang was in 17th, hounded by Richrd McAlpine’s Falcon, while further back Peter Reynolds in the Cortina and Paula Rettenmaier in the Alfa Romeo GTA contested 2-litre honours.

At the front, Greensall looked at a slender one-second gap to Thomas, but the pair had broken away from Van Riet by the healthy margin of 18 seconds. Pearson, Von Oeynhausen (now up to fifth) and Gaye all followed at close quarters, with a second group formed by Jansen, a charging Mike Whitaker coming through from a relatively lowly grid position, and Bontrup. In the CLP class, Roger Wills’ Lotus Elan did the early running but the chairman of the FIA Historic Commission was soon caught by George McDonald in Sharon Adelman’s Ginetta G4R, the pair having demoted Ward to 12th overall. Charlie Allison was next in another Cobra, while Jeremy Welch led the C2 class in the first of two Austin Healey 3000s he would pilot this afternoon. Although well down from the seventh spot on the grid that he had conquered in the wet, Welch was still well ahead of his nearest challenger, Dutchman Jaap Sinke, with Doug Muirhead further back.

On lap 4, with the two leaders now half a minute away from Van Riet, Whitaker pushed through into seventh, leaving Jansen to fight with his countryman Bontrup, while further back Dean Desantis was in trouble with the Porsche 911 he would share with David Hinton.

While Greensall and Thomas kept pushing each other on, Van Riet had managed to create a six-second gap to Pearson (J.), who found himself hounded by Von Oeynhausen but Pearson and the German Count were both under investigation for overtaking before the startline, the same applying to Whitaker, who was up into sixth, at the cost of Gaye, with Janson, McDonald, Bontrup, Allison and Wills up next. However, on lap 7, Greensall was seen coming into the pits for an unscheduled stop, sadly ending the fight up front. He had dropped down to 24th before he was able to rejoin. At the same time, the touring car fight had heated up, with first Russell managing to pass Ward on lap 7, and then Whitaker Jnr coming through as well on lap 8, while McAlpine wasn’t far away either.

On lap 9, Thomas was in a lonely 52-second lead up ahead, followed by Van Riet, who had ten seconds in hand over Pearson and Von Oeynhausen, with Whitaker a further ten ticks back. Gaye and Jansen fought over sixth, while McDonald still led the CLP class from Wills, with the Elans of Alexander Schlüchter and Mark Drain contesting third in class in 17th and 18th overall. In C2, Sinke had come on strong to pass Welch for the class lead, the Dutchman in 14th, right in the middle of the touring car lead battle that had just seen Whitaker Jnr be the first to take his mandatory stop. Welch, now 15th overall still had enough margin over Muirhead in 19th overall.

On lap 10, Russell was the next touring car to come in, with Neil Chilleystone as the relief driver, the driver switch for the moment handing the lead back to Ward. Around the same time, Richard McAlpine’s Falcon disappeared from the leaderboard, having stopped at the back of the circuit. On lap 11, Ward was in himself, along with unplanned stops for Schlüchter and Welch. The German soon rejoined but the Austin Healey remained stationary for longer with an engine that had been cutting out repeatedly. Further back, Daniel Quintero had taken over Peter Reynolds’ Lotus Cortina, while Will Nuthall replaced Paula Rettenmaier in the Alfa GTA. The result of the touring car stops was that Whitaker Jnr now led Ward, with Chilleystone in third.

Then on lap 13, the leader was in – and went straight back out again! The pit window hadn’t opened yet, but the next time around it had, and right at that moment the safety car was out to allow for the safe retrieval of McAlpine’s stricken Falcon. Now Thomas came in at the right moment, followed by all the other cars, as this was obviously the right time to make a stop.

So now, with all cars in line astern behind the safety car, Thomas had to do it all over again. The Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé was now followed by Von Oeynhausen, Gary Pearson, Fred Bouvy, John Davison (having taken over Whitaker’s car in a unique deal that saw Whitaker join the driving crew for Davison’s TVR for the Six Hours race), Wills, Meeuwissen (in the Cobra started by Jansen), Allison, Adelman, Keen (in Gaye’s E-type), Spiers (in the TVR started by Greensall) and Olivier Hart (taking over from Bontrup). Behind them, Sinke and Welch (now in Muirhead’s Healey) still fought over the C2 class lead, while Whitaker Jnr, Ward and Chilleystone were nip and tuck for a touring car win that was five minutes away.

As the green flag dropped, Thomas quickly grew a sound margin over Van Oeynhausen, who in turn had made space between himself and Pearson. Bouvy and Davison fought over fourth, but Hart Jnr was approaching fast, the Dutch Cobra already up into sixth. Keen followed him through to also pass CLP class leader Wills on lap 18. Allison was ninth but soon usurped by Spiers while Schlüchter – his unscheduled stop negated by the safety car – had snatched second place in CLP from Sharon Adelman. Sinke still led C2 from Welch. Meanwhile in 19th, 20th and 21st, having fought all the way, Whitaker, Ward and Chilleystone ran home to the podium positions in the touring car race, while Quintero held off Nuthall for the 2-litre class win.

As the Gentlemen Drivers race continued, Hart Jnr dealt with Bouvy, Pearson, Davison and Von Oeynhausen, and while the latter two were forced into their drivethrough penalties for jumping the start, the Dutch youngster was up into second place, hoping to set up a repeat of his classic duel with Thomas at the Silverstone Festival. For the moment, though, the latter was some 18 seconds up the road. Pearson carried on in third, but still had to serve his penalty, with Bouvy, Keen and Spiers up next. Von Oeynhausen had rejoined right on Spiers’ tail, with Davison filing in behind Roger Wills in the CLP-class-leading Elan. In 13th overall, Sinke continued to lead in C2, but Welch was just eight seconds away, while directly behind them, Mark Drain’s Elan had passed Adelman for third in the CLP class, the pair chasing Andrew Jamieson’s Elan, which had taken over second in class when Schlüchter’s promosing run was cut short. Drain and Adelman shared the same piece of tarmac with Bruce Montgomery, whose Austin Healey 3000 was now third in C2.

On lap 22, Gary Pearson decided it was now time to take his car’s penalty, which dropped him right in between Von Oeynhausen and Davison in sixth, seventh and eighth. Pearson’s additional stop handed third place to Bouvy but the Belgian now trailed Hart Jnr by 22 seconds. He did, however, manage to keep Phil Keen at bay by some four seconds. Behind them, Spiers also had visual contact with the third-placed car.

Some ten minutes remained on the clock when Bouvy was forced to report to the pits. He was soon back out again but the Belgian had relinquished third to Keen, while Pearson, Spiers, Von Oeynhausen and Davison all followed through. Then came the safety car that Thomas had dreaded, his comfortable 19-second cushion now deflated. Mark Drain’s Elan was the cause this time, but as the minutes ticked away, it soon became a question of there being enough time for proper race action to resume. It soon transpired that there wasn’t, as the cars went into the final lap with the safety car still out. So Thomas’ victory was safe after all, as he was followed home by Keen, Pearson (after a strong comeback run following his penalty-enforced stop), Spiers, Von Oeynhausen, Davison and Bouvy. After the race, though, Pearson still dropped a place through a time penalty for track limits.

In ninth overall, Wills crowned a brilliant drive with the CLP class win, with nearest rival Jamieson crossing the line in 14th overall, while in 17th overall, Nicolai Kjaergaard in the Elan shared with father Christoph pipped Adelman for third in class. In 11th overall, Jaap Sinke cornered the C2 class win, as the Dutchman kept the Jansen/Meeuwissen Cobra in between himself and the Muirhead/Welch Healey, with Montgomery third in class and 15th across the line.