CER at Silverstone

[henk4]

During last weekend the CER had its final race of the year at Silverstone. (They will not travel to Interlagos to support the LMS race over there). It was packed racing and a full field, certainly compared to the rather pathetic showing last year at Donnington.
For the overall win two Lola-Cosworths were the clear favourites, with Yvan Mahe's T286 lapping at 1.51 during practice, which would have taken him to the top of the GT2 field in LMS. Second was Leo Voyazides in his immaculate T280 with somewhat adapted bodywork. Both cars were clearly faster than Paul Knapfield's mighty Ferrari 712, which proved that simple aerodynamics (read down-force) was not yet on the agenda at the time of its development. It simply lacked cornering speed to do anything about the winged Lolas.
Lurking just a little bit behind were the usually suspects in the shape of Chevrons B21 and B19, with another Lola T280 involved as well.

The race however showed a different pattern, with Voyazides sidelined after 5 or 6 laps, the Ferrari absent from the grid due to a drivetrain failure and the other Lola T280 banned from the start because of clipping another car in the assembly area.
As expected Mahe stormed away from the field, but yet again the mighty Lola could not stand a full hour of racing and with 15 minutes to go it had to retire, giving the victory once more to a Chevron, this time going to Jean Nicolet (using the race as a warm up for his efforts next day in the Saulnier Courage), but not after a impressive fight with Sandy Waton, in the other Chevron. Sandy had damaged his original blue nose during practice and returned with an usual colour scheme as his new nose only had what looked like a cover of primer paint.

I'll put up some more pictures soon, but here is the report we made of the rather sensational LMS race, which does include many action shots of the CER as well

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/event...e-1000-KM.html

[John Turner]

I was at Silverstone on Sunday for the LMS race but was disappointed not to see the CER race which took place on the Saturday as I was at Donington that day, so thanks for the race report Henk. Good to see the form of the Hancock T212 shown at the Silverstone Classic (a race that I have already said on that thread, I think it should have won!) being confirmed.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by John Turner

I was at Silverstone on Sunday for the LMS race but was disappointed not to see the CER race which took place on the Saturday

Well CER has been always on the Saturday this season, as it would not fit in the Sunday programme. I hope the LMS race gave you some small compensation as it was really the best of the season.

[henk4]

Well here is some material I shot in the assembly area, which is one of my favourite places of the track.
First two of the Chevrons, then two Lola T212, the Filipinetti one being for sale, the Voyazides Lola T280 and the Osella-Abarth clearly showing that Merzario fitted there much better.
(I am currently far away from home and without the programme, so I apologise for not identifying all drivers....)

http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?i...onb191snl8.jpg
http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?i...onb192siu7.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?i...212221sky0.jpg
http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?i...212371sua0.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?i...at2801sew5.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?i...lapa11sds7.jpg

[minimangler]

i got some nice ones too, at www.flickr.com/photos/jymp

if you look in LMS Silverstone set (on the right) they're in there. Apologies for them being slightly mixed.

But yes, John, you certainly missed out. Glad i went all three days and got to see the 712. Magnificent!

[Tim the Grey]

Finally, I've got some CER images up...
It's a right pain having a house rebuilt, and limited to when I can get to the net.

Anyway, here you go.
http://catmangler.smugmug.com/gallery/3555322