Well as most of you have now read, the bogs of Sweden were once again kind to the machines from Maranello. Following the triumph of Ferte and Thevenin in the Pilot F40 Ferrari in 1995 the victors this year were Anders Olofsson and Luciano della Noce for the ENNEA equipe and the Ferrari F40. The victory was very popular in Sweden and also down the pit lane generally. The Ferrari team has taken the fight to the McLarens over the past two seasons but despite usually being the fastest car on the track they have somehow always managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Even at Anderstorp a one-two result was on the cards until the last hour. Then the leading F40 of F1 refugees Jean-Marc Gounon, Eric Bernard and Jean Paul Belmondo eventually caught fire when the oil leak from the gearbox grew too great. At the press conference afterwards Anders Olofsson was gracious enough to admit that his young team mates had really deserved to win but he was not reluctant to accept the slice of luck which handed him the laurels in his home land.
It could be said that car 27 adopted the strategy that has served the McLarens of GTC/Gulf Racing and Dave Price Racing so well in 1995 and 1996, that of being there or thereabouts in the race and waiting for the opposition to fall out. All the McLarens had problems to a greater or lesser degree leading to delays that would allow the Ferraris to profit. The Gulf team had looked strong with Ray Bellm backing up a flying James Weaver and Pierre Henri Raphanel looking very sharp all weekend. The DPR cars were as ever conservative in practice but were quietly confident about the race set-up and even the BBA McLaren had picked up some much needed speed in the driver department with the arrival of Emmanuel Clerico to assist owner Jean-Luc Maury Laribiere. The Lotii had promised much with their form at Silverstone and Nurburgring, so what went wrong?
I had predicted that rubber would play a significant role in deciding the result figuring that the temperature had favoured either Goodyears or Michelins but not Pirellis in the preceding five rounds and that Scandinavia would follow suit. Well rubber did decide the fate of five cars but not in a way that you could describe as predictable. During the second stint Andy Wallace in the Harrods car inexorably closed the gap to Ray Bellm and had him in his sights as they sped down the long main straight and as I watched the two jink in and out of the traffic Andy suddenly slowed. Another bloody gearbox failure I thought and turned back to head for the pits. A few minutes later I was surprised to see the yellow machine heading slowly for the pits. What had happened was that a lump of rubber "the size of a housebrick" had been thrown up by one of the backmarkers as Ray and Andy bore down on them, this had struck the "A" pillar on the Gulf machine cracking the screen and then it had been propelled straight into the centre of Wallace's car shattering the screen and peppering the unfortunate driver with glass fragments. Andy brought the car back to the pits slowly to have the broken screen replaced and to take himself off to the medical centre for repairs. Amazingly enough he reappeared with a dressing over his right eye but as soon as it was his turn then in he slid into the cockpit and off he roared.
This unfortunate incident seemed to hand the race on a plate to the lead Gulf car, given that the Ferrari's usually manage to have something go wrong. However it was next the turn of Bellm to make an unscheduled call at the pits. Rubber once more was the cause of the delay. The brake master cylinder became clogged with debris from the track and jammed on. This lost them some four laps and put paid to their chances of victory number three this year. The other Gulf car had a relatively trouble free run excepting a spin or two at the hands of Lindsay Owen-Jones. The pace of this car was reduced due to a major crack appearing in the screen (rubber again ! ) and the drivers agreed a cautious approach to avoid it falling out. Second place at the finish was the dividend arising from this policy
The other DPR McLaren did not suffer from rubber problems but from brain fade on the part of the owner Thomas Bscher. He had a spin and some contact with Anders Olofsson resulting in suspension damage which took several laps to replace in the pits. After the race the German confronted the Swede feeling that he been hit unfairly but the TV replay showed clearly that the West car was spinning before the Ferrari made contact.
The other main contenders for victory Lotus, did not shine as expected. They felt that a slight lack of grunt down the straight hindered them. Also they experienced problems with their tyres. As Chris Goodwin ( having a much better time than at the Nurburgring) explained the first five laps are OK on Michelins but then rubber is picked up and the tyres become a hybrid of Goodyears, Dunlops and Pirellis, a cocktail guaranteed to give odd handling. Despite this Jan Lammers made his customary quick getaway at the start and did a good job for the Ferraris of holding up the McLarens for most of the first stint. This car was running comfortably in third place when a driveshaft failed to put them into retirement. The second Lotus had qualified in fifth place with the improving Mike Hezemans ( backed up by Alex Portman )at the wheel but were delayed on raceday with some minor but niggling problems struggling home sixth.
As for the rest of GT1 the EUROTEAM Ferrari got stuck in a new Swedish style gravel trap with this being filled with reconstituted reindeer droppings or so I think the press release in Swedish said... The less said about the GT2 EVO Porsches the better, they will not be remembered as one of the all time greats from Zuffenhausen.
Down in GT2 the battle raged just as fiercely with the Roock Porsche of Bruno Eichmann, Michel Neugarten and Gerd Ruch coming home in front of the Konrad version peddled by Stephane Ortelli and Thomas Seiler. Third was eventually Soames Langton and Paul Burdell in the Lanzante 911( they had led class till somehow the master switch went off !!! ) making it a clean sweep for Porsche, some compensation for the GT1 class. All of these entries have benefited from a change in driver line up and the prospects for the title fight during the balance of the season are intriguing. For a couple of hours after the race it was thought that the Callaway Corvette (really their best showing of the season) of Almo Copelli and Marco Spinelli (fine Irish names there ) had sneaked in third but when the egg timer was checked again Paul Lanzante's boys had managed one extra lap. For once the Marcos did not really feature in the race running on six cylinders and retiring early on. Even the Morgan had problems quitting with clutch maladies and the EMKA Porsche 911 succumbed to injuries sustained in the first practice day - Steve O'Rourke must question why he does it.
Sweden had a familiar feel to anyone who had raced in Britain during the Seventies, the atmosphere put one in mind of an Aurora F1/F5000 round at Snetterton or Thruxton. Everyone was keen to help but sometimes this enthusiasm got the better of the officials.
Olivier Grouillard was given a 10 second penalty for ignoring yellow flags. When he came in for this an official decided that this would not be enough of a warning and opened the door to remonstrate further with the Frenchman - not in the FIA Yellow Book - and he was "helped" away from the Harrods car by a large mechanic just before Olivier dropped the clutch and floored the throttle risking all in his way. This illustrates the shortcomings of having non professional officials whose knowledge of the complex rules is based on the local interpretation ( usually a common-sense approach) rather than the FIA letter of the law. A pity really because compared with professional circuits like Nurburgring, Anderstorp and its people were a delight to visit.
The main topic of conversation in the forests aside from the price of booze was what will happen next year and I will return to this subject later.
jb
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