Grand Prix du Luxembourg - Sept 19th 1998 - F2C Event
An excellent weekends weather – 21 degrees with virtually no wind greeted the 17 teams that turned out in Piennes for this event which takes place on the Landres site which is due to host the 2000 World Champs.
Round one took place on the Saturday afternoon following an hours official practice and the fastest team in this round were to be Delor/Constant (FRA) who put in a 3:24.1 flying against Fry/Whorton (GBR) and Borer/Saccavino (SWI) in what was a pretty hard race. The British team managed to finish in 3:37.6 with the Swiss coming home a couple of laps later in 3:41.2. In my opinion Dave did well to finish in a race that had a few definitely "Hairy" moments. The problems in this race were overshadowed in race four where Langworth/Campbell (GBR) were up against Gilbert/Gilbert (FRA) and Nitsche/Nitsche (AUS), two of the most difficult teams to fly against due to piloting techniques. Nitsche had his arm round one of the other pilots throughout the race and yet did not pick up a warning for it – this despite the jury having announced that this was one of the things they would be looking for. The French pair ended up being disqualified but Langworth/Campbell managed a very creditable 3:28.9 considering the mayhem in the middle during the race – Nitsche coming home in 3:42.2. The only other sub 3:30 came from the Surugue brothers (FRA) who put in a 3:29.8 and non of the other British teams managed to break 3:40.
Round two was on the Sunday morning and saw almost all of the teams improve on their first round times. The first race was excellent to watch with Fischer/Straniak (AUS) coming home in 3:22.6 followed by Surugue/Surugue with 3:30.3 and the Metkemeijer brothers in 3:31.5. Fastest of all in round two were Maret/Perret (FRA) with 3:21.6 and the other French team of Gilbert/Gilbert put in a 3:23.0 to move into third spot. Then at the end of the round Miles/Yeldham (GBR) took advantage of a two up race to put in a 3:31.2 and put themselves into the semis. Fry/Whortons time of 3:37.6 in the first round went backwards from 7th to 14th place because of the general improvement in round two and they cooked up trying to go faster. Heaton/Broadhead and Smith/Brown filled the two places just outside the semis and could only hope for another chance if needed to make three up races for reflights.
The two rounds of semis followed immediately after the second round of speed and in the first round it was to be Fisher/Straniak who set the pace with a 3:22.2 with Gilbert/Gilbert on 3:26.4 and Surugue/Surugue on 3:32.5 (but looking very insecure with this time). In the second round the only team to affect anything were the Metkemeijers who put in a 3:26.8 to claim the third slot into the final. Brits Langworth/Campbell could only manage a 3:35.3 and Miles/Yeldham a 3:57.5 so there were to be no Brits in the final.
The final got underway at 5:00 p.m. and Fisher/Straniak had an excellent start, continuing to build up a lead over the other two teams who were running very close together. The race continued this way and at 120 laps the Austrians had built up a 6 lap lead. Suddenly, however, the note of the Austrians motor changed as it built up a little too much heat and they were in big trouble. Gilbert/Gilbert passed them very quickly as they struggled to get the heat out of the motor and then they were also overtaken by the Dutch pair. In the end it was victory for the French brothers in a time of 7:4.5 with the Metkemeijers 8 laps behind another 5 laps in front of Fisher/Straniak.
One notable (an almost historic) feature of this competition was that we had NO REFLIES throughout the competition (the exact opposite of Pepinster) but it was commented on that we also had no Italians present and they almost always seem to be involved in reflights (either the cause of beneficiary of them). This was an excellent racing event and overall a quick one with only one team not getting inside 3:44.
| Results | Heat 1 |
Heat 2 |
Semi 1 |
Semi 2 |
Final |
||||||
1 |
GILBERT C./GILBERT R. |
dq |
3 |
23.0 |
3 |
26.4 |
3 |
27.5 |
7 |
04.5 |
|
2 |
METKEMEIJER B./METKEMEIJER R. |
ret |
68.0 |
3 |
31.5 |
3 |
33.4 |
3 |
26.8 |
7 |
20.3 |
3 |
FISHER H./STRANIAK J. |
3 |
34.2 |
3 |
22.6 |
3 |
22.2 |
3 |
43.5 |
7 |
31.7 |
4 |
SURUGUE P./SURUGUE G. |
3 |
29.8 |
3 |
30.3 |
3 |
32.5 |
4 |
04.2 |
||
5 |
DELOR B./CONSTANT P. |
3 |
24.1 |
3 |
24.4 |
3 |
33.3 |
ret |
99.0 |
||
6 |
LANGWORTH B./CAMPBELL D. |
3 |
28.9 |
dq |
ret |
34.0 |
3 |
35.3 |
|||
7 |
MARET J./PERRET J.P. |
3 |
41.7 |
3 |
21.6 |
3 |
40.9 |
dq |
|||
8 |
NITSCHE H./NITSCHE H. |
3 |
42.2 |
3 |
28.7 |
3 |
44.2 |
dq |
|||
9 |
MILES R./YELDHAM G. |
4 |
25.0 |
3 |
31.2 |
ret |
30.0 |
3 |
57.5 |
||
10 |
HEATON D./ BROADHEAD J. |
3 |
47.2 |
3 |
33.3 |
||||||
11 |
SMITH S./BROWN C. |
3 |
47.5 |
3 |
33.6 |
||||||
12 |
WAKKERMAN L./Van de WEERD J. |
3 |
33.7 |
ret |
37.0 |
||||||
13 |
RAFFAL B./MAIFFRET C. |
3 |
35.1 |
4 |
14.7 |
||||||
14 |
FRY D./WHORTON A. |
3 |
37.6 |
4 |
15.1 |
||||||
15 |
BORER H./SACCAVINO C. |
3 |
41.2 |
ret |
57.0 |
||||||
16 |
DESSAUCY L./DESSAUCY J. |
ret |
35.0 |
3 |
43.9 |
||||||
17 |
DELRUE M./ LIBER R. |
4 |
13.9 |
4 |
31.3 |
NEXT YEAR – SAME TIME – SAME PLACE