The Vallelunga Classic 2015 was held March 28-29 at the 10-turn, 2.538-mile Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi nearby Rome, Italy. Participants and spectators enjoyed glorious weather all weekend at the first rendezvous of the 2015 season of historic races organised by Peter Auto. A total of five major grids were on the programme, with Saturday devoted to practice and qualifying and the races staged on Sunday.
Heritage Touring Cup
The first round of the season for historic touring cars marked the start of the Heritage Touring Cup’s second year of existence. The field continues to expand as the races unfold and at Vallelunga British driver Tim Summers was quickest in qualifying clinching pole position in his 1981 Rover Vitesse. The race itself was the theatre of a no-holds-barred scrap that lasted half-an-hour between Summers, Belgian Christophe Van Riet’s Ford Escort 1600 RS and the Ford Capri 3100 RS Cologne of Frenchman David Ferrer, who took the lead early on. But like Summers’s Rover his Ford Capri didn’t last the distance and the Belgian pairing of Van Riet and Raphaël de Borman in their Ford Escort took the flag to score their first victory of the season well ahead of the Volvo 240 Turbo driven by Brit Andrew Beverley and Germans Philipp and Siegfried Brunn in their BMW 635 who crossed the line in almost the same second.
Trofeo Nastro Rosso
If there’s a grid that makes the passionate hearts of the Tifosi beat like no other it’s the Trofeo Nastro Rosso especially when some of the most beautiful Italian GTs and sports cars, Alfa Romeos, Bizzarrinis, Ferraris and Maseratis, take to the track. While Vincent Gay from Belgium dominated qualifying and both rounds in his Ferrari 275 GTB/C, behind him battle raged early on in Race 1 between the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ of Yves Vögele from Switzerland and another Belgian Christian Dumolin in a Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta. There was another great scrap going on between the Maserati A6 GCS Barchettas of Carlo Vögele and his fellow-countryman, Lukas Hüni. Unfortunately, both duels fizzled out due to the retirement of Vögle’s Alfa Romeo TZ followed by that of Hüni’s Maserati A6 GCS. As already stated Gaye scored his second win in race 2 in his Ferrari 275 GTB/C from the Bizzarrini 5300 GT of Jean Brandenburg and Raphaël Favaro (as in race 1), and Englishman Ben Gill’s Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta.
Sixties’ Endurance
There were some 30 cars at the start of the Sixties’ Endurance 2-hour race which fulfilled all its promise with duels between the AC Cobras of Tim Summers / Nigel Greensall (pole position setter), Dominique Guénat / Yvan Mahé, Andrew Beverley and Michel Lecourt / Raymond Narac who monopolised the first four places at the finish in that order. The Porsche 904s of Carlo Vögele / Yves Vögele and Jean-Marc Bussolini were also locked in battle and came home in sixth and seventh places respectively. There was another great scrap in the under 2-litre GT class with victory going to Pascal Pandelaar from Damien Kohler and Philippe Scemama / Yves Scemama, all three at the wheel of Porsche 911s.
Classic Endurance Racing 1
The CER 1 grid rounded off the 2015 Vallelunga meeting and Martin O’Connell / Andrew Kirkaldy in their Chevron 19 had a perfect weekend – pole position, victory and fastest lap in the race – just in front of the Lolas of Serge Kriknoff, Pierre-Alain France and Toni Seiler. Former Porsche works driver Jürgen Barth brought along one of the fabulous 917s and saw the flag in fifth place. Other Porsches that shone were the two 911 RSRs of Michel Lecourt / Raymond Narac and Claudio Roddaro / Jean-Phillippe Grand who scored a double in the GT1 category.
Classic Endurance Racing 2
While the Chevron got the upper hand over the Lolas in CER 1, the Eric Broadley-designed cars took their revenge in CER 2 with a triple led home by Dominique Guénat followed by Patrice Lafargue, Philipe Scemama and Russell Büsst’s Chevron. In GT2, the BMW M1 teams of Christian Traber / Patrick Simon’s and Robert Boos finished in first and third positions split by the Porsche 934 in the hands of Maurizio Fratti / Andrea Cabianca.
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We split up pictures from the Vallelunga Classic 2015 into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, all displayed in the full-width view of Sports Car Digest, while the second gallery can by found on the last page of the gallery and gives a comprehensive view of all photographs.
Vallelunga Classic 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery
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Vallelunga Classic 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Two
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Vallelunga Classic 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Three
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Vallelunga Classic 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Four
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Vallelunga Classic 2015 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture)
[nggallery id=781 images=15]
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
[Source: Peter Auto]
