LOCALS LAND IBERIAN HONOURS
Rui and Pedro Macedo Silva provided some homegrown success during the Algarve Classic Festival, at Portimão from 27-29 October. The Portuguese father-and-son crew linked up with Joaquim Jorge to take their AC Cobra to victory in the two-hour GT & Sports Car Cup. Andrew Haddon and David Pittard were second in another Cobra, with class honours for the Morgan SLR of Keith Ahlers/billy Bellinger, plus the TVR Grantura of Rick Bourne/wil Arif.
Eric Mestdagh and Pierre-alain Thibault came out on top in the Historic Touring Car Challenge. Their BMW 3.0 CSL qualified on pole ahead of the Bastos Rover of Chris Ward and Steve Soper, but it was the SD1 that held the early advantage. The lead swapped back and forth during the pitstops, with matters settled only when the British car picked up a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits.
James Cottingham and Andrew Smith looked to be on course for victory in the 50s Sports Car race, until their Tojeiro-jaguar suffered fuel-feed problems in the closing stages. They dropped to third, the Lister of Chris Ward/john Young coming through to claim victory.
Soper made up for his HTCC disappointment by taking U2TC honours in his Lotus Cortina, beating the Alfa Romeo GTA of Max and Andrew Banks on aggregate.
Joaquín Folch-rusiñol (Lotus 16) and Rod Jolley (Cooper T45/51) shared the laurels in the HGPCA’S Pre-1966 races, while Stefan Rey (Lola Mk5) dominated Formula Junior. Georg Nolte and Frank Stippler took one Iberian Historic Endurance race – the similar GT40 of Philip Walker, Miles Griffiths and Nick Adams won the second – while Simon Hadfield and Leo Voyazides (Lola T70) landed Pre-1974 Sports Car honours.