PIN - GTC60 IV Prologue - Pinewood

A crowded opening

The GTC60 season was introduced at Pinewood GP not by a points round but by a 25-lap familiarisation race, and the variety of machinery made the opening exchanges suitably untidy and absorbing. Porsche 904s, Lotus Elans, Ferraris, Corvettes, Tigers and a scattering of other grand touring machinery were soon distributed through the circuit's First Corner, Cowards Chicane and Triangle.

At the front, Dingo quickly made the Porsche 904/4 GTS the reference point. Behind him came an exceptionally compact body of cars. For the first three laps, Florian Masse, FMG, meisterJaeger, SIN ~ HappyKojot, Adam Celárek, harry Parr and Kuba Palubicki were covered by little more than four seconds. It was a mixed company of light sports cars, a Ferrari and a Corvette, with every place carrying a little consequence while the field settled.

Dingo was at the head of the order for 22 of the 25 laps, but the race was not a procession. Celárek found sufficient pace in the Sunbeam Tiger MkII to take the lead by the end of lap five. His interruption lasted three laps before Dingo reclaimed the advantage on lap eight, and the Finn thereafter controlled the principal rhythm of the race.

Palubicki keeps the matter open

The important pursuit came from Palubicki, whose 904 formed part of the early group before emerging as Dingo's clear rival. He remained in close attendance in the closing phase, never allowing the leader the comfort of an untroubled final run. The two Porsches reached the flag separated by 2.107 seconds, a margin sufficiently narrow to give weight to every lap of Dingo's long spell in front.

Dingo's task was complicated less by one isolated attack than by the need to maintain the pace while traffic and the changing complexion of the race came into play. Palubicki was still close enough in the last fifth of the distance for the result to remain unresolved in feeling, if not in the order displayed after lap eight.

Behind them, meisterJaeger brought the Lotus Elan 26R home third, only 2.586 seconds behind Palubicki. It was a sound podium for the German after a busy early race, and a reminder that the slight Elan had remained very much part of the leading argument. SIN ~ HappyKojot took fourth in the Ferrari 250 GT SWB 'SEFAC Hotrod', with FMG's Chevrolet Corvette 1963 SCCA fifth and Masse's Porsche sixth.

The long private contest

Further back, Max Solmyr and Kent LeFredge provided the race's most persistent private duel. Both had been caught in the disturbances of the second lap, Solmyr losing four places after an incident at First Corner while LeFredge encountered his own difficulties in the same part of the field. Yet the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato and Sunbeam Tiger MkII became closely matched once the running order had begun to settle.

LeFredge moved ahead by lap five, Solmyr reclaimed the place before half-distance, and thereafter the pair exchanged the advantage repeatedly through the middle and late stages. From laps 13 to 22 they were never more than two seconds apart at the lap's end, and on several occasions the order altered from one lap to the next. It was a good example of the sort of race within a race which a mixed GT field can provide.

In the official result LeFredge was classified 16th after completing 24 laps, while Solmyr was classified 17th after completing 24 laps. Their contest did not decide the honours at the front, but it lent depth to a race in which the leading battle was far from the only active piece of business.

A useful rehearsal

Celárek's Tiger, eighth overall, set the fastest lap in 2 minutes 22.260 seconds, underlining the speed that briefly carried him to the front. The final top ten also contained harry Parr's Tiger in seventh, Romain Pichon ninth and Rolf Biber tenth, with the latter pair trading positions during the final quarter of the race before Pichon emerged ahead.

For Dingo, however, the afternoon belonged to the record as much as to the immediate result. His first place was not merely the victory in a non-scoring Prologue: it was the first recorded race win in THR's archive, drawn from the complete body of earlier imported racing. It is a modest historical distinction perhaps, but one made rather more substantial by the quality of Palubicki's chase.