MAR - GTC60 Round 4 - Marlboro

A finish of almost no measure

There are races in which the result is settled by a commanding final lap, and others in which it is merely declared. This was emphatically the latter. Adam Celárek brought the Chevrolet Corvette 1963 SCCA to the chequered flag 0.019 sec ahead of Kasperi Sirén's Lotus Elan 26R, after 41 laps in which neither man was permitted a moment of certainty.

It was an exceptionally close conclusion, but not an isolated sprint between two cars arriving late at the front. Celárek and Sirén had been bound together from lap nine onwards, generally within two seconds and often much nearer, their order changing more than once as the race worked through its various phases. Celárek had set the fastest lap, a 1:27.420, but Sirén was only 0.085 sec behind on that particular measure as well. The Corvette's victory was therefore no simple matter of brute pace over the lighter Lotus.

Dingo completed the podium in the Porsche 904/4 GTS, 4.087 sec behind the winner. It was a worthwhile third place earned in the same hard-fought company that had shaped the opening half of the afternoon.

The crowded opening

For the first 17 laps, MAR - GTC60 Round 4 - Marlboro held a compact leading group of six within five seconds: Sirén, meisterJaeger, Potatohedron, Celárek, Valentin Knechtel and Dingo. In machinery as varied as the Corvette, Elans and 904s, the contest had no settled character. The order was continually vulnerable and the leading places were not the preserve of any one make.

meisterJaeger led in the early running, but Celárek had moved ahead by the end of lap four. That lap was a consequential one. An incident at the Hairpin left Sirén sixth, four places lower than before, while meisterJaeger also dropped four places to fifth. Dingo emerged in front of Sirén, meisterJaeger and Potatohedron, and the shape of the battle was altered at once.

Sirén's response made the race. Having been displaced from the front group, the Finn worked back into contention as the leaders remained compressed. The changing cast still included Celárek, Knechtel and Dingo through the middle portion, but the Lotus gradually resumed its argument with the Corvette. By lap 20 Sirén had reclaimed the lead. There was no suggestion that the chase had spent itself; the two leaders continued to trade the advantage while the Porsche remained an interested third force.

The last exchange

Dingo briefly moved ahead of Celárek around lap 21, only for the Corvette to reclaim the advantage two laps later. That episode did not decide the race, but it illustrated how little freedom there was at the head of the field. The leading group had begun to stretch by then, yet the principal duel was becoming more rather than less exacting.

Sirén led until the late stages, when Celárek regained first place by the end of lap 38. Three laps remained, enough distance for the Lotus to remain an immediate threat and for the result to be uncertain to the very last passage of the flag. Sirén stayed within reach through the closing phase, but Celárek kept the Corvette ahead by nineteen thousandths.

Behind them, Dingo's third place was followed by Knechtel in another Porsche 904/4 GTS. Potatohedron took fifth in a Lotus Elan, with meisterJaeger sixth and Romain Pichon seventh in the Sunbeam Tiger MkII. The front of the classification thus reflected the variety and the congestion which had marked the race, rather than a single marque's command.

A lead established

The result has immediate weight in the Championship. Celárek arrived at the meeting level on 77 points with Sirén, and departs as leader on 117, with Sirén second on 114. The gap is only three points, a fittingly slender distinction after a race settled by less than two hundredths of a second.

For Celárek, the win was also his tenth recorded main-event success. Yet its importance lies less in the round number than in the manner of its achievement: he absorbed the disorder of the opening exchanges, survived the changes at the front and met Sirén's sustained closing pressure without surrendering the place that mattered.