Monza, 29th June 2003
A first chicane spin for Jan Lammers in the Dome S101 Judd could not prevent
Racing for Holland taking their second victory in a row in the FIA Sportscar
Championship at the Autodromo Monza in Italy.
It had been a hot qualifying and race day was no different as a full grid of 15 sports
prototypes took the flag at 13.15 local time. But once again Lammers was not going to
have it easy as the Ferrari 333SP Judd of Giovanni Lavaggi got the jump on both him
and the Pescarolo Sport Courage Peugeot of Jean-Christophe Boullion down the start
finish straight.
Then, coming into the first chicane the inevitable bunching become a little light
tapping as the Ascari of Werner Lupberger, the Durango Judd and Lammers in the
Dome all touched. Maddalena’s Judd and the Dome span in mid-corner and from 2nd
Dutchman Lammers suddenly found himself last on lap 1.
It was down to Boullion and Beppe Gabbiani in the 2nd Dome to chase down Lavaggi
who was showing an awesome turn of speed and pulling away fast. So fast was the
Ferrari that by lap 9 Lavaggi had already caught and past backmarker Ranieri
Randaccio in the SR2 Lucchini.
Behind the run-away front cars Lupberger’s Ascari was making progress through the
field passing Phil Andrews in the Taurus Sports Lola BK2/10B Judd for 4th position.
By lap 12 Lammers had pushed hard to force his way back up to 5th which rapidly
became 4th as his team mate Gabbiani pulled into the pits with a fuel pick-up
problem.
With 45 minutes of the 2 and a ½ hours racing completed it was clear that the
Courage was beginning lap by lap to close down the GLV and the 2 cars pitted
together. But whilst Boullion’s was a regular stop the GLV car had the engine cover off
almost immediately and there the car stayed.
In SR2 the Lucchini Engineering SR2002 was once again showing blistering pace at
the head of the field chased hard by GP Racing and a resurgent Team Jota Pilbeam
Nissan piloted by John Stack. The 2 cars continued to swap 2nd and 3rd spots for the
next 5 laps providing a great racing spectacle.
Definitely not having a good day was Marc Rostan in the PiR Competition Pilbeam
Peugeot whose engine expired after less than an hour, the Frenchman jumping clear
of the beached car at the 2nd Lesmo bend and soon after the GP Racing car felt the
full car breaking force of Monza as its gearbox expired.
After all the troubles they had during the weekend the Fred Goddard pairing of Steve
Arnold and Earl Goddard had got it together and had climbed up to 6th overall, despite
having fuel cut out problems.
At the half way point Boullion led Lammers by just 5 seconds, a remarkable
comeback by the Dutchman with South African Lupberger a further 25 seconds further
adrift.
Meanwhile a still sick Ferrari Judd finally gave up on track, Lavaggi forced to take the
long walk back to the pits and Cavicchi, still struggling to bring the Durango back up
through the field finally had to concede to mechanical problems with just over and
hour to run.
Goddard, R&M, Taurus and Ascari continued their good runs but Jean-Christophe
Boullion, having been passed now by Lammers made an uncharacteristic error in the
1st Lesmo, plunging through the gravel right to the tyre wall and out of the race.
At 54 minutes left to run the leading SR2 Lucchini pulled off with gearbox problems
leaving Sam Hignett in the Team Jota Pilbeam Nissan as the leading SR2 car.
With less than 30 minutes to go John Bosch was able to start to ease right back in the
no.1 Racing for Holland car, his nearest rivals a full lap behind.
There may not have been much of a fight for first but there was one hell of a battle
going on for second between Christian Vann in the Taurus Sport Racing Lola Judd
and Charles Hall in the returning Ascari Judd.
With just 3 minutes to go Hall had closed to within 1 and ½ seconds of Vann and
when the young Englishman in the Lola suddenly came across the much slower SR2
car of SCI Randaccio in the 2nd Lesmo, Hall saw his chance and dived up the inside
line leaving Vann with nowhere to go.
A fabulous fightback by Lammers led to a well deserved victory for Racing for Holland
with a delighted Klaas Zwart cheering his Ascari home to second ahead of Taurus
Sports Racing.
Hignett and Stack finally managed to secure the win they had been looking for all
season and Ranieri Randaccio, despite a 30 minute pit stop came home second and
last SR2 car.
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