AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix:
The return of the Group-C "Silver Arrow"
Comeback
of the Group-C
For the first time in many
years, the
spectacular sport prototypes will be starting again at the Nürburgring
from the
7th - 9th August 2009 at the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix. The starter grid
will
present the most successful racing cars of the Group-C and the American
IMSA
GTP. „The Group-C was the greatest era of sports car racing",
acknowledged
the British racing legend Derek Bell, 1985 and 1986 sports car world
champion
in a Porsche 962C and altogether, four times winner of the legendary 24
Hours
of Le Mans. „One has again the possibility to experience nowadays, the
golden
times of Group-C racing “. Next to the many sister cars from Bell's
former
success cars, the Jaguar XJR and the Sauber C 9/88 Mercedes, the
legends of the
era, meet up to do battle again with each other.
Triumph of the "Silver Arrow"
Nürburgring, 20th August 1989, the
curtain
opens up for the most enthralling race of the season: Jochen Mass and
Jean
Louis Schlesser in the Sauber C 9/88, chassis no. 5 with the massive
720 bhp
strong Mercedes V8, take the win in the fifth race of the Sport
Prototype World
Championship, two seconds ahead of team-mates Mauro Baldi and Kenneth
Acheson.
A double win for the sports car with "Swabian Noodle-power", with
which, 20 years ago the colour silver returned to the racing circuits
for the
first time since 1955. The first modern age "Silver Arrow" dominated
the season. Behind both Nürburgring winners, Jean Louis Schlesser and
Jochen
Mass, the team-mates took the places three and four. Sauber Mercedes
won the
team competition with a 71 point lead, ahead of the Porsche privateers
Joest
and Brun.
The only "Silver Arrow" still
racing
in action
With chassis no. 5, the Nürburgring
champions
Mass and Schlesser also won in Donington and at the final in Mexico.
After the
last line-up in action at the season premiere in 1991 at Suzuka, that
Schlesser
with Mauro Baldi won, the successful car was sold to a collector.
Mercedes
focused henceforth on the C 11 with a carbon-fibre chassis, the rolling
school-room of Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald
Frentzen.
Two years ago the Brit, Rob Sherrard, bought the first modern age
"Silver
Arrow" and ran it from the past season onwards in the Group-C races.
It's
the only Mercedes "Silver Arrow" in the 75 year history of racing
legends that is still being run in motor sport.
Porsche 962: the most successful
sports car in
Group-C
The Sauber C-9 Mercedes was indeed for
two
years the benchmark in Group-C, however, the neighbours kids from
Zuffenhausen
were from the start in 1982 the talk of the town in the category. Seven
wins
alone in Le Mans were booked to the 956/962 models; in addition five
successes
in the Long Distance World Championship, the American IMSA Series, the
Japanese
Sports Car Championship as well as successes in further national
championships
like the Interseries and the Supercup in Germany. For a time the
Group-C racers
from Porsche appeared invincible. Numerous Porsche 962s will be on
start at the
37th AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix. For example the car with the chassis
number 130,
with which the Reutlinger, Jürgen Lässig, and team-mates Pierre Yver
and
Bernhard de Dryver took second place for the Primagaz Competition Team
(F) at
the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1987. Or, the Joest-Porsche 962 (chassis
116) in
white/blue Blaupunkt design, with which in 1988 Louis Krages alias
„John
Winter“, Frank Jelinski and Stanley Dickens made it as third on to the
winner's
podium at Le Mans. The Swede Dickens belonged in the following year
with the
Germans, Jochen Mass and Manuel Reuter in the Sauber C-9 Mercedes, to
the
winning team of the, probably, most famous sports car race in the world.
Le Mans winner and German Group-C
hero
The meanwhile 57 year old Dickens, is
also in
the Group-C contingent at the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix, from the 7th –
9th
August at the Nürburgring. He's starting in one of altogether six
Porsche
956/962s. Alongside, several British Spice racing cars belong to the
field of
starters. Furthermore a March 85G-Chevrolet that's driven by the
Günzburger,
Peter Schleifer, as well as a 1984 Group-C car from the Sinsheimer
brothers
Gebhardt, likewise with a successful Le Mans history.
Festival of sports cars and sport
prototypes
Alongside the race for
Group-C and IMSA GTP
racing cars, visitors can experience on the second Weekend in August
the ORWELL
SuperSports Cup race with spectacular CanAm racing cars, as well as the
races
for sports cars from the 1950's. On Saturday the elegant, sporty
two-seaters
start an evening race containing the flair of the classical long
distance race
and an impressive arrival at the finishing line in the darkness. With
it, the
largest Oldtimer racing event in the world has developed into a real
sports car
festival. The fans of the two-seater bolides will surely get more than
their
money's worth at the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix 2009.
