The AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix 2014 was held 8-10 August at the Nurburgring Circuit in Germany. This year’s Oldtimer featured the Gentlemen Drivers Pre-66 GT, a Masters Historic Racing series for pre-1966 GT cars. With a class structure split by year and engine capacity, Aston Martin, Jaguar, AC Cobra, Porsche, Ferrari, MG, Morgan and TVR entrants race against Chevrolet, Ford, Austin-Healey, Alfa Romeo, Triumph and Lotus racers in double-driver pit stop races where exciting racing, big grids and a great variety of cars go hand in hand.
A superb cat and mouse duel between Martin O’Connell’s Jaguar E-Type and the TVR Griffith of Sean McInerney made the 65-minute Gentlemen Drivers race a thriller.
McInerney led away but O’Connell was ahead by the end of the opening lap. The two ran together for the first 25 minutes, but they were being caught by Marcus von Oeyenhausen’s Jaguar E-Type.
Just before the pit window, James Hagan spun Ron Maydon’s Ginetta G4R and was stranded at turn one. That incident brought out the safety car as the pit window opened! The field dived for the pit lane and McInerney elected to change a tyre, losing less time by doing so under safety car conditions. He lost extra time, though, when the TVR refused to fire up and hence he fell behind the Jaguar of von Oeyenhausen as he rejoined.
That left the E-types first and second but von Oeyenhausen had a spectacular engine failure, which put him out and gave McInerney second once more. Now it became a contest of bravery versus braking. “You had to balance how hard to push without wearing out your brakes,” said O’Connell. It was McInerney who pushed a fraction too hard and he slithered wide at turn one. He kept second spot but allowed O’Connell to bag the win, with Andrew Haddon’s AC Cobra third. He’d survived an early skirmish with the similar car of Michael Gans, but he copped a drive thru’ for jumping the start – and another for speeding in the pit lane. Eventually, Gans retired with damage.
Fourth should have been the Cobra of Thomas Bailly but he ignored a drive thru’ for a yellow flag misdemeanour, so an heroic fourth was the Ginetta G4R of Palle Birkelund Pedersen, while Jose Beltramelli’s Chevrolet Corvette and Harry Wyndham’s Jaguar E-type rounded out the top six.
In addition to Julien Mahiels’ gallery, photographer Jurrie Vanhalle also documented the Oldtimer Grand Prix 2014, offering the following excellent pictures from the Gentlemen Drivers Pre-66 GT feature race. We split up Jurrie’s photos into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, all displayed in the full-width view of Sports Car Digest, while the second gallery and race results can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs. To see more from Jurrie, visit vjimages.500px.com.
Oldtimer Grand Prix 2014 – Gentlemen Drivers Pre-66 GT Featured Photo Gallery
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Oldtimer Grand Prix 2014 – Gentlemen Drivers Pre-66 GT Race Results
1. Martin O’Connell, Jaguar E-Type
2. Sean McInerney, TVR Griffith
3. Andrew Haddon, AC Cobra
Class Winners:
Martin O’Connell (Jaguar E-type), Joern Schulz (Porsche 356), Clive Joy (Ferrari 250 GT SWB), Armin Zumbotel (Porsche 356), Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger (Morgan +4 SLR), Palle Birkelund Pedersen (Ginetta G4R).
[Source: Masters Historic Racing; photos: Jurrie Vanhalle]
