Spa 24 hours 1971



The Grafo team with their Alfa Romeo GTAMs: #44 of Simonis/Goris, #43 of Franck/Derom. Despite their neat appearance both cars did not finish. The Steinmetz trio; another disappointing outing, the fastest car only ninth on the grid, and all three cars went out in the race with engine problems.
Three pictures of the grid. A look at row 12-14. On top, one can distinguish the Opel #14 (Tuerlinckx/Greder), Alfa GTAm #43 (Grafo car of Franck/Derom), the unique Citroën SM of de Jamblinne/Bagrito, Alfa GTAJ #81 of "Chavan"/Chasseuil and Alfa #55 of "Pooky"/Grano. Left, the BMW CS of Eisenschenk/Stoffel and the nose of the Ortmans/Duvignaud Camaro are visible.

As usual, the camaro of Grauls was fastest in practice.
Ladies' night: Engeman/Beckers, Alpina BMW A BMW 2800 CS in trouble here; Stoffel/Eisenschenk left the road.
The Birrell/Mass Capri, a DNF. Exotic: the Citroën SM, a touring car we learn from this picture (but Citroën themselves prepared a SM group 4 once!) did not reach the finish either...
Even some group 1 Commodores got into trouble; the Gaye/Tricot entry was a DNF too. Alfa Romeo GTAms three, four and five; here the fourth overall, Vaccarella/Berger.
The undisputed star of the race: the mighty AMG Mercedes, a true revenge for the dêbacle of 1969. It came second overall.
The Schnitzer BMW of Aaltonen/Kelleners, a DNF. The Escort BDA of de Fierlant/Dieudonné did not reach the finish either...
... Fontaine/Akersloot retired too...
... just like the very fast works Escort of Fitzpatrick/Mazet.
This Belgian Mini retired too. he GTA juniors fared even less well; all the works cars dropped out.
15th overall for this NSU TT. The smallest car of the field finished a respectable 11th: the NSU TTS of Guitteny/Boucher.
A Transeurop Commodore (probably Joossens/Byttebier) leading two Steinmetz cars. The Camaro, here chasing the Mercedes, again as usual was a non-finisher.
Slow but reliable: two of the three Moskovitch cars reached the finish. Facetti/Hezemans: third overall and class winner.

The winning Capri in front of the stands.  




Race result

1971 Pictures

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