Gallery and Report: The Spa Summer Classic 2023

The Spa Summer Classic is an annual event on the international historic motorsport calendar. It’s organised by the Roadbook.be team led by Alain Defalle and Vincent Collard, who also guarantee the renowned Spa Six Hours.

As usual, this year’s Spa Summer Classic was graced by a wide range of different historic motorsport classes. The event took on an extra summery cachet due to the tropical temperatures the area faced in early July.

The number of participating series was large and mainly focused on historic GTs and touring cars. In addition, the Drexler Cup was also present with more recent Formula 3 and Formula Renault cars. As usual, we focus in particular on the historical series that were present during the 3-day event in Spa.

The main race of the event was the Spa 3 Hours, a three-hour endurance race that started on Saturday evening. More than sixty historic touring cars and GTs for 1976 made their appearance in qualifying that was held on Friday. Pole position went to the small but very fast Ginetta G4R of Palle Birkelund Pedersen. Teammate Nicolai Kjaergaard firmly took the lead in the race, but after only eight laps the Dane had to report to the pits with a faulty ignition module. The Danish driver duo was eventually able to resume the race, but the chance to compete for the victory was gone.

Then it was Lars Rolner and Pierre-Alain Thibault who left their mark on the race. Almost invisible, Andrew Jordan and Jonathan Tordoff worked their way to the top of the standings in their little Lotus Elan. After 3 hours of competition, both crossed the finish line first and won the class H-1965 at the same time. In the class H-1976, the victory went to Lars Rolner and Pierre-Alain Thibault.

The YTCC, Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge, is a non championship international racing series with participants from all over the world. The series is very popular with both the public and drivers with a wide variety of different participating cars. More than sixty cars were at the start in Spa, varying from different types of Porsches, Ford Sierras and Escorts, BMWs, Alfa Romeos, etc. to a McLaren M1C. The victory in Spa went to Walter Hoffmann twice in his McLaren M1C, the third race was won by Christian Nowak in a CN Cobra.

For pure enthusiasts of BMWs, the organisation behind the Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge has set up the BRCC, Bimmer Race Car Challenge. The BRCC is for all types of BMW racing cars up to and including the year 2000. A wide variety of historic BMWs were on display in Spa, including the 2002, M3, M1, etc. The overall victory went to Mark Smith three times with his BMW M3 E36 from England.

The Belcar Historic Cup consistently starts with an extremely varied field of participants. From the starting field of more than forty cars, Wim Kuijl turned out to be the fastest with his imposing Ford Capri 3100 RS. During the first race he was too fast for Luc Moortgat in his Porsche 964 RS. In the second race he was not involved, giving Moortgat free rein to win the second race ahead of former BTCC ace Colin Turkington.

Supersixties by NKHTGT from the Netherlands brought a grid of historic touring cars and GTs to Spa, although there was no honour for the Dutch drivers when it came to overall victory. England’s Peter Thompson proved supreme in his bright yellow TVR Griffith in the first race of the weekend. Kenneth Persson from Sweden did exactly the same in the second race in his Ford GT40.

In addition to these races, the extensive program was also graced by the NK GT-TC and Triumph-British HTGT, CanAm – Sportscars and Dunlop Gentle Drivers 65, the Dunlop Historic Endurance Cup-HTGT and the Motor Classic Drexler Open Formula.

The Spa Summer Classic has been an unmissable event on the calendar for fans of historic motorsport for many years. We are already looking forward to the 2024 edition.

Results Spa Summer Classic 2023

Spa 3 Hours

Race

1. Jordan Tordoff-Andrew Jordan, Lotus Elan
2. Rhea Sautter-Andrew Newall, Jaguar E-Type, + 1:32.790
3. Lando Graf von Wedel-Alex Graf von Wedel-Christian Graf von Wedel, Lotus Elan S1, + 1:32.804

Belcar Historic Cup

Race 1

1. Wim Kuijl, Ford Capri 3100 RS
2. Luc Moortgat, Porsche 964 RS, + 2.036
3. Guy Fastres, BMW M3 E30, + 14.236

Race 2

1. Luc Moortgat, Porsche 964 RS
2. Colin Turkington,  BMW M3 E30, + 6.159
3. Guy Fastres, BMW M3 E30, + 11.696

Supersixties by NKHTGT

Race 1

1. Peter Thompson, TVR Griffith 400
2. Kenneth Persson, Ford GT40, + 19.941
3. Armand Adriaans, Shelby Cobra, + 36.836

Race 2

1. Kenneth Persson, Ford GT40
2. Peter Thompson, TVR Griffith 400, + 20.843
3. Michiel Campagne, Corvette Grand Sport, + 42.440

NK GT-TC and Triumph-British HTGT

Race 1

1. Ollie Reuben-Nigel Reuben, TVR Griffith
2. Hans de Graaf, Porsche 911, + 14.408
3. Jari Konola, Plymouth Barracuda GT, + 56.561

Race 2

1. Ollie Reuben-Nigel Reuben, TVR Griffith
2. Gerd Rijper, Porsche 911 RSR, + 18.981
3. Jari Konola, Plymouth Barracuda GT, + 26.352

CanAm-Sportscars and Dunlop Gentle Drivers’ 65

Race 1

1. McLaren M6B, Axel Pilz
2. Peter Schleifer, Norma LMP1, + 44.718
3. Volker Böhn-Roberto Cocciarelli, Swift DB2, + 2:01.260

Race 2

1. Peter Schleifer, Norma LMP1
2. Volker Böhn-Roberto Cocciarelli, Swift DB2, + 11.200
3. Luco Sanchez-Pedro Sanchez, Ford GT40, + 38.654

Motor Classic Drexler Open Formula

Race 1

1. Juju Noda, Dallara F320 F3
2. Benjamin Berta, Dallara F317 F3, + 4.045
3. Cian Carey,  Dallara F318 F3, + 6.027

Race 2

1. Juju Noda, Dallara F320 F3
2. Benjamin Berta, Dallara F317 F3, + 0.332
3. Sandro Zeller, Dallara F316 F3, + 0.521

Dunlop Historic Endurance Cup-HTGT

Race 

1. Luco Sanchez-Michael Funke, Ford GT40
2. Harald Schmeyer-Stefan Henkefend, Lola T492, + 1:24.741
3. Charles Faber-Castell, Lance David Arnold, Ford Escort RS 1600, + lap

Colmore – Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge

Race 1

1. Walter Hoffmann, McLaren M1C
2. Roger Bolliger, Pontiac TransAm SCCA, + 29.258
3. Wolfgang Pohl, Porsche 911 RSR, + 45.091

Race 2

1. Walter Hoffmann, McLaren M1C
2. Christian Nowak, CN-Cobra, + 1.365
3. Roger Bolliger, Pontiac TransAm SCCA, + 2.923

Race 3

1. Christian Nowak, CN-Cobra,
2. Kenneth Sundfors, Porsche 944, + 5.825
3. Wolfgang Pohl, Porsche 911 RSR, + 27.509

BRCC – Bimmer Race Car Challenge

Race 1

1. Mark Smith, BMW M3 E36
2. Marc Seesing, BMW M3 E30, + 12.962
3. Marc Hauri, BMW E30 325i Compressor, + 17.161

Race 2

1. Mark Smith, BMW M3 E36
2. Marc Hauri, BMW E30 325i Compressor, + 1:05.294
3. Tim Kuijl, BMW E46 320 WTCC, + 1:22.350

Race 3

1. Mark Smith, BMW M3 E36
2. Marc Hauri, BMW E30 325i Compressor, + 2.856
3. Ash Muldoon, BMW M3 E36, + 1:11.330