Roland Kinch drove his G-Cat Racing Arrows A4 to victory at Monza, finishing 19 seconds ahead of Katsu Kubota’s March 761 and Joaquin Folch’s Brabham BT49.
Watch the opening laps here.
A maximum 30 car grid was entered to contest the FIA Historic Formula One championship event held at the 57 Coppa Intereuropa Storica meeting at Monza and 26 cars filled the long Monza start grid on Sunday afternoon as a result of a few qualifying woes.
This iconic Italian venue always attracts a full compliment of local pilots who, coupled with the burgeoning regular runners this season, makes the HFO grid the healthiest in the historic racing scene. Mauro Pane’s F1 Storiche squad included the March 741 of Stefano Rosina, the Shadow DN3 of Yves Saguarto, the Theodore of lawyer, Luciano Quaggia, and the glorious Ferrari 312T of Walter Burani. A further example of this beautiful Prancing Horse was the entry from fashion magnate Gianfranco Casoli. David Abbott debuted his new Mirage assembled Arrows A4 and Manfred Rossi joined the HFO ranks for the first time in the Kerry Adams tended Martini & Rossi liveried Brabham BT43.
Joaquin Folch in the Brabham BT49 had annexed pole just ahead of Rowland Kinch in his Arrows A4, Bobby Verdon-Roe’s brilliant McLaren M23 and, in a bizzare timekeepers mix-up which saw him awarded an incorrect time, David Abbott’s Arrows. Former HFO Champion Steve Hartley failed to start having had the gearbox casing crack wide open. The Blackburn engineer even took hold of the mig-welder himself in an attempt to get the car to the grid.
Another non starter was Hubertus Bahlsen following some low level aerobatics during qualifying which removed a few parts from his Arrows.
Class B cars always show well at Monza, perhaps it’s the lower frontal area that gains straight line benefits. The March of Peter Meyrick rounded out the top ten after qualifying behind Peter Wuensch’s Hall & Hall Wolf WR1 and the MEC Auto March of Rodrigo Gallego who had a troubled practice with broken gearbox and then damaged driveshaft. Peter Dunn started from the back of the grid having had to miss official qualifying through attending to family matters in the UK on Saturday. His 12th place finish was a credit.
Tony Smith changed the ignition trigger on his Williams before the race but a misfire persisted on the green flag lap and he headed straight for the pits, no doubt satisfied with winning in his glorious Ferrari Dino in the earlier front engined GP car event.
A sun baked crowd watched the Parmalat Brabham confidently lead the cars onto the grid at the end of the green flag lap only for the clutch pedal to go to the floor as the Spaniard selected first. Both hands shot into the air and the skilled Monza marshals threw a mass of yellow flags instantly as starter John Felix hit the start delayed lights. The number 7 was wheeled to the pit road as the grid reformed for the renewed count-down.
Verdon-Roe beat Kinch to the first chicane and Dan Collins out dragged Abbott on the way there. It all went wrong for Collins as he spun away third place exiting the chicane and re-joined in last place. Further up the track, Kinch regained the lead from Verdon-Roe who held second place for six laps until an injection trumpet came loose and the engine died.
Abba Kogan’s Arrows passed the similar car of Abbott and ran third on the first lap but a couple of chicane cutting manoeuvres dropped him down the field. Richard Eyre’s tenacity saw him benefit as the race progressed, only to relinquish third in the final three hectic laps.
Meanwhile, Folch had started from the pit road and a brilliant drive through the field, which included fastest lap of the race, saw the Spaniard’s Kumschick Racing prepared car finish third overall.
Katsu Kubota’s Colin Bennett-tended class B March 761 was a sensation working up from 8th on the grip to claim second spot on lap seven with the engine grenading on the slowing down lap, delaying the popular Japanese from his podium celebrations! HFO newcomer Frank Sytner took fourth in his Dunn Racing Hesketh having been up to third.
Best charge of the day was certainly that of the flying Folch who cut through the field with fastest lap to take a remarkable third place and the Championship lead.