The Jarama racetrack near the Spanish metropolis of Madrid has existed since the late 1960s and was the venue for Formula 1 Grand Prix races for decades. Since the early 1980s, however, the circuit designed by Johannes Hugenholtz has been considered too narrow and since then has mainly been used for sports car and motorcycle races.
Classic events also use the relatively short circuit, which is characterized by a long straight and many tight bends. On 31 March and 1 April, Peter Auto's racing series made a guest appearance on the "Circuito del Jarama" in perfect weather conditions.
Not quite as bad as Sebring
"The track is pretty bumpy, but not quite as bad as Sebring," said Christian Traber, who returned from the race weekend with a tan, adding: "Because the circuit is relatively short at 3.4 km, you don't need huge starting fields to organize interesting races.
In fact, individual race categories were rather sparsely populated, with only around a dozen participants in Group C for example.
Great public interest
However, the 10,000 or so spectators were offered a lot, especially a wide range of eras.
While cars such as the Bugatti 35C, BMW 328 and Delahaye 135 S raced against each other in the Legends Trophy as they did 90 years ago, the Mercedes-Benz C11, Porsche 962 and Jaguar XJR12 battled it out in the Group C racing cars as they did almost 30 years ago.
Gentlemen drivers
Of course, professionals and former professional racing drivers also take part in the Peter Auto events, but the majority are gentleman racers who simply want to have a good time on the race track. The cars and drivers are correspondingly diverse in terms of their performance. It goes without saying that this also results in larger lap time differences and gaps.
For the spectators (and the viewers of the photo gallery in this article), however, the cars are more important, and that they can be seen, heard and smelled.
Porsche 917, Toyota 92 CV and Shelby Daytona
Three examples of particularly rare racing cars that took part in Spain should be mentioned here.
There was the works Porsche 917 in short-tail specification and Martini livery, which is rarely seen. Unfortunately, it only managed 9 laps in the 60-minute race, but the sound backdrop was impressive. Incidentally, the endurance classics race (CER 1) was won by Philip Bruehwiler in a 1971 Chevron B19 FVC, while the Ford 3 liter prototype with Claude Nahum/Bernhard Thuner took second place.
The 1992 Toyota 92 CV, a late Group C car, didn't fare much better than the 917 in the first race, only completing 4 laps. Things went better in the second race and the car, driven by Gérard Lopez/Vincent Radermecker, finished fifth. The two Group C races were won by Martin O'Connell in a 1983 Alba AR2 and Tommy Dreelan/Aaron Scott in a 1987 Porsche 962.
Another jewel drove in the "Sixties Endurance" race, namely a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé from 1963. The two racing drivers Claude Nahum/Bernhard Thuner were perhaps not entirely satisfied with 11th place, but at least the beautiful car held out. Shaun Lynn and Emmanuele Pirro were victorious in this two-hour race in the 1963 Shelby Cobra 289, taking almost a lap off the runner-up.
Technical problems
Some races showed that even historic racing is still very demanding on the material. In the Classic Endurance 2 race, prototypes and GT vehicles from 1972 to 1980, six of the 18 starters failed to finish after 60 minutes. Urs Beck, for example, had to retire from the race in his 1980 Porsche 935 K3 after just two laps.
The winners were Sandy Watson/Martin O'Connell in the 1974 Chevron B26, who with a time of 1:35.459 were only just ahead of the Group C cars.
Old beats new(er)
The field of touring cars in the "Heritage Touring Cup" was also impressive. The fact that at the end of the 60 minutes it was not one of the beautiful BMW 635 CSI cars from the 1980s but a Ford Capri 2600 RS from 1971 that crossed the finish line first may come as a surprise, but can certainly be explained by the standard of the individual vehicles' bodywork/regulations.
While the first three places went to Ford, a BMW 3.0 CSL and a Group A Volvo 240 T from 1984 finished behind them. In any case, the starting field was a colorful mix: Christian Traber, for example, drove a BMW 2002 ti and battled against Escorts, BMW 635 CSI and Alfa Romeo 1750 GTAm.
The most beautiful
If there had been a beauty and elegance trophy, it would probably have gone to one of the Trofeo Nastro Rosso cars. Maserati T61, Bizzarrini 5300 GT, Ferrari 250 GT SWB, Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ, Maserati 300 S, Porsche 550, Porsche RSK, Ferrari 275 GTB, etc. - the blood of the hot-blooded fans was boiling just looking at them.
Both races were won by the spirited Guillermo Fierro in the 1960 Maserati T61 Birdcage, while Peter Muelder in the Bizzarrini 5300 GT came second twice, despite a mishap in one race.
Among the pre-war cars of the "Trophée Legende", which are also very visually attractive, the Halusas won both heats, Martin Halusa in a 1927 Bugatti 35 C in the first and Lukas Halusa in a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Zagato in the second.
Lots of traffic
There was a really large starting field in the two races for the "Iberian Historic Endurany" trophy, with 35 vehicles starting when the lights turned green in the first race. Detlef von der Ljeck and Ralf Kelleners in the De Tomaso Pantera were able to wave goodbye as winners, although they were no longer at the start in the second race.
The second race was won by Pedro Bastos Rezende and Miguel Pais do Amaral in a Porsche 911 3.0 RS. There were also some wonderful cars to be seen in this race series, such as a Diva F10, a Datsun 510/1600 SS and even a Ford Anglia, in addition to the Porsche 911, Jaguar E-Types and Lotus Elan, which are already standard.
No monoposti
What was not to be seen in Jarama were single-seaters. However, Patrick Peter, the organizer, has announced these for Spa Classic from 18 to 20 May 2017. The "Euro F2 Classic", a race with around 20 attractive Formula 2 cars, is set to cause a sensation there. We can already look forward to it.
