At this year's Youngtimer Festival on the Ardennes rollercoaster in Spa, Belgium, the battle of the dwarves once again provided the largest starting field in the sprint races, 72 in practice and 65 in the race.
Simca dominates in practice
They had teamed up with the small cars of their friends Maxi 1300 from France, who had found their way to Spa with a dozen vehicles. Participants from the Triumph Competition also took part in training as part of the "Battle of the Dwarves". They were to start the races with their vehicles in a separate starter group after the midgets and maxis. The practice session, which was still open to all vehicles, was dominated by Simca driver Christoph Wilde. He set the fastest practice time ahead of the fastest Mini of Herbert Wein jr.
Mini duel on the race track
It was the latter who attacked Christoph Wilde directly at the start of the first race and took the lead of the field. However, he had to give up after a short time, as a gearbox failure slowed his forward momentum. It was Christoph Wilde who was then able to maintain the lead and was waved off as the winner. In the meantime, the race organizers caused some confusion, as the traffic lights on the start-finish straight switched to red on their own for a short time, causing irritation among the participants. This also resulted in a somewhat larger time gap between 7th and 8th position. While the Triumphs that had started in the second starting group quickly caught up with the first group and mingled with them, the most interesting battle group was once again that of the SP1 class. Here, a group of 4 Minis battled it out over the entire race distance. At the end, Jens Rommel, the former technical commissioner of the "Battle of the Dwarves", was able to be waved off as the winner of this class.
The 2nd race was once again dictated by Christoph Wilde with his Simca Rallye. Although Michél Frinet also tried to lead the race with his new Mini, he had to retire from the race, just like his brand colleague Wein in race 1. In the end, a historic Mini with an 8-channel cylinder head finished the race in second place. The car was driven by Thiry, while 3rd place overall also went to a British Car Trophy participant, Thomas Berg.
Karl Schroer wins NSU-TT-Trophy
In the NSU-TT-Trophy it was Karl Schroer who finished both races as the winner. He was under strong pressure from the young Alex Schneider, but this time he was left behind. The third-placed driver was not quite able to keep up with the pace of the NSU leaders and finished 6 to 7 car lengths behind.
Hubert Nagl dominates both races with Fiat Abarth
As is well known, the Abarth-Coppa-Mille once again offered spectators motorsport worth seeing. However, the battle for the top spot was not quite as exciting as in the other divisions. Hubert Nagl dominated both races from the front.
All participants now have a short summer break before the next round at the future F1 circuit in Zandvoort, Netherlands, at the beginning of September.
Further reports on "Battle of the Dwarves" can be found in the theme channel.
