Pre-Season Event - Spain (Barcelona)

ACE SERIES

Qualifying
Race Report
Finishing Order
Points
Driver Comments

1995/96 Pole Position:	1:11.350 (Hans Gunnar Hansen)
1995/96 Race Time:	wet - 1h42m30.483 (Michal Janak)
Race Distance:	65 laps

After a 3 month break, the IAF1GPC treck went to Barcelona to sort out things for the 4th championship that begins at the end of October. It was obvious that all the partying activity around the circuit was the reason that only 6 drivers started in this race :-) Oliver Roberts is the winner of this pre-season meeting. The Digitech driver and last years champion had no real opposition at the first dry race in Spain.

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:12.707		20
2.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:12.766	+0.059	16
3.	Ignacio Garcia	IGC Racing Team	1:12.997	+0.290	14
4.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:13.263	+0.556	12
5.	Stephen Orr	Ant Hill Mob Racing	1:13.300	+0.593	10
6.	Uwe Schuerkamp	Wild 13	1:14.483	+1.776	8
7.	Paul Robins	Blue Fliers	1:14.558	+1.851	6
8.	Andrew Clark	Ant Hill Mob Racing	1:16.202	+3.495	5

Race

It was the battle between Oliver Roberts and his former Digitech team mate Alan Strang that dominated the early stage of the race. The spectators were happy to see the lead changing constantly. Just 4 seconds behind them Ignacio Garcia and Markus Kruggel were fighting for 3rd position, but Ignacio Garcia was forced to visit his pit crew at the end of lap 12 after he smahed his rear wing. 2 laps later Alan was the first victim of the nasty curbs here at Barcelona: he lost control over his car and ended in a wall. This changed the situation on the front: Oliver Roberts was now leading in front of Markus Kruggel. In lap 30 Paul Robins, who was not quite able to follow the pace on the front, retired after a crash and joined the big IAF1GP championship opening party. Both front runners took a set of D's on their first stop in lap 28 (Kruggel) and in lap 29 (Roberts). The gap between them was some 13 seconds but in lap 53 Oliver's victory was decided in lap 53 Kruggel lost control over his car and ruined his rear wing. With a lead of 1m50s Oliver had only to bring his car home and the yellow flag incident he came across in lap 63 was no real danger to him. Ignacio had bad luck again in lap 55: he had to replace a broken front wing. Although nearly two minutes behind the leader, Markus set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:14.793 and that gives him the vacant lap reord at this track.

Pos	Driver	Fast Lap	Team	Time	Gap
1.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:15.271	1h26m54.662	175
2.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:14.793	1h28m52.485	170
3.	Ignacio Garcia	IGC Racing Team	1:15.039	-2 laps	165
4.	Andrew Clark	Ant Hill Mob Racing	n/a	-2 laps	160
5.	Paul Robins	Blue Fliers	1:21.674	29 laps	155
6.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:20.905	13 laps	151

Points Summary (Qualifying + Race)

Driver	Points
Oliver Roberts	195	(175 + 20)
Markus Kruggel	182	(170 + 12)
Ignacio Garcia	179	(165 + 14)
Alan Strang	166	(151 + 16)
Andrew Clark	165	(160 + 5)
Paul Robins	161	(155 + 6)
Stephen Orr	10	( 0 + 10)
Uwe Schuerkamp	8	( 0 + 8)

Some of the driver statements

Ignacio Garcia: "Disastrous!"

Oliver Roberts: "Nothing too exciting really."

Alan Strang: "This was quite a satisfactory attempt considering this was my first race since Adelaide in June, although my race didn't last as long as I would have liked."

Markus Kruggel: "Too many walls here."

Last modified: Monday 21 July 1997 - 17:59