Round 9 - Great Britain (Silverstone)

ACE SERIES Great Britain (Silverstone)
1997/98 Pole Position: Alan Strang (1:15.063)
1997/98 Race Winner: Oliver Roberts (1h20:41.276)
Race Distance: 59 laps

Qualifying

PosNo.DriverTeamTimeDiff.Pts
1.  # 1  Michal Janak  Digitech-Magia  1:14.955  +00.000  20
2.  # 9  Jan Svehlik  Wild 13-Bolgani  1:15.011  +00.056  16
3.  # 4  Alan Strang  Team Ecosse  1:15.225  +00.270  14
4.  #22  Nuno Maltez  Rocketship  1:15.384  +00.429  12
5.  #25  Rafal Ziarnik  Yapamotox  1:15.523  +00.568  10
6.  # 2  Marco Saupe  Digitech-Magia  1:15.730  +00.775  8
7.  #26  Tomasz Bielawski  Yapamotox  1:15.790  +00.835  6
8.  #03  Mirko Patzenbein  Digitech-Magia  1:15.796  +00.841  5
9.  #36  Steffen Diener  Roadrunner  1:15.815  +00.860  4
10.  #31  Eric van der Veen  Dutchy  1:16.081  +01.126  3
11.  # 8  Axel Bruns  Wild 13  1:16.417  +01.462  2
12.  #18  Ross Kirk  Crash Heads  1:16.418  +01.463  1
13.  #49  John Duncan  Players-Racing  1:16.566  +01.611   
14.  #16  Hendrik Mehl  Crash Heads  1:16.928  +01.973   
15.  #59  Damir Arh  Peralton F1  1:20.586  +05.631   

Race (wet)

Following the excitement in France, the British race was something of an anticlimax. Mike Hogg reports from a murky Silverstone.

As the field lined up for the start of the British round of the IAF1GP Championship, the patter of rain was drowned out by the rising engine notes when the red lights came on. The cars cautiously left the line so as not to get bogged down with wheelspin and Michal Janak made the best start from pole whilst second placed Jan Svehlik was edged out by Alan Strang. The Team Ecosse driver then went one better as he executed a fantastic overtaking manouvere around the outside of Priory to get past Janak.

In his attempts to get past Janak, Svehlik strayed too far off line and lightly touched the grass - the resulting sideways moment allowing a fast starting Stefan Diener from 9th on the grid and Marco Saupe get past him. However, Svehlik was destined to get 3rd back on the next lap when the 2 aforementioned drivers banged wheels through Luffield, Rocketship driver Maltez following him through for 4th.

On lap 3 Janak pulled off a convincing overtaking manouvere on Strang along the pit straight for the lead, his Digitech visibly coping with the conditions easily. With that he proceeded to pull out almost a second a lap. Stefan Diener had a problem with bent suspension following his brush with Saupe at this point and soon found himself slipping down to 8th.

With Janak vanishing into the distance and most of the field spreading out, the crowd were kept entertained at this point by Saupe, Maltez, Patzenbein and Bruns who were dicing for 4th - all visibly enjoying their racing and keeping the tight battle clean. On lap 10 Diener's damaged suspension snapped the car into the pit wall but he reversed out of trouble and struggled round to the pits for repairs, rejoining dead last. Amazingly on lap 16 he was in the wars again, moving over to be lapped with too much respect for the leaders and he lost the track, the resulting kerb hopping loosening the front wing again and necessitating another visit to his pit-crew.

With things calming down the next major development came on lap 28 when Svehlik, visably struggling with his car, was passed by Marco Saupe, demoting the Wild 13 to 3rd. Lap 30 saw Rafal Ziarnik try a move on Axel Bruns but Bruns defended his line, too aggresively according to Ziarnik, and the Yapamotox was launched over the back wheel of the Wild 13, coming down again missing it's front wing. A quick visit to the pits for a new nose cone and Ziarnik was on his way again.

On the same lap Diener was again in the pits for amother new nosecone, the reserve having shed it's front wing through some faulty mechanical work and giving the Roadrunner driver cause for concern along Hangar straight.

On lap 46 Saupe pulled off another fine overtaking manouvere, lining Strang up perfectly through the Luffield corners and passing the Team Ecosse driver along the pit straight to take a well deserved second - over a minute behind the dominant Janak.

PosNo.DriverTeamTimeDiff.Pts 
1.  # 1  Michal Janak  Digitech-Magia  1h35:34.994  +0:00.000  180+5
2.  # 2  Marco Saupe  Digitech-Magia  1h36:37.362  +1:02.368  170 
3.  # 4  Alan Strang  Team Ecosse  1h36:44.923  +1:09.929  165+5+3
4.  # 9  Jan Svehlik  Wild 13-Bolgani  1h37:06.253  +1:31.259  160 
5.  # 3  Mirko Patzenbein  Digitech-Magia  1h37:14.574  +1:39.580  155 
6.  #22  Nuno Maltez  Rocketship  1h37:16.375  +1:41.381  151 
7.  #26  Tomasz Bielawski  Yapamotox  1h37:42.245  +2:07.251  147 
8.  # 8  Axel Bruns  Wild 13-Bolgani  -1 laps     143 
9.  #18  Ross Kirk  Crash Heads  -1 laps     139 
10.  #25  Rafal Ziarnik  Yapamotox  -1 laps     135 
11.  #36  Steffen Diener  Roadrunner  -5 laps     132 
12.  #59  Damir Arh  Peralton F1  2 laps  3.4%  4 

Team by Team Analysis

Crash Heads - A one car effort for this race. Ross Kirk qualified 12th but was never happy in the drenched conditions finishing a lapped 9th.

Digitech - Clearly the car to have in the wet as demonstrated by Michal Janak. After the initial scuffles at the start of the race the polesitter disappeared into the distance and won by over a minute from Marco Saupe. "The car was just brilliant," beamed the winner. "It did exactly what I asked of it." Saupe qualified 6th but was clearly at home in the wet, storming through the field to make it a Digi 1-2. "I'm really happy with the result," he stated afterwards. "It's just a shame we couldn't have gotten the same performance in qualifying because we could have pushed Michal hard." Mirko Patzenbein couldn't get the same out of the car as his team-mates from 8th but still progressed through to 5th at the end.

Peralton F1 - Damir Arh qualified 15th but was caught out in the atrocious weather conditions - spinning off on lap 2.

Roadrunner - Stefan Diener was worth the entrance fee on race day alone - numerous spins and 3 replacement nosecones were required following a brush with Marco Saupe early on which damaged the suspension. Amazingly the battered machine finished last, 5 laps down.

Rocketship - Maltez was pleased with 4th in qualifying but his car proved tricky in the wet and he finished 2 seconds behind Patzenbein in 6th.

Team Ecosse - Only one car for Silverstone, Alan Strang qualified 3rd but made a fantastic start to take the lead from Janak on the first lap. "The car started off okay but as the race went on it just seemed to slide more and more." stated a disheartened Strang as he fell back behind the two victorious Digitechs to finish 3rd.

Wild 13 - Jan Svehlik qualified on the front row but come race day he and Axel Bruns were unhappy with the car's handling. "It seems to be a problem with downforce," explained Svehlik. "The car just isn't gripping the track properly at the moment but we've got new bits and pieces coming for Mexico which should allow us to catch up to the Digitechs." To vindicate the driver's statement he just couldn't hold on in the race and slipped to fourth at the flag behind Saupe and Strang. Bruns started 11th and finished one lap down in 8th, despite a coming together with Ziarnik which left his car unscathed.

Yapamotox - Ziarnik started 5th on the grid but couldn't hold it in the race, originally running in the battle for 4th but a moment of madness with Bruns lost him his front wing. "It was a crazy thing for Bruns to do," fumed Rafal after the race. "I came through Luffield much faster and had him onto the pit straight but he squeezed me up towards the pit wall. We were lucky the accident wasn't much bigger." Certainly it was a pretty big accident, Ziarnik lifting into the air as the wheels touched and he was lucky to be able to continue at all - let alone finish 1 lap down in 10th. Bielawski had his usual solid race - finishing 7th from the same place on the grid as the last unlapped runner.


Last modified: Saturday 18 September 1999 - 11:21