Jarama Classic Revival.Jarama under the sun !
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The ICGP circus rolled up to the Jarama Circuit in Spain for round 3 of the Championship under hot, sunny blue skies.
This GP circuit sitting just outside Madrid is located in a residential area and access was not permitted until the morning of the Friday preceeding the Vintage Classic Festival. Some riders fell foul of not knowing the access restrictions and ended up having to locate a local campsite, other luckier riders found out in advance and spent a few hours on the beach en route.
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Friday was a relaxed day with setting up of camp and enjoying the sunshine. The scrutineering was done in the semi-permanent riders tents that had been provided by the circuit – with the ICGP troupe on display in a paddock just inside the entrance.
Saturday morning dawned sunny and bright, and the first qualifier was held at 10.20 am. Guy Bertin posted the fastest lap with a best time of 1.49, followed by Ian Simpson with a 1.51. Richard Parker – returning to join the Championship for the first time this year was 3rd with a 1.54. Peers-Jones, Gougy, and Courarie all posted times of 1.55, whilst still re-learning the track that ICGP had not been at since 2011.
Fettling, lunch and enjoyment of the ambiance of the festival followed, with the 2nd qualifier kicking off at 15:45, with the sun high in the sky and hotter temperatures greeting the riders as they set off again around the track. The top 3 riders all improved on their lap times, but Peers-Jones dropped down the ranking and set a slower laptime, which led to the decision to put the settings on the bike back to pre-fettling status. Andy Muggleton who was enjoying his first visit to the track, dropped 2.5 seconds from his lap time and now sat firmly in 4th place, with Courarie improving on his time, but not quite catching up to P-J’s first qualifier.
With both Races scheduled to run on Sunday, the riders set to enjoying the social scene of the ICGP meeting, and doing their final fettling on the sunny warm evening. Bertin had pole position on the grid, with Simmo, Parker and Muggleton completing the first of the 4 rider row. 2nd Row was Peers-Jones, Courarie, Gougy, and Saul on his Chevallier 250.
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Blue skies and sunshine again greeted the riders on Sunday morning, with the first race set for 10:55 am. The riders lined up on the grid, the lights went out, and 25 classic bikes charged off the line battling to be first out of the first corner. Out of the melee came Bertin heading the pack, with Simmo close on his heels. Parker, Peers-Jones, Muggleton and Ron Fyson making up the rest of the early pack. By Lap 2, Simmo was back out front and led the race into the penultimate lap with Bertin hard on his heels the entire time. Parker ran his own race behind the two front runners, with only the back markers to overtake, as he attempted to reel in the two leaders.
Peers-Jones and Muggleton continued their dicing for 4th and 5th place with P-J maintaining the lead of the two, until lap 5 when Muggleton’s gearbox expired, and he dropped to 6th position, and then gracefully retired to watch the rest of the race from the sidelines. Colin Sleigh who had been hot on the heels of the two 350’s saw his chance and darted through ahead of P-J on the 8th lap on his fast 250.
Thus set the rider order for almost the balance of the race with P-J biding his time until the last lap to re-gain the 4th position, but by chance - disaster had beset Simpson on the last lap, after leading for the lions share of the race, his throttle cable snapped on the final lap, relegating him to 10th position, but at the same time promoting Peers-Jones to 3rd place on the podium. Behind these front runners, the 250 class were high up the finishers, with Sleigh 4th finisher overall, and thus 1st 250, 13 seconds behind him was Vincent Levieux, and 3rd on the 250 podium was Stefan Tennstadt on his Bakker Rotax. Eric Saul continued his run of bad luck in the 2014 championship and went out with ignition problems. Of the 25 starters, only 17 finished the race, as always the attrition rate is high with the Classic bikes.
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Race 2 was some 5 hours later, just about giving those that had mechanical problems in Race 1 enough time to dismantle their bikes and put them back together again having sorted whichever problem had beset them in Race 1. Some however, never made it to the start line – Eric could not get the Chevallier fixed, and Paul Fyson (38) was missing from the start line – having heard a loud bang on releasing the clutch on the warm up lap. Of the 23 others that made it to the start line only 17 finished again, with Ron Fyson seizing his engine a 2nd time, Barry Neal went out on the 10th lap, Andy Muggleton – having fixed the gearbox forgot to tighten the carbs and had to stop after lap 5, Pete Howarth overheated on Lap 2 on his 3 cylinder, after having had engine mount problems with is number 1 bike. Daniel Levieux’s luck was not with him either – he only managed 2 laps in Race 2, having had engine problems in Race 1 also.
Those that did make it to the start line, were met with a hot sun high above them in blues skies. The red lights came on, and almost immediately went out and 23 bikes roared off down the straight in a cloud of exhaust fumes. First to the corner was Simmo, Bertin, Parker, Muggleton and Peers-Jones, all hustling for space.
These 5 maintained the same position until Lap 5, when Muggleton’s bike lost power, and he had to retire for the 2nd time of the race meeting, Peers-Jones who had been glued to his exhaust until that point, moved up to 4th position, with Houard (50) taking the opportunity to also overtake Colin Sleigh (29), who had been circulating just behind P-J.
Lap 11 and Bertin made his move on Simmo and took the chequered flag 5 seconds ahead of Simmo. Sleigh regained 5th position from Houard in Lap 10, Parker, who had set off in 3rd place, maintained the same position all the way, but was being reeled in for a while by the Muggleton – Peers-Jones duo, after he had a bit of a slide going up the hill, and ended up with a slightly slower race time overall in Race 2 than Race 1.
The 250 class was being fought between Sleigh, Tennstadt and Leveiux again, with Sleigh leading the field the entire race and Levieux and Tennstadt battling for 2nd place. Tennstadt stayed ahead of Levieux until lap 6 when he was overtaken, only to regain the position on the final lap to the chequered flag. Tabarly, Auboiron and Wild were 4th 5th and 6th in the 250 class.
 350cc Race 1 :
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 350cc Race 1 :
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 350cc Race 1 :
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 350cc Race 1 :
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Master Race1 :
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Master Race 2 :
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