Historic Formula One Race Report: June 9th & 10th – Imola
The FIA Historic Formula One Championship made its first trip to Imola’s storied sweeps this past weekend and a thirty-strong field of historic Formula One cars took the opportunity to fight it out for HFO glory.
June 9th & 10th – Imola
The 2012 FIA Historic Formula One (HFO) Championship visited the historic Imola circuit for the first time in its history.
The Imola Classic was a two day event meaning HFO squeezed free practice, qualifying and race 1 into a single day. The pit lane seemed more hectic than ever!
Early morning thunder storms resulted in a wet/dry free practice session and Richard Eyre suffered an engine failure causing him to miss qualifying while the team completed an engine change. For the second event of the year, Eyre would start from the back of the grid. Mauro Pane, giving his Lola T370 a run fresh from Monaco Historique success, had the water pump break on the DFV and he also missed qualifying while the problem was rectified.
As the cars completed a lap of the circuit to form up for the race 1 grid, Steve Hartley pulled his Arrows to the side of the circuit and waved furiously to his team as his clutch failed. Attempts to start from the pit lane were to no avail.
Everyone had a clean getaway for the start of race 1 with Pane making a superb start which put him into 3rd place by the end of lap 1. Eyre had done a similar job but still needed to make up a few places to get on terms with the leaders. Yet again, the problems that beset his main competitors allowed Joaquin Folch in the beautiful Brabham BT49 to build an early cushion. The hard charging Pane caused Folch to put in some quick laps towards the end but he still won comfortably from Pane and Nico Bindels who had an excellent result in the Lotus 87B.
For race 2, Hartley started from the pit lane while Pane and Eyre once again charged from the back of the grid. Pane making another incredible effort to finish the first lap in second place while Eyre clashed with Baudoin requiring both cars to pit for replacement wheels. Hartley suffered yet more woe as his engine failed early in the race. Folch, once again out front found Pane closing and could not afford to let his guard down. The Spainard however drove a flawless race to take another well deserved victory.
HFO now moves on Silverstone for the British Grand Prix support race with a fantastic entry of over 30 cars.
Lead image by Eric Sawyer
