Iberian Historic Endurance encerra 2021 em festa.

 Saturday, 20th of November 2021

First thing in the morning the Iberian Historic Endurance drivers were authorised by the commissioners of the Motor Clube do Estoril to start their last qualifying session of 2021. With a wet track, due to the rains that hit the Autódromo do Estoril the night before, the drivers went out on their beautiful jewels aiming to set the fastest lap possible.

Lap after lap, and with the sun breaking through the Sintra hills, the asphalt of the Cascais track started to dry out and the drivers' times started to drop.

Lars Rolner and Patrick Simon, Pedro Bastos Rezende, João Macedo Silva and Markus Palttala moved into the lead of the classification. German driver Rolner was the fastest to adapt to the treacherous conditions of the wet track, setting the reference time for his opponents. Bastos Rezende soon realised where the German, in a car identical to his, was gaining time and jumped to the lead. However, the driver from Oporto João Macedo Silva used all his experience behind the wheel of German cars and set a really ballistic time that lasted for much of the qualifying session. Finnish driver Markus Palttala, used to the WEC and the Blancpain Series, combined the ideal trajectory curve after curve with his mastery at the wheel of the Porsche 911 3.0 RS to climb to the top of the grid and never let go. With this Palttala gets his first Pole Position in the Iberian Historic Endurance leading the Le Mans start of the 2h race that would take place later. Macedo Silva would finish the session in Mário Meireles' Porsche 911 2.8 RSR in second place with Bastos Rezende completing the trio leading the general classification and the H-1976 category.

In the Gentleman Driver Spirit, Mark Martin and Michael Gans resumed the excellent pace they showed in the previous race at Jerez. The Ford Cortina Lotus duo in a lap of 2:00.426 secured the Pole Position of the category. José Carvalhosa in a Porsche 911 SWB set the second best time, the Portuguese driver and preparer shares the car with Frenchman Michel Mora. Completing the top three in the category, the father and son family duo Piero and Guilherme dal Maso in a Porsche 911 SWB.

In H-1965, Diogo Matos and Carlos Barbot in the Lotus Elan of Oporto Racing set the fastest lap, followed by Carlos Cruz and Miguel Pais do Amaral in a Jaguar E-Type and Robert Frowein in another E-type. The German driver was only 4 tenths behind the Portuguese pair. Leaving the public present at the 250km of Estoril waiting for an excellent battle for the middle place of the podium of the category for cars with homologation until 1965.

Miguel Ferreira / Francisco Carvalho took the Ford Escort RS1600 to set the pace of the category. Jesus Fúster, Antonio Gutiérrez and Alfredo Ochagavias in the Porsche 2.5 ST followed the Portuguese duo getting the second fastest time in the category with the Portuguese duo Ricardo Bravo/ António Espirito Santo in an elegant Alfa Romeo GTAm completed the first three classified in the H-1971 category.

In H-GTP & Sportscars, Danes Palle Pedersen and Ramus Lokvig took their Ginetta G4R to the category lead, followed by the Lotus Seven duo of João Mira Gomes and Nuno Afoito. Paulo Rompante completed the category classification podium with his Alfa Romeo Ti Super.

Qualifications done and the jewels that compose this Iberian competition fine-tuned to detail it's time for the last race of 2021.

With a symbolic start, Le Mans style that reminds us of the 60's, with the race cars lined up in a spine next to the pit wall and the 40 brave drivers outside them on the opposite side of the finish line facing their respective machines waiting for the flag drop given by the race director.

Pedro Lima, race director, dropped the Motor Clube do Estoril flag and the 40 drivers ran towards their jewels. The engines echoed through the Estoril Autodrome and the symbolic start was complete, all 40 cars completed that lap and lined up according to the order established in qualifying.

Markus Palttala and Mário Meireles were at the head of the large Iberian Historic Endurance field and as soon as the lights went out the 2h race that marks the end of the season started.

Lars Rolner, in a Porsche 911 3.0 RS had a brilliant reaction to the traffic lights and when braking for the first corner he was already ahead of Mário Meireles, Bastos Rezende and Thibault Pierre. Palttala took this opportunity to escape from the rest of the pack and build up an advantage that would allow the Finnish professional driver to manage, as the race was still in its early stages. Behind him, the fight for second place was still intense, with Lars Rolner, Jakob V. Holstein, Miguel Ferreira, Miguel Vaz and Carlos Barbot chasing the intermediate podium.

 
 When the first mandatory stoppage window opened, the race lead passed from Palttala, who was stopping to hand over the wheel of the Porsche 911 3.0 RS to his teammate Paul Daniels, to Lars Rolner who decided to extend his driving time. This strategy proved to be the right one as when Rolner handed the Porsche over to Pattrick Simon, he was alone at the front. Paul Daniels, when he received the Finnish driver's car, started to experience some mechanical problems that made it impossible for the pair assisted by JWA Engeneering to keep fighting for the victory. The JWA Engeneering Porsche lost positions lap after lap until, shortly before the last stop, it was forced to abandon the race.

Who stood out in the second position were Annette Rolner/Thibault Pierre, Carlos Barbot and Diogo Matos, Jakob V.Holstein and José Monroy, Luís Sousa Ribeiro and Ricardo Pereira, who took the opportunity to climb one more place in the classification. With the drivers finding their race rhythm the classification didn't change.

In the Iberian Historic Endurance it's the category classification that matters and when the clock struck 0 minutes and the chequered flag fell it was Rolner/Simon who won the H-1976 category followed by Rolner/Pierre, both in Porsche 911 3.0 RS, and in third place Holstein and Monroy in the beautiful Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona.

In the Gentleman Driver Spirit, Mark Martin and Michael Gans in a Ford Cortina Lotus triumphed in the category ahead of the father and son duo in the Porsche 911 SWB of Piero and Guilherme dal Maso, Pedro Moriyon and José Carvalhosa completed the podium in a car identical to the runners-up.

In H-1965, Barbot /Matos repeated last year's triumph, winning the now mythical 250 km race of Estoril in a Lotus Elan 26R. The Portuguese duo beat Robert Frowein in his rare Porsche 904/6 and Per-Ake Forsvall also in a Lotus Elan 26R which debuted in Estoril.

In H-1971, Ribeiro/Pereira with a race with a mix of speed and strategy, won the category in a BMW 2800CS with Gutiérrez/Fuster/Ochagavias in their usual Porsche 911 2.5 ST taking the middle place of the podium and Santos/Bravo completing the top three.

In H-GTP & Sportscars, victory went to João Mira Gomes and Nuno Afoito in their agile Lotus Seven. The Portuguese were followed by Paulo Rompante in his Alfa Romeo Ti Super with Palle Pedersen and Rasmus Lokvig in a small Ginetta G4R completing the category podium.

In the Index Performance by Cuervo y Sobriños the big winner was the Porsche 356 of Guillermo Velasco and Francisco Freitas, the duo left the Estoril track with a unique watch made by Cuervo Y Sobriños. Carlos Barbot and Diogo Matos, in a Lotus Elan 26R were the second classified and the Datsun 510 SSS of Nelson Rego, Alexandre Leal, João Diogo Lopes and Filipe Martins finished the podium of the most important category of the Iberian competition.

A special mention to Miguel Lobo that, with his Shelby Cobra Daytona, made a back to back race, overcoming several mechanical problems in his car. The pilot from Algarve finished the two hours race placing his car, registered as guest, in the 5th position of the general classification, even though he was running in the guest category, due to the technical specifications of the car.

For Diogo Ferrão, responsible for the competition "We witnessed a closing race of the season of great quality, today here at the Autódromo do Estoril. All the pilots and the team must be congratulated because we didn't have a single touch, which is in line with the motto of this competition. When I created the Iberian Historic Endurace I wanted it to be a competition for Gentleman Drivers and the 40 teams present here were exactly that.

Another year ends, the best ever, I must confess. With an average of 40 teams per race, with great races in terms of quality and with excellent historic examples present race after race. I still can't give any news about 2022 but very soon we will release our calendar for next year and you can be sure that there will be some surprises. Now I wish you all a great rest and happy holidays and next year we will do everything to be even better".