Historic Endurance with great Iberian battles in Jerez de la Frontera
- Spanish Jorge Lopez wins second race after Iberian duel
- Carlos Beltran wins the Cuervo y Sobriños Index Performance
- Carlos Brizido and João Pina Cardoso as the best Portuguese duo in the Andalusian journey
On a sunny autumn day, more than 30 cars that made up the extensive Iberian Historic Endurance grid were getting ready for the last race of the weekend. It was a few minutes after 2pm when the traffic light under the famous "UFO" of the Jerez circuit turned off its lights and the field was released, starting the second race of the weekend.
Jorge Lopez in the Porsche 911 RS who started from the first position overtook Bastos Rezende and Rouchard's Shelby Cobra to secure the lead. Carlos Brizido/Pina Cardoso and Eduardo D'Avila, both in Porsche 911 3.0 RS followed closely, with the Spanish driver first passing the Portuguese Porsche and then the Cobra Daytona.
In the lead, Lopez and Bastos Rezende engaged in a very interesting battle, and it was expected to be a replica of the first race, in which the Portuguese driver even passed the Spaniard. However, everything was to be decided 20 minutes from the end of the race, when Bastos Resende's German car stopped. As races are won at the end, especially the endurance ones, Lopez got the double of the weekend!
In the Gentleman Driver Spirit, Mark Martin and Michael Gans wanted to repeat the feat of the first race yesterday but a problem in the Lotus Ford Cortina handed the category win to the family duo of Piero and Guilherme dal Maso in the Porsche 911 SWB with Martin Aubert and Adam Brusas moving up to second in the category in a Lotus Elite. The Alpine A110 1300 of Rafael Alcala and Eduardo Sanchez completed the podium in the category dedicated to 1965 to 2000cc Touring cars.
In the category for cars with homologation until 1965 the French Bertrand Rouchard, in a Shelby Cobra Daytona repeated the feat of the first race winning the category. The dispute between Max Huber and Antonio Noguera took us back to yesterday, as these two drivers were once again the protagonists of one of the great moments of the race, as either Huber's Ford Mustang was in second position or the agile Lotus Elan of Antonio Noguera was in the middle of the podium. With 10 minutes to go Max Huber fell behind and it was Ralf Huber (his father) also in a Ford Mustang who took third place.
In H-1971, after 3rd place Antonio Gutierrez and Jesus Fuster took the laurels after an excellent race by the Spanish duo in a Porsche 911 2.5 ST. However, the Spanish pair were only 3rd at the halfway point of the race, with Nuno Nunes in a Porsche 2.5 S/T leading the way and the Alfa Romeo GTAm of Jorge Santos and Alcides Petiz in second. With a strong second half of the race, Gutierrez/Fuster jumped to the lead followed by the Portuguese GTAm that achieved an excellent result and the Madrileno Manuel de la Torre in the rare Porsche 914/4 also in an excellent recovery to finish 3rd in the podium.
In H-1976, Lopez's triumph was accompanied by the magnificent result of the Portuguese duo Brizido/Pina Cardoso, who started from the 6th position of the grid and managed to climb 4 positions to the second place of the general classification and of the category. The podium of the historic 1976 was completed by Bruno Duarte, who, for Jerez de la Frontera, also presented himself solo in a Porsche Carrera RS.
João Mira Gomes and Nuno Afoito, in the agile Lotus Seven, had a lively race with Huber's Ford Mustang and Nogueira's Elan, and Santos/Petiz's Alfa Romeo, finishing in the eighth position and triumphing among the H-GTP.
The high moment of the podium protocol ceremony was the prize giving of the Index Performance by Cuervo Y Sobriños, which in the Jerez round had as winner the Spaniard Carlos Beltran, in what is the most important category of the Iberian competition. Beltran, in a Porsche 356 pre-A, took as a prize a prestigious watch offered by Cuervo y Sobriños.
For Diogo Ferrão, responsible for the Iberian competition "It was a great event, with excellent days of sunshine, good races and great atmosphere in Jerez de la Frontera. To have more than 40 teams coming to the South of Spain to race with us is a great source of pride and is very encouraging to do more and better. In a fortnight we will be at the Estoril Racetrack to close the season with the race almost sold out, anticipating a great end of the year party".
The Iberian Historic Endurance returns on the 20th and 21st of November for the end of the season party which is the 250km of Estoril. In the meantime, fans of the sport can see (or see again) the various cars entered and the interesting fights in the race broadcast on Facebook or Youtube from Race Ready.
