250 KM do Estoril 2021 Iberian Historic Endurance
Iberian Historic Endurance with a fantastic grid of 50 cars and teams from eight different nationalities
Two hour race at Estoril Autodrome closes the season of the Iberian competition.
Ford GT40, Ferrari 365/4 GTB Daytona and 4 Jaguar E-Types attend the last race of the year.
It is already this weekend, on the 20th and 21st of November, that another edition of the 250 KM of Estoril will take place. The event organized by Race Ready at the historic Autódromo do Estoril, will have around 50 cars and more than 100 drivers, in what will be the closing race of the season of the Iberian Historic Endurance competition in 2021. With a Le Mans style start, this is a fantastic opportunity to see the Iberian competition recreating the starts of the 60's races and will feature drivers travelling from 8 different countries.
In this race, Porsche 911's dominate in quantity in the most diverse categories and in the Gentlemen Driver Spirit is no different. It is in this category that there are two Ford Cortina Lotus, belonging to Luís Sousa Ribeiro, prepared to win the Porsche SWB and to the British driver Mark Martin with Michael Gans, on the other hand, the Alfa Romeo GTA of Manuel Melo and João Sardinha, will arouse the public's curiosity, or where the BMW 1800 TiSA of Alberto and Tomaz Velez-Grilo also enters to try to repeat the feat of winning again this year the most important trophy of the competition: the Cuervo y Sobiños Performance Index. The Porsche 911 SWB are always favourites to win the category, with the French Michel Mora sharing the German car with the experienced driver and trainer José Carvalhosa or Pedro Moryion, who for the last race of the year changes his Porsche 356 for the agile 911 SWB and finally to finish the Porsche armada in the Gentleman Driver Spirit and winners of the same in the Jerez race, the Familiar duo with Piero and Guilherme dal Maso.
The H-1965 category receives an extensive and varied entry list for this 2H race, where a total of 4 E-Type Jaguars stand out. The German Robert Frowein returns to the Estoril track and has as opponents the Luso-French duo of José da Rocha and Fabrice Mestrot, Christopher Schwartz who shares the English car with Lisa Schwartz. The well-known Carlos Cruz and Miguel Pais do Amaral close the list of E-type Jaguars, all prepared by Team Classic Garage. As representatives of the Porsche brand, Guillermo Velasco and Francisco Freitas return from 356 and will have to overcome François Guerin in an identical car. Thorkhild Stamp returns to Estoril in his rare Porsche 904/6, again with Michael Holden as teammate after an excellent showing in the last passage through Estoril. Swedish Per-Ake Forswall makes his debut on the Iberian Historic Endurance grid in a Lotus Elan, as does the national duo of João Melo and Paulo Costa in a newly acquired Lotus Elan 26R. In an Austin Healey 100/4, François de Chanterac, who will share the English car with Jeremy da Rocha, is a strong candidate for the Index Performance by Cuervo y Sobriños.
In the disputed H71 category, you will find models as diverse as a Ford Escort RS1600, always favourite to win the category with Miguel Ferreira and Francisco Carvalho, a single Datsun 510 SSS of Alexandre Leal, an always reliable BMW 1600 Ti with Paulo Lima and José Paradela returning for a last race in 2021. Also present in this last round are 2 Alfa Romeo GTAm, one of the Italian cars with a German duo Volker Hichert and Bjorn Ebsen and the second with the Portuguese Fernando and Ricardo E. Santo. Completing the category dedicated to cars with homologation until the year 1971 are three Porsches, two 911 2.5 ST one in the hands of the always fast Spanish duo of Antonio Gutierrez and Jesus Fúster and the other with the Portuguese trio of Nuno Nunes, Piero dal Maso and José Carvalhosa. Manuel de la Torre in his exclusive Porsche 914/6 completes the list of participants in H-1971.
In the H-1976 category, the Porsche reach ten, Mário Meireles and João M. Silva in the Porsche 2.8 RSR and the Spaniards Rafael Alcala and Eduardo Sanchez who will share the two hours of the race with Antonio Escalante aboard the Porsche 911 2.7 RS. The other Porsche in this category are 911 3.0 RS, Miguel Vaz and Fernando Soares, Annette Rolner who will have her husband Lars Rolner as an opponent in an identical car. The duo Carlos Brizido and João P. Cardoso returns once again to the Cascais circuit, as well as Bruno Duarte and Filipe S. Jesus or the Englishman Paul Daniels who will share the car with the Finnish professional driver, Markus Palttala. Completing the Porsche 911 3.0 RS armada and always favourite to win the category, Pedro B. Rezende with his car prepared to detail by Aurora Garage. The H-1976 category is not only composed by Porsches and J. Filipe Nogueira with his team mate F. Campos Ferreira are back to the Iberian Historic Endurance after an absence in their Ford Escort MKI and will have as opponents Carlos M. Santos and Carlos A. Santos in an identical car, after the bad luck in the Andalusian track of Jerez. To complete the category there are two real gems of the automobile world, two Italian cars, a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona from Jakob V. Holstein who has as team mate the Portuguese José Monroy. An elegant Maserati Merak driven by Rui Ribeiro completes the category.
Completing the field of the Iberian Historic Endurance is the H-GTP & Sportscars category where 5 different cars are entered, all of them true motoring jewels. João Mira Gomes and Nuno Afoito in the timeless Lotus Seven, Carlos Barbot in his fast Merlyn MK4 that is always a candidate to win the category, the driver from Oporto will have Diogo Matos as his team mate. However, the duo will have Jordi Puig and Fernando Navarrete in a sound Ford GT40 as competition for the leadership of the H-GTP & Sportscars. Finishing the category the returned Paulo Rompante in his distinctive Alfa Romeo Ti Super, after two races of pause the pilot returns to conclude his current sports season.
For Diogo Ferrão, responsible for the organization, "For the 9th consecutive year, the 250 Km of Estoril is a milestone in the Iberian Historic Endurance competition, either by the specificity of the Le Mans style start or by the fact that it is the closing race of the season. It is with great pleasure that we always return here in this final stage to close the year and where we always have numerous teams from the rest of Europe, who come looking for the excellent local weather and for a race that is starting to have a tradition at an international level".
The Iberian Historic Endurance will enter the Estoril track on Saturday at 09:20 for its single qualifying session for the last race of the year. The 2h race will take place on the same day at 15:20 and you can follow everything in live timing on the APP Race Ready available in the APP Store for iPhone and Play Store for Android.
Comments