Barcelona - 08/04/2001   Race Report A Dull Opener   A new look to the series, or the same old thing under a different name? It was shades of Donington Park last August as the new season started with a whimper at Barcelona. A 1- 2 for BMS Scuderia Italia was a novel result though, the second string car lapping within a second of the winning pair of Christian Pescatori and Marco Zadra. Pescatori had pulled out a huge lead by the time he vacated the seat of the #1 Ferrari, leaving Zadra to cruise home to a comfortable win despite a lack of braking power. “It was very difficult in the last few laps as I had virtually no brakes left, but we had given ourselves a good cushion to fall back onto,” said Zadra. Gary Formato and Mauro Baldi finished third, a distant four laps adrift. “The car was almost impossible to drive and then the throttle started to stick,” said the South African. “At one stage Mauro came on to the radio and we started to discuss the car as if we were in the pub! We have just lacked pace all weekend, but we’ll most definitely take the 12 points after all the problems.” A pub crawl for this pair then, but at least they managed to finish two laps ahead of the SR2 race. Thed Bjork and Larry Oberto dominated this one, but Bjork put the Swedish Lola into the gravel minutes from the end, gifting the win to the debutant Rowan Racing Pilbeam of Martin O’Connell and Warren Carway, who had trailed the Lola for the entire race. ”We just got on with our own race, and after all the problems we have had this weekend it was an added boost to pick up all the points after the Lola’s off,” rejoiced O’Connell. Bjork got going again and finished second whilst the Italian Tonetti / Saccomanno pairing brought their Lucchini Alfa home in third. Mike Millard and Ian Flux finished fifth, Flux almost matching the pace of the Rowan Pilbeam. Where were the new cars then? The Pescarolo Courage was a good second until halted by an electrical problem after 90 minutes. John Nielsen and Hiroki Katoh were sixth in the Danish Dome, Big John only driving one stint after his Qualifying accident. He still managed to come into contact with Mauro Baldi – more shades of Donington – and new car problems cost the car time. The Racing For Holland Dome didn’t start after a fuel leak was found in the warm-up. The GLV Brums Ferrari Judd retired on the second lap (transmission). The Redman Bright Reynard suffered a crank trigger failure (0 laps). The Kremer Lola retired with a chronic misfire (25 laps). Team Ascari had been running third until their engine failed after two hours. It’s 1000 km around Monza in two weeks time; the new cars might be expected to have their teething troubles still, but it’s difficult to forecast many being around at the flag on this form. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport