The fourth round of the 1970 LeMans series started with a tie for the overall lead between Russell’s Lola and Ary’s Matra after a third round race that saw the Matra take first place in its first competition.
One of the big changes for this race was the absence of the Ferrari 312P as the team of M&M Racing chose to keep the Ferrari in the garage and run a NSR Porsche 917 in Gulf livery in its place.
The pre-race activity had most people making final adjustments and making sure they were running the right tires for the tracks warmer temps of 85 degrees. Those that were hoping to run anything softer than a shore 22 tire would surely have issues with their tires.
The first heat had Marty, Ary and Rich running together. Ary and his fast Matra took the heat with 72 laps to Marty’s 70 and Rich was not far behind in his Ferrari 512 with 63 laps. Ary set the fast lap of the heat with a time of 4.021.
The second heat had Russell, Marty and Rich running. Marty took this heat with a total of 71 laps to Russell’s 69 and Rich’s 66 lap total. Russell started off this heat absolutely flying and the pace may have been too much for his tires as he started to have handling issues about halfway through the race. He did manage to set the fastest lap of the race so far with a super-fast 3.90. It’s no surprise his tires were going away with lap times like this.
The third heat had Brian, Russell and Marty running together. Brian’s Porsche 908 long tail has seen some major development and his pre-race pace showed he was one of the fastest cars at the track. The race was a great battle between the three fast racers right up to the 3:16 mark when the Lola came to a stop on the front straight. The Lola had broken a body mount and was undriveable. The race came to a stop as quick repairs were made to the Lola. All racers were at 24 laps when the race started again. The race restarted and the rest of the laps were run without issue. The race finished with Russell on top with 70 laps to Brian and Marty’s 69. Fast lap was once again owned by Russell with a fast lap of 4.059. So much for those tires going away.
The fourth heat had David, Brian and Russell running together. Russell was the fast man again in this heat with a lap total of 73 – in the blue lane of course. Brian had a strong run with 71 laps and David had a strong run with 61 laps. Fast lap was once again with a 3.988.
The fifth heat had Ary, Brian and David running together. Ary’s pace in the Matra was unbelievable with a lap total of 75 and a fast lap of 3.907. The fast lap was good but was still not as fast as Russell’s 3.90. Brian had a good heat with a lap total of 71 while David had a lap total of 59.
The sixth and final heat had Rich, David and Ary running together. The heat had Ary trying to capture the fast lap away from Russell while trying to stay out of the way of the race between the two B class competitors that were running with him. At the end of the heat it was Ary taking the heat with 63 laps and a fast lap of 3.898. Rich finished the heat with 65 laps to David’s 61 laps.
The final results has Brian and his Porsche 908 long tail at the top of the charts with a total of 212 laps which was just a half a lap ahead of Russell and his Lola. Third was Marty and the Porsche 917 just ahead of Ary and his Matra. Rich was the top B class racer with 194 laps to David’s 181 laps.
Congratulation’s Brian!
It looks like the next race, the penultimate round of the series, could be very interesting as the top racers fight for the top podium spots.
Be sure you don’t miss it!