25th-27th September 2025 - Francorchamps
Spa Six Hours Meeting European F3 Trophy Racing on Thu/Fri/Sat.
Spa
Thirty cars arrived for the European Championship round at Spa Francorchamps as supporting act for the internationally renowned 6 Hours race.
Qualifying
Qualifying took place on Thursday afternoon on a damp but drying track with almost everyone opting for dry tyres. After 25 minutes of on track action, Michael O’Brien topped the time sheets (2:44.660/153kph) in his ex Charles Lucas Mk 3 Titan only a couple of tenths ahead of British Championship winner Peter de la Roche in his family run ex Ken Sedgeley Alexis Mk8, both cars resplendent in their period correct colours.
Charlie Martin in Paul Waine’s rare De Sanctis was third. Charlie has not only quickly got to grips with racing a screamer but importantly for Spa now had a fresh Sam Wilson engine to propel him along the circuit’s long straights and top gear corners.
Perennially fast Jason Timms was next up in his usual Brabham BT21 followed by a gaggle of cars all covered by little time and including Christoph Widmer’s loyal Brabham BT18A, Richard Trott’s BT28, Francois Derossi (Chevron B17), welcome series returnee Peter Hamilton (Tecno) and Jonathan Sharp (B17). Slightly further back than expected were Ross Drybrough (Merlyn Mk14A) and Thomas Jamin (March 703). Max Blees (BT28) rounded out the top twelve.
Sadly, Andrew Tart’s Merlyn was afflicted with technical gremlins which withstood his efforts and those of helpful competitors to solve. This sadly rendered him a weekend of no racing and just a long journey home to look forward to.
Andrew, along with Peter de la Roche, were trialling alternative Avon all weather tyres as part of the research into a new regulation tyre for the future.
Race 1
Friday morning dawned cool but dry. An early start meant the screamers were the first cars to break the paddock silence, the sound of their hard, crisp and loud engines drawing spectators to watch and listen as they were methodically warmed up.
As the lights were extinguished (quicker than expected), Michael O’Brien and Peter de la Roche set about their battle. As anticipated, they provided an exemplary lesson in hard, close but fair racing which was sadly truncated by Michael’s engine breaking, leaving Peter to a nonetheless well-deserved win. Charlie Martin was happy with second as was Jason Timms in coming third, all three plainly enjoying their attendance on the elevated Grand Prix podium.
Christoph Widmer was a fourth ahead of Thomas Jamin, who had found some more speed after qualifying. Sixth was Jonathan Sharp ahead of Ross Drybrough who had made good progress from his qualifying slot but a spin put him back.
Race 2
Saturday’s race started even earlier. Again, it was dry but cold and damp offline. The race looked to be there for the taking by Peter de la Roche, who predictably scampered off in the lead (running Hoosiers as a comparison to the Avons used on Saturday). Without warning Peter suddenly found himself with a disconnected gear linkage and cruised round to retire in the pits. As he got out of the car his father realised (along with a nearby spectating Andrew Hibberd) that the linkage was fixable. Amazingly, they found a welding kit, repaired the linkage, put Peter back in the car and sent him out again.
All of this took place whilst the safety car had been deployed meaning less time lost than might have been the case.
Midst all of this, full credit to Ross Drybrough who maximised his inherent speed potential by keeping it on the black stuff and winning by under two seconds from Jason Timms, who was equally happy to be on the podium again, particularly as he had Christoph Widmer breathing all over him and only eight tenths behind at the flag.
Away from the leading bunch, the early laps produced a blizzard of activity. Exiting Eau Rouge on lap 2, Ludovic Ingwiller (Pygmee), Thomas Jamin and Christoph Widmer all towed past Jonathan Sharp in the run up to Les Combes. The following lap Jonathan tried to claw back the lost three places but with Ingwiller, Jamin and Widmer three abreast on the straight there was no room past.
All of this activity enabled Francois Derossi to catch up whilst Richard Trott making rapid progress from the back (after Race 1 issues, fixed overnight) was also keen to join the fun.
The safety car normally bunches up everyone but had circulated at such a speed that some of the midfield runners didn’t anticipate being so far back at the restart.
Francois DeRossi worked his way ahead of Sharp, Ingwiller and Jamin but spun again. Trott got up to second but received a five second track limits penalty dropping him to fourth, just ahead of Sharp in fifth.
Jamin was close behind in sixth, Derossi seventh. Midst all this action, Mark Pangborn, a Spa regular, quietly made his way to eighth despite having to be careful with his gearbox, fractions ahead of a fired up Ingwiller.
One of four Swedes, Anders Lofthammer (BT28), not only made a welcome appearance (along with his fellow Swede and brother Bengt Lofthammer), but also managed to beat Max Blees (also BT28 mounted) by only two hundredths of a second, reflecting the epic duels going on up and down the field. The battle of the Swedes also became a battle of the BT28s as two more finished less than a second behind the Lofthammer/Blees scrap, these being Belgian Philippe Demeyer who in turn was only a second in front of popular, long-standing series regular Leif Bosson in his Jeremy Bennett tended BT28. Demeyer not only brought his ex Sports Motors/Tim Schenken Brabham but did so period style on an open trailer…
Summary
Overall, the race was deemed a big success by all present and whilst there were mechanical malaises, there were no accidents reflecting the hard but fair approach to racing these iconic cars on such a fast circuit. Thanks for organising the event go to European Championship regulars Christoph Widmer and Francois Derossi. A “hats off” mention must go to everyone wherever they finished and no matter how much publicity their efforts garnered. With entries from Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Sweden this was a great international event typifying those races in the era of these screamers, whilst the paddock camaraderie was never more evident than when help was needed.
