The second Jaguar looked like lasting the distance: ironically this Bell/Rouse machine had the older wet sump lubrication layout. Bell put in a typically gutsy drive, his traffic experience carving through the inevitably large bunches of traffic, and pulled back the BMW at an average 2 sec. a lap. Would it be enough to offset Jaguar’s extra fuel stop?
That question became increasingly relevant as Rouse took over the Jaguar for the final stint. Exactly half a minute had been lost in a stop that saw the big coupe fed with new rubber (one front), oil, water for the brakes and fuel. Some 23 laps were left to run when the gap between the immaculate green BMW and the Jaguar was 19.2 sec. With 17 laps to go, the gap was down to 14.9 sec. on the anxiously-held Leyland-Broadspeed pit board.
Perhaps the miracle would happen. Perhaps Rouse would get close enough to pressurise the cool Walkinshaw in the BMW. Conditions conspired to tilt the odds slightly against Rouse, who has spent more time testing the Jaguars at Silverstone in recent months than even he cares to recall. The grey clouds spat a little more rain than they, had earlier in the event and the Jaguar started to slither away the power advantage it had been able to employ so successfully up to that point. Rouse became enmeshed in the traffic, Walkinshaw kept his head and the gap to the flying green BMW stayed static, around 12 sec. Just nine laps from the end, nearly three hours of sustained motor racing came to an end as Rouse lost that great big machine at Abbey, normally a flat-out left-hander where the Jaguar would be approaching 150 m.p.h. The car slid totally out of control towards the Armco. It was not that badly damaged in the ensuing accident, but it was the end of any real hope for Leyland to score a victory in the European Touring Car Championship . . . the Jaguars were withdrawn from competition after the following round, in Belgium, where 1 1/2 hours of the dull Zolder autodrome was enough to produce mechanical failures in both cars once more.
Meritorious British performances came, aside from Walkinshaw’s clever performance in the winning BMW, from Vince Woodman/ Jonathan Buncombe, whose Group 1 1/2 Capri (powered by a Broadspeed-modified V6!) was actually fourth past the flag, fifth on the results sheet behind the crashed Jaguar. In the early stages of the race Holman Blackburn and Brian Robinson in a fuel-injected Group 2 Capri showed the potential the Ford still has, holding down seventh place behind the Jaguar and BMW combatants. At the end of the day there was no escaping the fact that, with scant factory help, BMW had scored a remarkable Tour-de Force. They filled the first three places overall; Alpina-BMW took the three-car team award, and BMWs filled the first three places in the 2-litre class. It cannot be long before the British concessionaires justifiably re-instate that arrogant “Unbeatable BMW” slogan! VW, who tie with BMW in the fight for the marque title within the ETC series (Quester is the leading driver), scored another class win from the efforts of a privately-entered Scirocco GTI. Alfa Romeo took the smallest class with a pair of Argentinian-financed Sprint coupes, prepared by Autodelta.
It had been a thoroughly good motor race but with a sad result for the home team. They could so easily have won; now the cars will just fade into history. – J.W.
Results
RAC TOURIST TROPHY – 107 laps
European Touring Car Championship, round 8
1st D. Quester/T. Walkinshaw
(3.2 BMW CSL), 2hr. 58min. 25.7sec. at 105.5 m.p.h.
2nd E. Joosen/U. Grano
(3.2 BMW CSL), 2hr. 59min. 27.67sec. 104 laps
3rd J. Xhenceval/P. Dieudonne
(3.2 BMW CSL), 3hr. 0min. 0.86sec. 104 laps
4th D. Bell/A. Rouse
(5.4 Jaguar XJ5.3C), 2hr. 43min. 31.8 sec. (not running at finish) 98 laps
5th V. Woodman/J. Buncombe
(3.0 Ford Capri II S), 2hr. 59min. 51.72sec. 98 laps
6th S. Graham/J. Handley
(3.0 Ford Capri II S), 2hr. 58min. 34.2sec 96 laps