Review: South American Spoils - McLaren F1 GTR, the 1996 Temporada GT Trophy & the 1997 Mil Milhas Brasileiras
Background
Since 1946 a series of winter Temporada races had been hosted in South America. These high profile contests had typically been organised for single seat machinery and normally attracted a stellar line up of cars and drivers.
For 1996 the format was revived in conjunction with the organisers of the BPR GT Championship. Local hero, three-time Formula World Champion and BMW ambassador Nelson Piquet was brought on board to help with promotion.
A brace of two hour races at Curitiba and Brasilia in December to contest the Temporada GT Trophy were followed by a standalone 1000 mile contest at Brasilia in mid January.
1996 Curitiba 2 Hours
The two hour race at Curitiba attracted three single-car McLaren teams, a two-car F40 GTE entry from Ferrari Club Italia and myriad Porsche customer outfits with their 911 GTs.
BMW Motorsport entered their spare F1 GTR (chassis 18R) that had acted as a reserve car earlier in the season. Instead of the team’s familiar Fina sponsorship, 18R appeared with backing from Brazilian cigarette brand Hollywood (a subsidiary of British American Tobacco). It was allocated to factory BMW drivers Nelson Piquet and Johnny Cecotto. As usual, the car was run on BMW Motorsport’s behalf by the Italian Bigazzi outfit.
The Franck Muller Watch-backed Giroix Racing Team also ran a McLaren with backing from Hollywood cigarettes. Chassis 11R appeared in a previously unseen white, black and green colour scheme for Maurizio Sandro Sala and team boss Fabien Giroix.
The other McLaren was the West cigarettes-backed Dave Price Racing entry of John Nielsen / Thomas Bscher which appeared in its familiar white and red colour scheme.
Qualifying saw Sala / Giroix on pole followed by the F40 GTE of Antonio Hermann / Max Angelelli. Piquet / Cecotto were third, Nielsen / Bscher lined up fourth and the Luiz Garcia / Luciano della Noce F40 started fifth.
Having taken the lead after just four corners, Cecotto put in a scintillating first stint and proceeded to pull away from the rest of the field at around a second per lap.
Once the groundwork for victory was laid, Cecotto handed 18R over to Piquet who went on to cross the line nine seconds ahead of Sala / Giroix and Nielsen / Bscher who had engaged in an epic race-long battle for the runner up spot.
The Garcia / della Noce Ferrari retired at two thirds distance while team-mates Hermann / Angelleli bagged fourth.
1996 Brasilia 2 Hours
One week later, the Brasilia circuit hosted its own two hour race (December 15th).
On this occasion, the McLarens dominated qualifying to secure the top three grid slots. The BMW Motorsport example of Piquet / Cecotto started on pole, behind which was the DPR West machine of Nielsen / Bscher followed by the Giroix Racing Team example of Sala / Giroix.
Next up was the F40 GTE of Garcia / della Noce and the Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT Evo of Wolfgang Kaufmann / Emmanuel Clerico.
The sister Ferrari of Hermann / Angelelli started back in 20th having failed to set a qualifying time following a major crash that required an overnight rebuild.
After their victory at Curitiba, Cecotto and Piquet took another victory. However, this time it was a much more hard-fought affair as 18R shed a wheel nut on lap 15. Following an unscheduled to stop to rectify the situation, Cecotto was left over a minute behind new leader Sala.
A furious recovery drive by the Venezuelan saw him go from tenth to first before handing over to Piquet who took another popular win by a little over 20 seconds.
Having inherited the lead after Cecotto’s early issue, the Sala / Giroix McLaren had its pace slowed by a niggling gearbox issue but nevertheless managed to claim the runner up spot.
Third place went to the Hermann / Angelelli F40 GTE while Nielsen / Bscher took fourth after Bscher had overheated 02R’s engine on the warm up lap.
Garcia / della Noce were fifth in the sister F40 GTE; the top five cars all finished on the same lap.
With two wins from two races, Piquet and Cecotto were crowned winners of the 1996 Temporada GT Trophy.
1997 Mil Milhas Brasileiras
The 1000 mile Mil Milhas Brasileiras took place at Jacarepagua in January 19th, but the only top class car to stay on for this event was the BMW Motorsport McLaren in which Cecotto and Piquet were joined by Steve Soper.
Having easily taken pole position, the F1 GTR incurred two stop-go penalties but otherwise had a trouble-free run en route to a lights-to-flag victory.
Soper did the opening stint in 18R and quickly established a big lead; by half distance (around the five hour mark) the McLaren drivers had a ten lap advantage over their closest competitor.
They eventually won by 21 laps from the Porsche 911 GT of Maurizio Sandro Sala / Andre Lara Resende / Regis Schuch to claim the final race victory for the short-tailled F1 GTR.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
