2007 Sandown Historics...............By Richard Batchelor

After his patchy debut in the new de Tomaso Pantera GTS at the AMRS Winton historics in October, former Marque Sports Porsche ace Perry Spiridis was wondering if his long absence from the track had dulled his skills. However at the Sandown Historics, conducted in glorious weather on November 10-11, Perry demonstrated an emphatic return to form.

Qualifying commenced at nine on Saturday morning. Whereas most competitors used their full quota of eight laps, Perry did a blindingly quick lap of 1:23.7355 on his second timed lap, then parked the silver Pantera after only one more lap. Perry’s qualifying time was over three seconds faster than Micheal Byrne’s outstanding 1:26.8018 in the diminutive Lotus Seven S4, with Ross Jackson third fastest in his yellow Pantera in 1:27.3714. They were followed by the 2.7 litre Porsches of Phil Verwoert and Stan Adler, George Nittis in the Shelby GT350 and Group Sc lap record holder Paul Sabine in the 7 litre Corvette. Further back, popular American Steve Schuler was making the ground shake in his thundering 1958 drum-braked Corvette, recording a fine 1:31.2760 to secure 14th place on the grid.

Unfortunately Paul Blackie’s superb new 7 litre Corvette had been withdrawn after Friday’s practice, his first drive in the just-completed car. After lapping in a promising 1:29, the car ran out of brakes but will be a potential front runner when sorted.

A field of 36 faced the starter in Race One on Saturday afternoon and, with his three second qualifying buffer, it was no surprise to see Spiridis take the chequered flag first from Ross Jackson’s Pantera (both cars fettled by Mark Johnson of Cobra Motorsports). Micheal Byrne was an outstanding third in his 1.58 litre, and frankly unaerodynamic, Lotus, with Sabine next in the 7 litre Corvette, followed by Bryan Taylor, Phil Verwoert and Stan Adler in their Porsches, and James Flett from NSW in his rapid Datsun 260Z.

Further back in the field the writer made a goose of himself by spinning in heavy traffic in turn one, and only skilled driving by the following competitors enabled the BMW to emerge unscathed (apologies – and thanks - to all concerned!)

Race 2 on Sunday morning saw an interesting car back in position 38 on the grid – Ian Ross’s formidable Shelby GT350. By turn two Ian had already made up about 14 places. He had been absent from qualifying, and was certainly making up for lost time, but shortly afterwards the Shelby went off song, and was a DNF.

The Pantera duo of Spiridis and Jackson again dominated, with Stan Adler driving a blinder of a race in his new silver Carrera 2.7 (which also had made its debut at Winton) to finish third, ahead of Byrne, Verwoert, Nittis, Sabine, Flett and Colin Fulton in yet another de Tomaso ‘pants-tearer.’

Apart from Byrne’s giant-killing performance in his Lotus, and the usual V8 baiting by the Porsches, another small car to punch above its weight was Phil Baskett’s 2.0 litre Alfa Romeo GTV, which was lapping close to the 1:30 mark and humbling many larger engined cars. The four cylinder MGBs of New South Welshmen Geoff Pike and Peter Whitten also impressed – in fact every MGB in the field was extremely quick! Damian Maloney’s innocent looking Austin Healey 100/4 was another wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The final race on the Sunday, an eight lapper, was marred by a couple of laps behind the safety car in order to recover a car which unfortunately had made contact with the wall. There was a one lap sprint to the finish, led again by Perry Spiridis. Behind him there was a change in the pecking order, with Paul Sabine hauling the Corvette into second place and recording the fastest Group S race lap of the weekend in 1:26.4067. Sabine was followed by the consistent Jackson, Byrne, Adler, Verwoert, Nittis, Ross, Flett and another flock of Stuttgart’s finest, driven by Mark Johnson (not the aforementioned Pantera fettler), Nicholas Taylor and Roly Newman.

Group S is continuing to prosper, judging by the strong entry list and spirited racing at Sandown, and from all reports proved very popular with the spectators, who of course love anything powered by a V8. The speed differential in the field is quite large, around 15 seconds per lap, meaning the tail enders can expect to be lapped in an eight lapper.

But Group S at Sandown this year was all about the de Tomaso Pantera, a car conceived by an Italy-based Argentinean married to an American heiress, who dreamed of selling a road going GT40 inspired supercar through Ford dealers. He went on to make around 7000 Panteras over 20 years from 1971, most of which were powered by the very familiar (to us Aussies) Ford 351 V8. And at five minutes past nine on Saturday morning, Perry Spiridis showed everybody just how fast one of these Italian-American hybrids can be made to go.

Richard Batchelor

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