Nov News
The final race of the European Group C season took place at Paul Ricard in the South of France during the first weekend of October.
Celtic Speed’s Porsche 962 was lying in 2nd position in the Championship after a successful season and there was the opportunity to win the title at the final race. The first of 2 qualifying sessions took place on Friday afternoon in warm conditions. Aaron took an early pole position with the car before finally being displaced by the Mercedes C11. The 2nd session was wet and Aaron placed the car 1st with a time over 8 seconds a lap faster than his nearest challenger. Tommy also set some fantastic lap times during the qualifying sessions and, with their championship leading rival starting 9th, it was game on.
In race 1 the duo finished 4th overall after an exciting race with their rival down in 6th and in race 2 Tommy and Aaron finished a superb 2nd to close within a few points of the Championship. So at the end of the season the team were happy to finish 2nd in the Championship despite missing the Spa races as they clashed with the Monaco Historic meeting where Tommy raced the March F1 car.
Following on from Paul Ricard the team’s next race was in Austin, Texas. Tommy Dreelan would be racing the Williams FW08 - Keke Rosberg’s Championship winning ’82 car. Tommy would be racing in the F1 supporting race for the US Grand Prix ahead of a packed crowd.
Tommy set the 10th fastest time in qualifying in a grid packed with 23 Cosworth powered beauties. In race 1 Tommy drove a superb race to finish 9th place overall. Unfortunately during race 2 he suffered a rare engine problem which stopped the car while running in a strong 8th place. This meeting represented one of Tommy’s best races to date in the car as he continues to acclimatise to the ground effect downforce of this car.
Following Austin, the team took part in the Mexican GP support race in Mexico City. Tommy was joined for this meeting by Aaron Scott who raced the March 761.
In opening practice Tommy set the 13th fastest time with Aaron setting the fastest time. In qualifying Tommy set the 14th fastest time with Aaron setting the 3rd fastest time.
In race 1 Aaron went on to finish 2nd to the Lotus of Katsu Kubota with Tommy finishing 12th and in race 2 Aaron finished 2nd once again with Tommy finishing 8th. Aaron was classified first in the Fittipaldi class for pre ’78 cars in both races to cap a fantastic season for the team.
November News
The final event for the team this year took place in Japan at the famous Suzuka circuit for the Sound of Engine event. This was a demonstration event and the team’s Leyton House liveried Porsche 962 was one of the stars of the show proving very popular with the Japanese fans. The team participated in 2 demonstration races featuring a mix of Group C cars including some Porsche 962’s, a Le Mans winning Mazda rotary powered car and some Nissan cars. The event featured bikes, cars, including Formula 1 cars and some star Japanese drivers including Japanese F1 driver Satouro Nakujima and sportscar star driver Kazuki Hoshino.
The sound of engine weekend is proving popular in Japan and is very similar to the Goodwood revival and Silverstone Classic meetings in Europe, giving fans the opportunity to re live some great memories from the past.