The Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix for 2024 took place over the first weekend of August at the Bellahöj street circuit in north-western Copenhagen, a track that has been home for this race since 2013, where it was moved from its previous location at the Faelledsparken right in the city. Formula Junior was, as usual, the only single-seater grid on the programme and the Formula Junior drivers were, also as usual, given a VIP treatment by the CHGP supremo Jac Nelleman. This included a welcome dinner on Thursday evening at the Östergo roof-top restaurant and a table of cold-cuts in the paddock for Saturday lunch, and, not to be forgotten, ”goodie bag”.
Sadly, the number of entries were somewhat disappointing with only 12 drivers remaining when it was time to get out on the track for the first time. There had been a hope for more Scandinavian drivers this year, but the usual ”car not ready” excuse prevailed. So, in the end, we had six from the UK (Robin Longdon, Iain Rowley, Nick Taylor, Vern Williamson, John Chisholm and Martin McHugh), two from Sweden (Jan Christians and Lars-Göran Sjöberg), and one each from Australia (Kim Shearn), Denmark (Lars Jansen), Norway (Petter Huse) and Finland (Reijo af Heurlin). It was nice to see John Chisholm back in his first Formula Junior race after his nasty crash at this venue last year (although he has participated in a couple of F3/500 races in between). Sir John drove the Ausper Mk 4 owned by Vern Williamson. Others who had ”borrowed” cars were Iain Rowley in a Lotus 22 owned by Erik Justesen and Kim Shearn in Jac Nelleman’s Alfa Dana. Of the others, Longdon had his Lola Mk 5, Taylor his Elva 100, Williamson his Lynx T3, McHugh his Lotus 22, Christians his Elva 100, Sjöberg his Cooper T59, Jansen his Elva 100, Huse his Focus Mk IV, and Heurlin his RV Special.
The race format was a free practice late Friday afternoon, then, on Saturday a timed session to decide the grid positions for the qualification race held in the afternoon. This decided the grid postions for the all-deciding ”Grand Finale” on Sunday. Before the racing started on Friday, there had been the traditional parade into a reception at the Copenhagen Town Hall. Williamson and Chisholm took the risk of taking part in the parade with their race cars but, not suprisingly, got some issues with overheating on the way back.
The untimed practice on Friday started badly for Heurlin, whose car refused to start because of what was later diagnosed as fuel pump issue. Another one who had problems was Christians, whose engine at first refused to fire and then his starter motor failed. Anyhow, a push start got him out onto the track. On track, Longdon’s engine died on the first lap (loose lead to the coil) and Sjöberg returned to the paddock on the second with oil surge under braking. Huse was quickest almost two seconds ahead of Rowley with Taylor fastest front-engined car.
In the timed session on Saturday, Huse was even more ahead with a time almost 2.5 seconds quicker than that of Longdon, who was closely followed by Taylor and Rowley, then a gap to McHugh and Christians (who had replaced the starter) in turn followed by Chisholm, Williamson and Shearn, then Jansen, Sjöberg (who only drove one flying lap, since the oil surge was no better despite having added more oil) and Heurlin (with the fuel pump now working). Williamson came into the pits early with the gearbox stuck in gear and McHugh also had an issue, a misfire.
In the qualifying race on Saturday afternoon, pole sitter Huse was quickest away ahead of Taylor and Rowley. Longdon made bad start, but had moved up to second position within a couple of laps. Rowley was stuck behind Taylor for several laps before finding a way past into third position. Longdon showed that Huse’s superiority from the timed practice was a thing of the past and after about two thirds of the race, he was on Huse’s tail. The two of them then made several position changes, which entertained the spectators who showed their apreciation with lots of both chees and gasps. On the next to last lap Huse made a decisive move and passed Longdon on the outside going into the bus-stop chicane, Longdon locking all four wheels to avoid a collision. Longdon had an advantage on the start/finish straight, but Huse managed to take the chequered flag first, but with a margin of only 1/10 of a second. Had the finishing line been some 10 metres later, Longdon would have gotten by. They were followed by Rowley a long way back, who was not that far ahead of Taylor, then Chisholm one lap down, Christians, Shearn and Heurlin, the three of them two laps down. McHugh still had a misfire despite having replaced the distributor and retired. Williamson also retired after having left his braking too late and touched the barrier at the second corner, resulting in a bent steering arm. One who also retired was Jansen, who had a gearbox issue and had spent the race closely following Heurlin until the last lap, when his clutch gave up.
The Finale on Sunday afternoon was delayed about one hour because of heavy showers. Only eight drivers remained on the grid. Those who did not start was Jansen, Williamson, Chisholm and, of course, Sjöberg. Williamson had got a straightened steering arm, but then found damage to the lower wishbone, which could not be repaired in time for the race, while Chisholm decided not to provoke his luck on the still wet track. Shearn had a leaking radiator in the first race, but this was repaired in time for the second and McHugh had finally cured the misfire.
The sun was out, but the track was still wet when the race started. Pole sitter Huse made a lousy start (not in gear when the lights went out). Rowley was quickest away ahead of Taylor and Longdon, while McHugh directly made it up to fifth from his position at the back of the grid. Taylor then passed Rowley on the outside going into the second corner on lap 2 and pulled away. Meanwhile Huse had passed Longdon, who did not look comfortable on the still slippery track. Rowley then started to feel more confident and started catching Taylor again on the drying track, but after only four laps, there was another very heavy shower resulting in almost no visibility, and the chequered flag was waved after the next lap, which was about half-distance. Taylor won by some four seconds thereby repeating his win from last year. Rowley followed next six seconds ahead of Huse, who held a similar margin to Longdon. McHugh was fifth and then followed Christians, Heurlin and Shearn, the two latter lapped by the winner.
Next year’s Grand Prix will take place on August 8-10.
by Lars-Goran Sjoberg
