24 Hours of Business-Francorchamps in Touring mode: 1984 (BMW)

For the 1984 edition of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, we picked up the same and started again, Jaguar once again facing BMW in an attempt to finally secure this prestigious victory. Rover playing referee.

Unlike the previous version, the rain, which was difficult, appeared at the beginning. Once again the sorry writer, Tom Walkinshaw however took his Jaguar XJS to the lead, ahead of Enzo Calderari’s sister car.

Like a fish in water in which he is happy, Hans-Joachim Stuck delighted the public with his anthology routes in Raidillon and at the Bus Station, not taking long to cross two Jags and close his BMW 635 CSI/Schnitzer. head of the event.

Also very comfortable in the heavy rain, the Rovers of Joosen, Hahne and Manthey also had a great victory over the XJS coupes.

Shortly before the end of the first hour of the race, the track began to dry and the Rovers were in no hurry to take the measure of Stuck’s BMW.

So much so that after 60 minutes of high energy concert, we got No. 26 Rover/Gitanes from Joosen-Jabouille-Pond in the lead, followed by No. 27 Rover from Hahne-Schlesser-Soper and No. 25 from Manthey-Selzer-Schneider. BMW/Schnitzer of Stuck-Quester-Weawer and Juma/Bastos of Tassin-Cudini-Snobeck rounded out the Top 5. As for the Jaguars of Walkinshaw-Heyer-Percy and Calderari-Pilette-Sears, they were only 12th and 13th.

After their lesson at the start of the race, the Rovers of Armin Hahne (gearbox) and Olaf Manthey (reasons unknown) both had to throw in the towel, leaving Joosen’s to explain alone against the pack of 635 CSI led by Jarier’s Serge Power, Schnitzer of Stuck, Bavaria of Ballot-Léna and Juma Bastos of Tassin and Thibaut. Walkinshaw moved up to 7th place at the end of the 3rd hour of the race.

Conditions improved again and the Jaguar XJS were once again the fastest on the track. So much so that 60 minutes later, the Walkinshaw-Heyer-Percy team took the lead again.

However, the rain soon returned and caused the death of Calderari’s second Jaguar. While trying to pass an Alfa Romeo, the Swiss went off the dry line and went off the road, shattering his suspension and his dreams of victory in the process.

Very lively, the night was going to be summed up in a fierce battle between a group of BMWs including two Juma Bastos, two Schnitzers, Eggenberger of Kelleners and Jaguar of Walkinshaw and Rover of Joosen.

The first horse to give up was BMW/Eggenberger n°5 of Kelleners-Surer-Brancatelli, victim of a road accident.

A little later, Alain Cudini (BMW/Juma) invaded the sandbox, taking with him Stuck’s No. 1 BMW/Schnitzer. If the two Bavarians managed to get out of this bad situation, they still lost a few feathers in the adventure.

Early in the morning, there was heavy fog which disrupted the smooth running of the debates. So much so that the safety car would dictate the pace in no less than 2 hours 20 minutes!

As if by magic, the bright sunshine finally returned and Walkinshaw’s Jaguar could have a different day than Ravaglia-Berger-Winkelhock’s BMW 635/Schnitzer and Joosen-Jabouille-Pond’s Rover Vitesse/Gitanes who were all forced to retire, practically . in quick succession, following mechanical problems.

The way was clear for Walkinshaw-Heyer-Percy’s Jaguar XJS which finally won, after two unsuccessful attempts. As for Hans Heyer, he didn’t get any goals short of his 3rd success in a row and this with three different shots!

Despite its avatars in the middle of the night, the BMW 635/Juma Bastos n°2 of Tassin-Cudini-Snobeck took 2nd place ahead of the BMW 635/Schnitzer of Stuck-Quester-Weawer and the second BMW/Juma of Thibaut-Gartner-Guitteny .

Teaming up with Gordon Spice in a Toyota Supra, brothers Jean-Michel and Philippe Martin secured an incredible 5th place while the trio of Duez-Schlesser-Lovett saved Rovers honors by finishing 8th.

The good hosts at the start of the race, the BMW 635/Serge Power of Jarier-Huysman-Malcher and Bavaria of Ballot-Léna-Bleynie-Metge had different fortunes. Indeed, if the first had to retire following an accident, the second, close to pain, nevertheless managed to reach the finish line in 13th place behind the sister car of Dorchy-Sourd-Haezebrouck.

As for the Volvo 240 Turbo from Delcourt-Dieudonné-Davit, for its first participation, it took an honest 15th place.

Lombardi-Francia-Tango’s Alfa Romeo GTV 6/Biesse won Division 2 by two laps ahead of Salam-Perrier-De Thoisy’s Luigi Racing with Belgians José Close, André Hardy and Manu Remion taking Toyota’s victory in the Division. 1.

At the end of this season, when Tom Walkinshaw will win the drivers’ title, the manufacturers’ title will however go to Alfa Romeo, whose GTV 6 won everything in Division 2.