Qualifying took place on Saturday 31st May on a hot sunny afternoon with ambient temperatures around 30 degrees Centigrade, all runners had previously taken part in a non-timed practise session in the morning. As with previous races this year the battle for pole position was a close one.
Peter Williams had undergone a trying time during the journey to Pau as his team's transporter suffered a tyre blow out causing them to arrive late on Friday afternoon but when Saturday came he was focussed on the job in hand and went out for pole position from the off. Peter was quick in the un-timed practise and used his knowledge of the circuit to good effect, (Peter was second in the 2002 FORCE race at Pau). Peter set off in his March 761 DFV and on his third qualifying lap set the time which sealed Pole Position for him with a time of 1:21.40sec.
Although he had not previously driven an F1 car at Pau, Wolf driver Mike Littlewood was quick from the off and set about bettering Peter's time  but although he came close, his 14th lap of qualifying netted him 2nd fastest time of 1:21.77sec. (only 0.37sec. slower than Peter).
Third fastest time went to Nico Bindels who was having his first race of 2003 with FORCE in his Lotus 77 which was not sounding as crisp as usual, but this did not seem to hamper Nico as he set a time of 1:24.46sec. on his 8th lap.
Fastest of the F2 cars came 4th quickest in qualifying as Sid Hoole's 12th lap of qualifying was timed at 1:24.47sec. (only 0.01sec. slower than Nico's Lotus F1). Sid really was putting the cat amongst the pigeons, his ex. Rolf Stommelen Brabham BT36 proving quick and nimble, in fact the ideal car to have around what was in it's heyday an F2 circuit.
Following Sid came Terry Sayles in 5th place in qualifying with a time of 1:26.31sec. in his ex. Brambilla Surtees TS 20. Terry had a very busy week leading up to Pau as he had to rebuild his transmission after the failure of an output shaft from the differential caused his early retirement from the Donington event the previous week. Lorina McLaughlin was 6th quickest in her ex. James Hunt McLaren M23 setting a time of 1:28.08sec. on her 14th lap. Frank Lyons set 7th quickest time with 1:28.52sec. in his McLaren M26 (which James Hunt moved into after winning the 1976 Championship in Lorina's car).  Graham Willcox set the fastest A2 class qualifying time in his McLaren M14A with 8th quickest time of 1:29.27sec.
Peter Wunsch proved to be very quick in his ex. Jackie Stewart BRM P261 (which was giving away almost 1 litre in engine capacity to the other F1 cars), Peter set a time of 1:30.69sec. in his wingless V8 car from 1966 to qualify 9th on the grid.
The top ten was rounded out by Peter Austin in his ex. Mike Hailwood Surtees TS 9B who set a time of 1:30.88sec. on his 13th qualifying lap.
Nick Rini was running his F1 BRM P160 at the Pau event for the 3rd year in succession and he set a time of 1:31.93sec on his 4th lap to take 11th place on the grid ahead of F2 runners; John Bladon (1:34.71sec.), David Brown (1:44.39sec.), Paul Busby in his beautiful Cooper T82 resplendent in it's Jo Siffert red and white livery (1:51.41sec.) and Judy Lyons (1:55.66sec.).

Judy Lyons split her qualifying session between her Surtees F1 car and an F2 Merlyn but decided to race the F1 car in both races. By the end of qualifying, no one had suffered any major problems so all cars would take the start on Sunday morning. 


Race 1 (15 Laps) Sunday 1st June (10:55am)

All cars assembled on the 1 by 1 staggered grid and waited for the off. The start was to be as the red lights went out (having come on one by one until all were red), as with current  Grand Prix racing.
The delay between the last red light coming on and the the lights going out caught out Nico Bindels who anticipated the start and set off before the others moved! Nico jinked around the inside of pole sitter Peter Williams to dive through a closing gap to lead into the "Virage de la Gare" chased by Peter, Mike Littlewood, Sid Hoole and the rest all in hot pursuit.
As the cars reappeared at the end of lap 1, Nico Bindels "led" from Mike Littlewood, Sid Hoole, Terry Sayles, Lorina, Frank Lyons, Peter Wunsch, Graham Willcox, Peter Austin, Nick Rini, John Bladon, David Brown, Paul Busby and Judy Lyons. Where was Peter Williams?, sadly Peter was out after only half a lap as his left hand drive shaft snapped at the top of the hill as he braked for "Pont Oscar", the car glanced the barrier but fortunately Peter managed to bring the car to a stop without much damage or causing much disruption to the following pack. Peter climbed out and watched the rest of the race from a resident's garden.

As the pack returned to complete lap 2 Nico still led from Mike Littlewood (who was now hounding Nico), Sid Hoole was  3rd , Terry Sayles 4th, but Frank Lyons was now 5th, Peter Wunsch was 6th and Lorina had dropped back to 7th her engine sounding  as though a misfire had manifested itself. 
As Nico passed the pits he was signalled to come in on the next lap by the officials, (to take a stop / go penalty for the jumped start).
So it was that on lap 3, Mike Littlewood led the race as Nico headed for the pits for his penalty, with Sid Hoole's Brabham F2 car now 2nd! ahead of Terry being chased hard by Frank in 4th, Peter Wunsch 5th, Lorina 6th followed by the dicing A2 class runners, Graham Willcox 7th, Peter Austin 8th and Nick Rini 9th all of them nose to tail!
 On lap 4, Frank Lyons was caught out on a slippery patch in his efforts to get on terms with Terry Sayles as they braked for "Pont Oscar", he spun around and the car beached itself up on the curb, just around the corner under the bridge broadside on to all following cars who fortunately managed to avoid his car! Also during lap 4, Peter Austin took Graham Willcox for 7th place as Graham's car was suffering fuel vapourisation and began to cut out and back in repeatedly on the climb up the hill.
As the cars completed lap 4 Nico Bindels who had taken his stop / go penalty had climbed back through the field to hold 4th place behind Terry Sayles.

Frank's dangerous position resulted in the safety car being deployed on lap 5 to enable the marshals to move his car in relative safety. The safety car picked up Mike Littlewood on lap 6 and for 2 laps the field closed up behind Mike, all holding position. On lap 7 David Brown called at the pits, but was quickly back on his way and due to the safety car period held his position.
On lap 8 the Safety Car came in and racing resumed, with Mike Littlewood's Wolf still in the lead from a hard charging Sid Hoole, Terry Sayles, Nico Bindels (now in the Surtees driver's wheel tracks), Peter Wunsch, Peter Austin, Lorina, Graham Willcox, Nick Rini, John Bladon, David Brown, Paul Busby, Judy Lyons and Frank (who had managed to restart his car and was back in the race).
On lap 10 Nico Bindels proved he was a man on the move by first deposing Terry Sayles for 3rd place under braking for "Virage de la Gare", and then by out dragging Sid Hoole for 2nd place on the down hill run back to the pit straight. Further back, Frank Lyons was now back into his race rhythm and was working his way back through the field.
On laps 12 and 13 Nico seemed to be reeling in Mike Littlewood but on lap 14 Mike responded to the challenge to hold a respectable gap between himself and Nico to the flag.
On lap 13 Nick Rini used the power of the BRM V12 to his advantage by racing side by side down the pit straight with Graham Willcox before taking the advantage and moving ahead into 8th place under braking for "Virage de la Gare".
At the flag, Mike Littlewood took the win in John Fenning's Wolf WR 1 from Nico Bindels Lotus 77 in second, Sid Hoole in 3rd in his F2 Brabham BT 36, (Sid had dropped back from the leading pair in the later 3rd of the race as he had lost 2nd gear when a split pin worked loose and jammed the selector).
Terry Sayles finished 4th in his Surtees with Peter Austin 5th, Lorina 6th, Peter Wunsch 7th, Nick Rini 8th, Graham Willcox 9th and John Bladon rounding out the top ten finishers in 10th place. David Brown was 11th, one lap down with Frank Lyons 12th, 2 laps down ahead of Paul Busby and Judy Lyons.
 
Mike Littlewood took fastest race lap in addition to the win with a time of 1:21.276 sec. (122.250 km/h) which he set on the last lap of the race.
 

Race 2 (15 Laps) Sunday 1st June (15:06)

The grid assembled in the finishing order of race 1 but we were lacking the Surtees of Peter Austin and the BRM of Nick Rini, both of whom had to leave soon after race 1. 
Peter Williams was a non starter due to his drive shaft breakage in race 1 which was made worse by the organisers initially trying to tow the stricken car back to the paddock after the race. Peter had requested the car be lifted onto a flat bed truck, but the organisers being watchful of delays between races decided it would tow. Peter was proved to be right as shortly after they started back for the pits, the broken drive shaft pulled out and the wheel came adrift and set off for the pits on it's own! Peter got his flat bed truck (as requested), to take his now 3 wheeled March back to the paddock! 

The cars returned to the grid from the green flag lap with Mike Littlewood and Nico Bindels forming the "front row" of the staggered one by one grid and as the lights went out it was Mike who forged ahead in the Wolf from the Lotus of Nico, with Sid Hoole, Terry Sayles, Lorina and Frank Lyons (making his way quickly through the field from 12th place to 6th by the first corner),  leading the field into the "Virage de la Gare" for the first time.
Sadly one driver who did not join them in the dash for the first corner was John Bladon whose class B1 winning Merlyn snapped a drive coupling on the line as he fed in the power and he was forced to drive slowly into the pit lane opening, his weekend was over.
As the cars returned from their first lap, Mike Littlewood led from Nico, Sid Hoole, Terry Sayles and a pair of dicing McLarens, Lorina's M23 and Franks M26 raced side by side down the pit straight but Frank got the verdict and moved ahead of Lorina into 5th place. Peter Wunsch followed in 7th place ahead of Graham Willcox 8th, David Brown 9th, Paul Busby 10th and Judy Lyons 11th.

On lap 3 Frank began to chase down Terry Sayles, moving closer and closer with each lap until on lap 5, Frank's nose was almost under Terry's Surtees' rear wing then on lap 6 Frank dropped back slightly but when the two arrived at the right handed hairpin at the top of the climb up to the casino (Palais Beaumont) on lap 7, Frank dived for the inside line causing Terry to drive wide and Frank's McLaren was through into 4th place.
One lap earlier (lap 6) Graham Willcox moved his McLaren M14A ahead of Peter Wunsch's BRM at the same corner to move up to 7th place.
On lap 8 Judy displaced Paul Busby from 10th to move up in her Surtees TS 9 and Terry in his TS20 was fighting back and getting on terms with Frank, this one would run and run as the race progressed!
 All attention now was on the fight for 2nd place as Sid Hoole had stealthily moved up on Nico's Lotus 77 F1 car and was making up time in the "twisty bits" where the nimble F2 Brabham had the edge. On lap 10 Sid was with Nico, one lap later they crossed the line nose to tail after Sid had pulled up alongside Nico as they braked for the "Virage Foch" (the down hill esses through the park).
The next lap, (lap 11), Sid went for it at the same place as they braked for the esses. Sid dived down the inside of the Lotus F1 car but unfortunately he caught the front wheel of his Brabham on the curb and although he had got his nose ahead of Nico for a split second, he spun 360 degrees. Nico avoided the spinning F2 car and was away in a now safe 2nd place. Sid got the car facing in the right direction, bump started the car and set off now in 5th place (as both Frank and Terry had passed Sid whilst he collecting the car up from his spin) but he did manage to hold off Lorina and the rest. 

Out at the front, Mike Littlewood had driven a copy book race to bring home John Fenning's Wolf WR 1 to win the second race as in the first, with Nico Bindels taking second at the flag ahead of Frank Lyons 3rd, Terry Sayles 4th (only just as he had the nose of his Surtees under the rear wing of Franks car as they crossed the line), Sid Hoole 5th, Lorina McLaughlin 6th, Graham Willcox 7th, Peter Wunsch 8th, David Brown 9th, Judy Lyons 10th and Paul Busby 11th. 
As with race 1 Mike Littlewood took the fastest overall race lap with a time of:1:22.469sec. (120.481km/h). 
 

Don't miss it, be there!

Index of Pictures:

1. Mike Littlewood dives into "Virage de la Gare" on his way to winning both races at Pau in John Fenning's ex. Jody Scheckter Wolf WR 1 DFV.

2. Nico Bindels took two second places in his ex. Gunnar Nilssen Lotus 77 DFV.

3. Terry Sayles (ex. Vittorio Brambilla Surtees TS 20 DFV) leads Frank Lyons (ex. James Hunt McLaren M26 DFV) early in race 1.

4. Lorina McLaughlin (ex. James Hunt McLaren M23 DFV) leads Frank Lyons (ex. James Hunt McLaren M26 DFV) and Peter Wuensch (ex. Jackie Stewart BRM P261) passed the pits early in race 2.

5. Sid Hoole driving his F2 ex. Rolf Stommelen Brabham BT 36 FVA took the F2 Class wins in both races and challenged Nico Bindels hard in both races for 2nd place overall. He is seen here passing David Brown's Brabham BT 23C BDA F2 car.

Pictures Courtesy of PAJ Photography.

Ian Woodhouse on behalf of The FORCE.