No luck for Irish Lola duo in Turkey

Classic Endurance Series: Istanbul November 12/13

The final Classic Endurance Series race of the season provided the first historic racing at the stunning new grand prix circuit at Istanbul. On track the Lola T212 of Kevin McGarrity /Martin Birrane led until cruelly running out of fuel on the last lap, handing victory to John Sheldon’s Chevron B16.

Fresh from winning the Tour of Spain a week earlier in his Lotus Elan, Sheldon took over the lead on the final lap of the hour-long race to wrap up another victory. He finished comfortably clear of the Lola T70 of Bernard Thuner, which is owned by Turkish enthusiast Claude Nahum. Into third went the Porsche 908 of Swiss racer Jean-Marc Luco, who switched to the 908 for the race rather than running his regular 917.

A fine Porsche 911 RSR battle raged for most of the race in the GT category, with victory finally going to the car of Giuseppe Lucchini/Frederic Dor from the similar 911 of Yah-Man/Alex Caffi.