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Saturday 18th August, Kaldenkirchen, World Championship
Report from Short Circuit Magazine, September 1979
Eight British drivers made the trip to Germany for the World
Championship at Kaldenkirchen on August 18th. A notable absentee
was Basil Craske who refused to travel with the German organisers
had stated that engine noise could not be above 90 decibels.
As Craske is unable to get his engine below 120 he thought
it pointless to travel.
Henk Hanssen had his dream come true when he drew pole position
in the public draw whereas Jan van Rengs was right at the
back having drawn 19. Mick Bonner has the best draw for the
British drawing grid 3 with Alan Fretten (5), John Lowe (8),
Brian Harding (10), Geoff Hughes (11), Harold Lowe (12) driving
a Lotus TC supplied by Vulcan Engineering, Derek Johnson (15)
and Dan Hornby (17).
Drama started as early as the warm up lap
when Henk Hanssen found that he had a fuel leak which was
tracked to the petrol filter. Poor Henk was forced to retire
and had to watch his World crown slip away. Mick Bonner moved
up to take pole position.
As the flag dropped Mick Bonner stormed into
the lead obviously realising that this was his chance to build
up a big lead. By lap three Mick had a straight between himself
and second place man Norbert Fleuren. Derek Johnson was coming
though the pack very fast making it up to third place by lap
eight but he had Jan van Rengs right on his tail. Van Rengs
was pressing Johnson hard and they had soon caught Fleuren
to make it a three way battle. Van Rengs challenged Johnson
down the back straight on lap 25 but Johnson left his braking
very late to pass van Rengs and Fleuren in one move to take
second place.
Johnson was still a quarter of a straight
behind Bonner at this point but four laps later there was
a tight battle fro the lead between Bonner, Johnson and van
Rengs. Mick Bonner was driving his heart out to stay in front
of the more powerful cars and also being handicapped by a
leaking brake cylinder. Van Rengs soon found a way past Johnson
going under him on the pit bend to take second but Johnson
was having none of this and he retook van Rengs on the next
bend. On the next lap though van Rengs used all of his VW
Scirocco power to pass Bonner and Johnson in one go to take
up the lead. From then on it was van Rengs all the way and
he went on to open up a lead of half a lap by the end to take
the World crown to add to his European. The only other significant
place change was when Derek Johnson took Mick Bonner for second
place on lap 39. It was a good performance by the British
drivers taking two out of the top three places.
Result: 1st Jan van Rengs (grid 19), 2nd
Derek Johnson (grid 15), 3rd Mick Bonner (grid 3), 4th Norbert
Fleuren (grid 7), 5th Henk van Rengs (grid 4), 6th John Lowe
(grid 8)
Henk Hanssen made up for the disappointment
the previous day by winning both of the heats on the Sunday.
The final was yet again won by the unbeatable Dastle/Scirocco
combination of Jan van Rengs winning easily from Norbert Fleuren
and Henk Hanssen. Mick Bonner finished fourth with Brian Harding
fifth.
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