Siam Siassi finished 8th overall Grand Prix Age d’Or Dijon- Sixties Endurance Race
As 4 o’clock approached on the Saturday 6th of June 2014, any spectator who merely expected to see a gentle parade of fabulous old cars in the Sixties Endurance was in for a big surprise. A full grid of 58 cars lined up for the 120 minutes race put on by Peter Auto: a historic race that perfectly recalled the 1949-65 era of the French endurance classic.
With the Jaguar Etype of Carlos Monteverde and Shelby Cobra of Yvan Mahe taking their places on the front row for the rolling start, it seemed that the battle between Cobras and Jaguar Etype was about to start. The first two rows of the grid were covered by just 2 seconds and a cracking race lay ahead between Siamak Siassi’s Jaguar Etype qualifying 4th and J.Minshaw‘s Jaguar Etype starting from 7th position in the grid.
From the front row, Carlos Monteverde’s Jaguar Etype put its nose ahead when the red lights went out, but Monteverde’s pole-sitting Jaguar had a narrow lead as they entered the first Chicane. Immediately behind, the action was frantic, with Y.Mahe pulling off a daring slide through the chicane to put his Cobra in second place. However, the action was only just beginning. The phenomenally fast qualifying speeds – Siamak Siassi’s Etype had averaged 141.3km/h to take second fastest Etype– were not possible in these conditions, but the action was still fast and furious. While Mahe slithered impressively towards a lead of 5 seconds on lap one, Monteverde pulled off with engine worries at 1st lap and headed slowly for the pits and retirement. Still the battle raged on unabated, with Minshaw coming under pressure from Siassi’s Jaguar, while both were doing an incredible job of mixing with the powerful Cobra front-runners. It was only after three laps that Minshaw had to retire as well leaving the space for Siassi’s Jaguar to continue the battle with Shelby front-runners.
Spectators then focused on the great battle for second place between Mahe, Caron, Merlin and Beverley, which was resolved in that order after much drama and overtaking. Among the GTS12 class winners, Siamak Siassi managed to bring his Jaguar Etype home in an impressive 8th overall and 7th in its class and 1st Eytpe finishing the race of two hours.
1) 1 Yvan Mahe Shelby Cobra 289, 1965
2) 130 Ludovic Caron Shelby Cobra 289, 1963
4) 22 Jean-Marc Merlin Shelby Cobra, 1963
5) 86 Andrew Beverley Shelby Cobra, 1963
6) 8 Claude Demole Shelby Cobra, 1965
7) 60 Jean-Marc Bussolini Porsche 904 GTS, 1964
8) 103 Siamak Siassi Jaguar Etype, 1963
9) 76 David Hart Shelby Cobra, 1963
10) 10 Pascal Pandelaar Porsche 911, 1964
