Lowe dares and wins

DAVE LOWE has followed Gilles Villeneuve by winning a race of gladiatorial proportions at the legendary Dijon track. Driving his Lotus 69, the Classic Formula Ford series stalwart came first and second in two races there.

One of Dijon's golden moments was the 1979 French Grand Prix that was won by the maverick Villeneuve after the last three laps saw the Canadian involved in a wheel-banging dogfight with Rene Arnoux.

Lowe's victory was nearly as epic as Villeneuve's 26 years ago as he found himself in second place on the penultimate lap and with all to do.

But at the start of final one, the Guernseyman executed a daring move just after the famous long straight to overtake the leader, James Hagan.

'I could tow off him down the straight and had a turn leading him for a couple for a couple of laps before he took me the same way later on. So I decided to wait until the last lap before trying again.' said Lowe.

'That worked and I led him all around and burst onto the straight for the last time and hugged the pit wall to take the flag with Hagan jammed under my gearbox, 0.105 of a second behind.'

'So first place and fastest lap was a good result for a first time.'

Set in the rolling hills just north of Dijon, the track rises and falls over its 2.044 miles and Lowe's last lap of 1min. 32sec. represented an average speed of 98mph with a top speed of 130 down the 1,100m straight.

The race had attracted 30 racers from around Europe that included five of Lowe's Classic Formula Ford competitors and four F3 cars.

These machines were always going to a handful for the Sarnian with their open exhausts and full racing tyres, but he was delighted to find himself on the front row next to Hagan who was in pole position after the qualifying laps.

The experienced Hagan used to race in the Classic FF series but he now spends these days racing on around the European circuit and has been to Dijon a number of times before.

At the start of the race, Lowe did exceptionally well to hold off one of the powerful F3 cars on the straight and then settled into second place behind Hagan.

He and Hagan then stretched out a gap between themselves and the pack and it was neck-and-neck stuff until Lowe pulled the narrowest of victories just before the chequered flag.

Hagan managed to get his revenge over Lowe the next day to take the top podium place in their class with Lowe taking second after starting in pole.

It was another nailbiter of a finish, after Lowe had waved Hagan past him on the sixth lap to see if his great rival could overtake a F3 car that was in the lead.

Hagan had used covert means to gain the advantage over Lowe.

'Overnight he gleamed out of me what car I was running and changed his to suit, so my advantage was lost,' said Lowe.

'I was starting from pole this time and led the first lap but the F3's power down the straight saw me lose it straight away on the start of two. I was quicker than him down the long sweeping corners before the start but just sat there until the braking area at the other end.

Halfway through the 12 laps, I waved Hagan ahead to see if he could take the F3 but he had the same problem, so it was stalemate and we had another blanket finish with Hagan being in front by a whole 0.112 of a second this time, with me reading the name on his gearbox.

'So I came away from Dijon with a first and second trophy on my first and certainly last visit to France.'