When you ask Thierry Boutsen about the race of his life, he will mention the 1986 Spa 1000Km, for several reasons. Not only because of Boutsen winning the race, together with Frank Jelinski, at his home track in Belgium. Another reason was the fatal accident that Stefan Bellof suffered the year before. Boutsen teamed up with Bellof who was in the lead when he collided with Jacky Ickx. Boutsen could not have imagined a greater tribute to Bellof, than this victory which made it very emotional.
Brun Motorsport
In 1986, Thierry Boutsen shared the wheel of a Porsche 962C with Frank Jelinski for Brun Motorsport. Brun Motorsport was not a factory team. They had to buy parts from the factory and did not have the good engines the factory team used. That prevented the customer teams from begin too competitive. The parts the factory sold to the customer teams were the parts that went out of service for the factory team.
Start in pole position
The duo Boutsen/Jelinski set the best qualifying times on a wet track and started in pole position. Derek Bell and Hans-Joachim Stuck qualified 2nd in the Rothmans Porsche 962C. Jochen Mass and Bob Wollek started the race in the 2nd Rothmans Porsche 962C. Boutsen took the lead straight from the rolling start with Derek Bell, Jochen Mass and some other competitors close behind. Soon Jochen Mass had to come to the pits with a puncture and later lost about 5 laps due to a broken oil line to the turbo.
Jelinski, who had taken the wheel in the 2nd stint, led Hans-Joachim Stuck by 45 seconds. Stuck however closed the gap lap after lap, and by the 48th lap, the advantage of 45 seconds had disappeared. Thierry Boutsen took over the wheel again for the 3rd stint, where he had to fight Derek Bell with a gap of just over 6 seconds, but at the end of the 3rd stint, just 3 seconds remained. Engine troubles for the Rothmans Team, however, made Stuck rejoin with a minute down.
Boutsen remained in the seat for the 4th stint, maintaining a lead on Klaus Ludwig in a Porsche 956 at about 15 seconds. With just 30 minutes left in the race, the contest was between Boutsen, Hans-Joachim Stuck, and Derek Warwick in a Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-6 with a gap of only 30 seconds. Stuck had to slow down 5 laps before the end to make sure the fuel left would take him to the finish. Warwick flew past him and closed the gap with Boutsen at an astonishing rate of 3 seconds per lap.
Warwick was totally convinced he would overtake Boutsen. But when Warwick accelerated from the last corner, his engine died. Boutsen himself ran out of fuel himself too, but his car rolled over the finish line with an advantage of 0.8 seconds to Derek Warwick. Stuck finished third.
1986 Spa 1000km victory poster (Porsche factory)
Recommended literature
The victory at the 1986 1000 kms of Spa is just one of the many successes Brun Motorsport achieved. You can read all about this, and the many other successes in the Brun Motorsport (1966 – 2009) book, published by Sportfahrer Verlag. Find out more about this book in our review.
