Lavaggi/Filiberti lead away at the start.

The second BMS Ferrari was the only retirement.

Zadra/Peter nearly caught the winning Lola on the last lap.

The Brums team took pole position but lost 2nd gear during the race.

SRWC : Kyalami : Lola Beats the Ferraris
26.11.00

With a dramatic win in the final round of the Sports Racing World Cup, Gary Formato and Ralf Kelleners gave the Kremer Lola team their first international sportscar vicotry since the 1997 1000 km of Monza.

After getting ahead of pole-position holder Nicolas Filiberti in the GLV Brums Ferrari, Formato built up a healthy lead before handing the Lola over to Kelleners.

In the final moments of the two-and-a-half hour race, with a 50 second lead over the Zadra/Peter BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari, the Kremer Lola suddenly developed a fuel pickup problem. With three minutes to go, Kelleners made a pit stop, hoping to cure the problem. He came out 20 seconds ahead of Marco Zadra, but the problem persisted, and throughout the final lap, he struggled to keep ahead of the charging Italian. Kelleners finally crossed the line with a four-second lead over the BMS car, to give Kremer their first SRWC win.

Third place went to Nicolas Filiberti and Gianni Lavagii in the GLV Brums car. After taking pole and leading for the early laps, their Ferrari 333 SP lost second gear on the 12th lap, and the team struggled thereafter, finishing 40 seconds behind the leaders. Fourth place went to the Panoz of Nielsen and Elkard.

Victory in the Sports Racing Lights category went to newcomers Stanley Dickens and Fredrick Ekblom in the Lola B2K/40, finishing a lap ahead of newly crowned champions Smithson and Owen in the Redman Bright Pilbeam Nissan.

For Ferrari the failure to win this race mattered not - both the drivers' as well as the teams' championships had already been won at earlier rounds. Whether such a double can be achieved next season with the seriously ageing 333 SP remains doubtful, maybe we have seen the passing of this most elegant sports Ferrari as has already happened in the various USA sportscar series'.

Next season the SRWC will be reborn as the FIA Sportscar Championship.

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