Italian Night Time Showdown for FIA GT3

After two thrilling races at Silverstone, the teams and drivers competing in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship head to Italy for the first visit by the series to the Adria International Raceway near Venice.  The 2.7km circuit is one of the most technically demanding on the 2009 calendar and, in another first for the FIA GT3 European Championship, will also feature a night race on Saturday evening.

Last week at Silverstone, the opening round of the 2009 championship saw 37 cars line up to take the start behind the AutoGT Racing Morgan of Dimitri Enjalbert, who claimed Morgan’s first ever GT3 pole position.  Enjalbert lost the lead to the Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Thomas Accary on the run into the first corner but fought back at Maggotts to emerge onto Hanger Straight back in front.  Accary had to fend off the attentions of the two Audi’s of Christopher Mies (Team Rosberg) and Nicolas Armindo (Team Rosberg).  After the pitstops Johan-Boris Scheier in the leading Morgan was caught and passed by Christopher Haase in the Team Rosberg Audi.  However the young German was denied a debut win by a transmission failure six laps from home and victory went to the Morgan, the manufacturer’s first international win since 1962 at Le Mans and a first for AutoGT Racing.

Race 2 also saw a Morgan on pole position, with Maxime Martin leading the rest of the field for the second 60-minute race of the weekend.  Martin and Gael Lesoudier never lost the lead, claiming a dominant lights-to-flag victory, but the minor podium places were decided by plenty of on-track action. Christopher Mies and Christopher Haase claimed second as the chequered flag fell, making up for the loss of the win in the earlier race.  Nicolas Armindo and Thomas Accary fought right to the flag for the final podium place, with Armindo getting the Phoenix Racing Audi alongside the Hexis Racing Aston Martin at the last corner, crossing the line with the narrowest of margins.

Gael Lesoudier and Maxime Martin (#101 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport) are tied at the top of the championship table with Thomas Accary and Julien Rodrigues (#3 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9) on 13 points.  Nicolas Armindo and Cesar Campanico (#32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS) are one point behind the leaders on 12 points, with victory in race one putting Dimitri Enjalbert and Johan-Boris Scheier (#100 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport) on 10 points in 4th place.

With the introduction of success ballast into the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship two of the leading cars will have to carry extra weight in Adria.  The #3 Aston Martin DBRS9 will have an extra 5kg and the #32 Audi R8 LMS will have to carry an extra 20kg in Italy following the combined Silverstone results.

The Fischer Racing Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and Florian Gruber was the top Ford at Silverstone, finishing just off the podium in the pairings debut FIA GT3 race. There was disappointment for the 2008 FIA GT3 team champions Matech GT Racing but the driver pairings of Eric de Doncker and Dino Lunardi and Thomas Mutsch and Walter Salles are sure to be in contention in Italy.

The three Porsche teams had strong performances at Silverstone and will be contenders once again at Adria, a circuit that should suit the nimble Porsche.  Two points scoring finishes for Tim Bergmeister and Jaromir Jirik put the pairing in the #18 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S in 6th place overall in the championship.

Claudia Hürtgen and Csaba Walter gave the brand new BMW Alpina B6 GT3 a solid start on its FIA GT3 debut.  The Alpina-run car finished in the points in both races and the team left the UK with a lot of race data to improve the cars ahead of the races in Adria.

The Ferrari 430 Scuderia cars were slightly off the pace at Silverstone but the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari of Phil Quaife and Robert Hissom led the way on the team’s FIA GT3 debut to lead the Ferrari manufacturer’s cup.

Zakspeed had a roller coaster weekend with the new Viper Competition Coupe.  Sascha Bert and Wido Roessler were one of the quickest driver pairings in free practice and this translated into a good race pace during the second race of the weekend.  However a racing incident on lap 17 between Bert and the #1 Matech Ford GT of Thomas Mutsch at Stowe while fighting for 5th place put the Viper out of the race. 

The top Corvette of the Silverstone weekend was the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R GT3 of Luca Pirri and Diego Alessi.  However late changes to the balance of performance regulations for the car meant that the Corvettes struggled for race pace and while Pirri briefly led in race 2 at the pitstops after running in the top 3 for the first half of the race, Alessi struggled for grip in his Michelin tyres and slowly slipped back to finish 8th at the chequered flag and claim the final championship point of the weekend.
 
Eleven different manufacturers will be represented on the FIA GT3 grid at Adria, with a total of 40 GT3 cars due to compete in the first two 60-minute races for the FIA GT3 European Championship ever held at the Italian circuit.  Round 3 is due to start at 16:45 on Saturday 16 May with Round 4 due to begin at 22:30 on the same day.  Qualifying for the two races will also take place on Saturday 16 May at 11:15.  Live television coverage is available around the globe and details can be found on the official championship website at www.fiagt3.com where live streaming of the race can also be found.

CLICK HERE to see the entry list for Adria

2009-05-08
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