Victory Number Two for Hexis in Germany

Thomas Accary and Julien Rodrigues gave Hexis Racing their second victory in a row with a lights-to-flag win at the Motorsports Arena Oschersleben.  The French team never lost the lead despite Accary having to defend his lead from Dino Lunardi in the Ford GT in the early part of the race and then Rodrigues had the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 of Christopher Haase bearing down on him in the last few laps.  However Rodrigues took the chequered flag 0.5 seconds ahead of Haase to celebrate his first ever FIA GT3 win and the first for his teammate since standing on the top of the podium at Nogaro last year.  Eric de Doncke brought the #2 Matech Ford GT for another podium finish, their first since winning the first race in Adria last month.

Round 5
With the #6 Calloway Competition Corvette of Luca Moro and Wolfgang Kaufmann, the #36 Zakspeed Racing Viper Competition Coupe of Sascha Bert and Wido Roessler and the #100 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport of Dimitri Enjalbert and Johan-Boris Scheier missing from the grid after qualifying, the 30 car field was led to the start by pole position holder Thomas Accary.  The pace car pulled off and Accary got a good start to lead into the tight first corner.  Dino Lunardi also got a good start in the Ford to move ahead of Christian Mamerow in the Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3 for second place.  The rest of the large field managed to make their way around the first two corners without incident with Lunardi stuck to the rear bumper of the leading Aston Martin.

On the opening lap Christoffer Nygaard (#28 Fischer Racing Ford GT) managed to make up a place at the expense of Nicolas Armindo (#32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS) for 4th place and Luca Pirri (#17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R) moved up two places to finish the opening lap in 8th.

On lap 4 Robert Hissom’s CRS Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia was pushed into a spin in Turn 2 by the Phoenix Racing Audi of Lloyd La Marca, leaving the Ferrari stranded next to the track and bringing out the waved yellows while the car was recovered.   The championship leading Morgan of Gael Lesoudier dropped back to 12th place when it was passed by the Kessel Racing Ferrari of Stefano Gattuso.  Lesoudier lost a further place three laps later when he was passed by Arnaud Peyroles in the #5 Callaway Corvette.

Meanwhile at the front the gap was being maintained at one second with Accary and Lunardi moving away from the third placed car of Christian Mamerow.  The lead gap suddenly shrank to less than 0.5 seconds on lap 6 as Lunardi attempted to move ahead of the Aston Martin, however the experienced Accary was able to defend his line in the corners that the Ford was faster and move ahead where the Aston was stronger.

David Ashburn was making steady progress through the field moving ahead of the #7 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Paulo Bonifacio to end lap 7 in 15th, four places higher than his start position.

As the pit window approached Accary and Lunardi were lapping less than one second of each other at the front of the field with third placed Mamerow dropping further behind in the BMW Alpina as Nygaard continued to try and more ahead.  On lap 14 the Dane made his move and the Fischer Racing Ford GT took third place.

The pit window opened at the end of lap 15 and cars further down the order started to come into the pits while the leaders continued to lap the 3.7 kilometre Oschersleben circuit. The leader came in for his mandatory pitstop on lap 21, handing over the car to Julien Rodrigues.  Dino Lunardi stayed out, leading the race until lap 24 before making his stop.  However the French driver had to avoid the #28 Fischer Racing Ford, now with Florian Gruber at the wheel, when smoke was seen coming from the engine back and the car spun off the track at Turn 11.  Lunardi was slightly delayed by this incident but came in at the end of the lap to hand over to the patiently waiting Eric de Doncker.

Rodrigues crossed the line as de Doncker exited the pitlane and it was the Hexis Racing Aston Martin that was ahead at the Ford got up to racing speed, but not by much.  However the Ford GT driver now had a problem as Christopher Haase, now driving the #26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8, closed the gap to the second placed driver.  The ensuing battle allowed Rodrigues to open a good gap at the front of the field before Haase finally had the opportunity to overtake the Ford at the last corner on lap 31.  Once released Haase started to chip into the lead by over one second a lap but time was rapidly running out.

Julien Rodrigues crossed the line with just 5 seconds on the clock to begin the final lap of the race, with Christopher Haase no less than two seconds behind the Aston Martin.  As the cars came round the final few corners the Aston Martin and the Audi were nose to tail but Rodrigues could feel the win and held on the take the chequered flag for the first time in FIA GT3 by just 0.5 seconds.  Eric de Doncker brought the Matech GT Racing Ford GT 5.6 seconds later, under two seconds ahead of the Team Rosberg Audi of Cesar Campanico.  Claudia Hürtgen was 5th to record the best result for Alpina in FIA GT3, 0.1 seconds ahead of the Callaway Corvette of Diego Alessi.  Thomas Mutsch scored two championship points for himself and Matech GT Racing and the final point was taken by Sean Edwards in the Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3. 

CLICK HERE for Round 5 Results

2009-06-21
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