Lechner Porsche Pair Take Race One Win At Spa
Al Faisal Al Zubair and Andy Soucek brought Porsche back to an International GT Open victory in Race 1 today at Spa-Francorchamps. The duo of Lechner Racing mastered a race marked by two safety-car periods in the first stint and took the lead in the championship standings, six points ahead of Matteo Beretta-Frederick Schandorff (VSR Lamborghini), fifth after a fierce battle in the final laps.
A surprising second were America GT4 champions Michael Dinan and Robby Foley, at the wheel of the returning TF Sport Aston Martin, in their first-ever race in Europe.
Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy took third overall and their maiden Pro-Am win this season, at the wheel of the Inception Racing McLaren, reinforcing their class lead, in a day when their teammate Nick Moss suffered a crash at Les Combes.
In Am, Florian Scholze and Jens Liebhauser (AKM Mercedes) signed their second success of the year in Am.
Ollie Millroy took a perfect start and kept the advantage of the pole, while Schandorff from the second row overtook Soucek to take second.
Klien, Scholze, Dinan, Moulin and Paverud followed but there was an almost immediate safety-car as the two Polish stars of the GT Cup, Janosz and Lisowski tangled on the straight after La Source, with the Porsche of the former squeezed against the wall and left stranded without a wheel at Eau Rouge.
After three laps the race restarted, with Millroy solidly in the lead, ahead of Schandorff, Soucek, Klien, Scholze, while Moulin with a perfect move passed Dinan for sixth. The safety-car, though, was scrambled again after Nick Moss crashed at Les Combes, after losing the car in the left-hander and hitting the barriers.
The Brit walked away from the car and was conscious before being taken to Liège hospital for further checks. It took six laps to fix the barriers.
One lap after the restart, the driver change window opened. After all stops, Al-Zubair led by 5 seconds over Iribe, then Foley and Beretta, Nemoto, Spinelli and Tweraser. Foley and Beretta closed on Iribe, and the American passed him on lap 17, while Nemoto passed Beretta, followed right away by Spinelli. The fight between Nemoto, Beretta and Spinelli continued until the end, with the two Italians passing each other a couple of times, until a contact at the final pass through the chicane, saw Spinelli spin, Carroll and Liebhauser passing before he could recover.
GT Cup Open
Q1 by EMG Motorsport took a resounding 1-2-3 victory at home at Spa-Francorchamps in Race 1 of the second round of the GT Cup Open Europe. Filip Teunkens and Jaap Van Lagen won ahead of Jan Lauryssen-Bas Schouten and Nicolas Vadierendonck-Dirk Schouten, who also took win in the Am class.
It was a clear domination by the three Belgian-Dutch pairs, but it emerged after a race full of drama, which started with a collision with front-row racers Mateusz Lisowski and Artur Janosz in the downhill straight after La Source. The Porsche of Janosz (the fourth car of Q1) hit the wall and lost a wheel, remaining stranded in the grass at Eau Rouge, which prompted a safety-car period.
Lisowski led in the first stint ahead of Lauryssen, teunkens and Vandierendonck, while after the driver changes and handicaps, the battle was between Bas Schouten and Jaap Van Lagen, who eventually passed his countryman.
Fourth (and second in Pro-Am) was the Came car of Eugenio Pisani-Stefano Bozzoni, which preceded the 911 by ThreeSixty RT of Fernando Fontes, second in Am ahead of the other Brailian, Márcio Mauro.
The Transam Euro Mustang of Albert Estragués could not start after breaking the gearbox in practice.
21-06 GTO & GTC Race 1 Spa Result
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