Weekend Racing Roundup, 7.6

It was a busy weekend on circuits all over the world this weekend. Sportscar365’s Weekend Racing Roundup will update you on what happened in a number of international sports car and GT races in Europe and Asia.

ADAC GT Masters
Dominik Baumann and Jens Klingmann secured their second win of the season at the Lausitzring on Saturday. The BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert drivers became the first pairing to win two races this season. An oil spill caused a 12-minute long safety car period, before the race was stopped.

Almost an hour later the race was restarted with GW IT Racing Schütz Motorsport driver Martin Ragginger still leading. During the pit window the BMWs of Klingmann and Uwe Alzen passed the Porsche and Klingmann took the race win. Behind him Alzen and Andreas Simonsen battled for second place, with the Swede beating Alzen by 0.039 seconds in the end.

Championship leaders Asch and Ludwig won their second race of the season on Sunday. Corvette driver Keilwitz took the lead on the opening lap and teammate Andres Wirth was still in the lead after the pit stops. Asch put pressure on Wirth and took the lead on lap 26 when the Corvette driver made a small mistake. The Zakspeed Mercedes pulled away and won the race by 2.6 seconds.

Race 1 – 1. BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert (Baumann/Klingmann) BMW, 2. HP Racing (Proczyk/Simonsen) Mercedes, 3. BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert (Alzen/Hürtgen) BMW.

Race 2 – 1. Team Zakspeed (Asch/Ludwig) Mercedes, 2. Callaway Competition (Keilwitz/Wirth) Corvette, 3. GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport (Bachler/Ragginger) Porsche.

VLN
Team Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop BM Z4 GT3 of Michela Cerruti, Felipe Fernandes Laser and Jesse Krohn won one of the hottest races ever in the history of the VLN series. The trio secured the team’s first ever victory in a race that saw the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Lexus RC F GT3 make their debuts, with the Mercedes starting from pole.

Falken Motorsport finished in second place behind the Walkenhorst BMW, with the Frikadelli Porsche that won the previous round taking third place. A broken wheel bearing meant the Mercedes dropped out of contention, while the Lexus entries finished in 11th and 12th place after 28 laps.

Race – 1. Team Walkenhorst Motorsport (Cerruti/Laser/Krohn) BMW, 2. Falken Motorsport (Dumbreck/Imperatori) Porsche, 3. Frikadelli Racing (Schmitz/Abbelen/Huisman) Porsche.

FFSA GT Tour
Sacha Bottemanne, Benjamin Lariche and Nicolas Misslin won their first FFSA GT Tour race at Val de Vienne. Driving the No. 17 StratégiC Porsche, Misslin took the lead at the start. Teammate Bottemanne took over from Misslin, but lost the lead in the pits. Bottemanne fought hard to move back into the lead, before handing the car over to Benjamin Lariche for the final stint. Lariche kept Sébastien Dumez behind him and went on to take the team’s first win of the season.

Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers Mike Parisy, David Hallyday and Philippe Gaillard won their first race of the season, while the team scored its first victory since September of last year. Parisy lost the lead at the start to the Team Duqueine Ferrari. After the first round of stops Jean-Claude Police led, followed by Gaillard and the Ferrari and Audi were still first and second after the final stop. With just over 20 minutes remaining Hallyday passed Duqueine to take the lead and pulled away to claim the team’s first win of 2015.

Race 1 – 1. StratégiC (Bottemanne/Lariche/Misslin) Porsche, 2. IMSA Performance-Matmut (Narac/Dumez/Pernaut) Porsche, 3. AKKA-ASP (Moullin-Traffort/Giauque/Beaubelique) Ferrari.

Race 2 – 1. Sébastien Loeb Racing (Parisy/Hallyday/Gaillard) Audi, 2. Duqueine Engineering (Duqueine/Police/Beltoise) Ferrari, 3. Sport Garage (Cayrolle/Lemeret/Santamato) Ferrari.

International GT Open
AF Corse drivers Michele Rugolo and Pasin Lathouras won race one of the International GT Open series at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday. Rugolo started on pole, after the Teo Martin McLaren 650S GT3 was stripped of its pole. The Italian led from start until the pit stops, but a 10-second handicap penalty meant Lathouras rejoined behind the Lamborghini of Anton Nebylitskiy. On lap 39 Lathouras made the decisive move and took the lead. He finished five seconds clear of the Lamborghini.

Parente started the second race from pole, but the McLaren driver lost two positions to Alessandro Balzan and Raffaele Giammaria. Parente moved back in front of Giammaria, but was unable to catch the Villorba Corse Ferrari. Perez Companc inherited the lead when the Villorba Ferrari was slowed by a battery issue in the pits. Ramos was unable to keep up with the AF Corse driver and eventually finished ten seconds behind race winner Perez Companc.

Race 1 – AF Corse (Lathouras/Rugolo) Ferrari, 2. AERT (Nebylitskiy/Barba) Lamborghini, 3. Villorba Corse (Balzan/Benucci).

Race 2 – 1. AF Corse (Perez Companc/Giammaria) Ferrari, 2. Teo Martin Motorsport (Ramos/Parente) McLaren, 3. AF Corse (Cameron/Griffin) Ferrari.

Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup
Austrian driver Philipp Eng claimed pole position for the Silverstone round of the 2015 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and the Salzburg-born driver converted his pole into his first win of the season. The Market Leader Team by Project 1 driver beat Alex Riberas on the 5.891-km circuit, finishing 1.561 seconds ahead of the Spaniard after 13 laps. Germany’s Michael Ammermüller claimed third place at 4.318 seconds.

Porsche Juniors Matteo Cairoli, Sven Müller and Connor de Phillippi started the race from positions seven, eight and nine, but Müller and De Phillippi clashed on the first lap: Müller spun off, while De Phillippi dropped down to 24th place.

Race – 1. Market Leader Team by Project 1 (Philipp Eng), 2. The Heart of Racing by Lechner (Alex Riberas), 3. Lechner Racing Middle East (Michael Ammermüller)

Other Series
Round three of the Super Taikyu Series took place at Fuji this weekend. ARN Racing started from pole, but the Endless Advan BMW Z4 GT3 of Yuke Taniguchi, Kyosuke Mineo and Yuya Motojima won the race after eight hours.

The Euro Series by Nova Race teams competed at the Red Bull Ring where Marko Helistekangas and Fredrik Blomstedt won the first race with their Ginetta G50. Oliver Freymuth won race two in his Renault Mégane Trophy. The Swiss Team Maserati GT GT4 returned to competition in Austria.

DMV GTC teams raced at Hockenheim in races 7 and 8 of the 2015 season. Pertti Kuismanen’s Chrysler Viper GTS-R won the first race, with Jürgen Bender claiming victory in the second race of the weekend with his Corvette GT3