Weekly Racing Roundup (9.26.22)

Caldarelli Clinches Second GTWC America Title

Andrea Caldarelli secured his second consecutive Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS drivers’ title by sweeping the penultimate round of the season at Sebring alongside his K-PAX Racing co-driver Michele Beretta.

Caldarelli left Florida with an unassailable lead in the standings, while Lamborghini squad K-PAX also sewed up the Pro teams’ title ahead of next month’s final round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Beretta led the opening stint of Race 1, which featured an early safety car after Chandler Hull and Erin Vogel came together at the rear of the pack.

The driver of the No. 1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo gradually extended his lead to more than 10 seconds over Turner Motorsport BMW driver Michael Dinan, who came under pressure from Beretta’s K-PAX teammate Misha Goikhberg.

Caldarelli built on Beretta’s strong start to win by 25 seconds, while Dinan’s co-driver Robby Foley did well to take second against pressure from Jordan Pepper in the No. 3 Lamborghini and Manny Franco in Conquest Racing’s Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020.

Race 2 featured an all-Ferrari front row, with Franco’s driving partner Alessandro Balzan leading away from Triarsi Competizione’s Ryan Dalziel and the two K-PAX Lamborghinis driven by Pepper and Caldarelli.

K-PAX took the lead during the pit cycle, as Beretta emerged ahead of Justin Wetherill in the Pro-Am Triarsi Ferrari.

Goikhberg dropped to sixth and, after moving ahead of George Kurtz, joined a close scrap with Franco and Wright Motorsport’s Charlie Luck. With eight minutes to go, Luck made a braking move inside Wetherill at Turn 3 and was followed by Franco and Goikhberg.

Franco and Goikhberg then overtook Luck, establishing their cars in second and third behind Beretta who took another clear win alongside champion Caldarelli.

RESULTS: Race 1 /  Race 2 

Le Mans Cup Champions Determined at Spa

Tom Dillmann and Alexander Mattschull were confirmed as the Michelin Le Mans Cup champions by finishing sixth in Saturday’s wet and wild race at Spa-Francorchamps.

The drivers of the No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320 Nissan moved 34 points clear of Reiter Engineering’s Freddie Hunt and Mads Siljehaug, who placed second after a final-lap overtake dramatically swung the race in favor of Graff Racing.

David Droux made the decisive pass down the inside of Siljehaug’s Ligier at Stavelot to take victory alongside Luis Sanjuan.

The wet race started under sefety car conditions and Hunt led the LMP3 field away when green flag running commenced with an hour and 35 minutes left on the clock.

Jerome de Sadeleer climbed to second for MV2S Forestier Racing after passing Sanjuan and Torsten Kratz, while a second safety car for ANS Motorsport’s Ligier finding the gravel kept the front-runners together.

Kratz returned his WTM Racing Duqueine D08 Nissan to second at Les Combes just after the restart, but was in turn pushed back down to third by a charging Laurents Hoerr who advanced DKR Engineering’s Duqueine from 27th on the grid to second.

Siljehaug took over the leading Ligier from Hunt with an 18-second lead, which grew to around 30 seconds with Leo Weiss regaining second in the WTM car.

Weiss was then overtaken by Droux, who progressed from sixth to second in the Graff Ligier, before a safety car brought the Frenchman within Siljehaug’s range.

As Hoerr’s co-driver Jon Brownson dropped positions before spinning to cause a Full Course Yellow, Droux hunted down Siljehaug to take a dramatic victory, while Dillmann safely guarded sixth place to secure the championship alongside Mattschull.

GMB Motorsport earned the GT3 teams’ title, and an automatic invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, by sweeping the podium with its Honda NSX GT3 Evo22s.

Gustav Birch and Jens Reno Moller won by half a second from Jan Magnussen and Lars Engelbreckt Pedersen.

RESULTS: Spa-Francorchamps / LMP3 / GT3

Kimura, Cozzolino Win GTWC Asia in Dramatic Decider

Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura won the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS drivers’ championship after a dramatic title decider at Okayama.

The drivers of the Car Guy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 finished three points ahead of Triple Eight JMR’s Nick Foster and Prince Jefri Ibrahim, after the title rivals came together in the final race of the season. Car Guy also won the Japan Cup class title.

Cozzolino and Kimura finished second to Yogibo Racing’s Naoki Yokomizo and Kiyoto Fujinami in the opening race, and claimed the title by taking 12th in Race 2, which Tomonobu Fujii and Satoshi Hoshino won for D’station Racing.

Yokomizo made a strong start to Race 1 but his comfortable advantage was rescinded by a late-stint safety car due to Hiroshi Hamaguchi’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo coming to a halt.

The pit stop window started as the safety car occurred, but Yogibo kept its lead with Fujinami running around six seconds ahead of Kantadhee Kusiri in the AAS Motorsport Porsche.

Cozzolino, whose Ferrari had jumped the Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMGs in the pits despite serving a five-second success penalty, moved past Kusiri with 22 minutes to go but couldn’t forge a route beyond Fujinami who won by just under two seconds.

There was high drama at the beginning of Race 2 as Cozzolino was turned around by his GTWC Asia title rival Foster at Williams, which resulted in a safety car.

Foster, who continued for a while in second, was later handed a 100-second penalty that promoted BMW Team Studie, while Fujii led in the D’station Aston Martin that went on to take the victory.

Car Guy remained in the race despite a pit stop to assess the damage after its lap 1 clash, while Ibrahim slotted in behind Kimura after serving his car’s penalty.

They went on to finish 12th and 13th, ensuring that Cozzolino and Kimura came away from the weekend as champions.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2 / Standings

Marciello Takes Step Towards GT Masters Crown

Raffaele Marciello took a significant step towards the ADAC GT Masters title by out-scoring his closest challengers in the penultimate round of the season at the Sachsenring.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver twice finished second at the MotoGP venue alongside Daniel Juncadella to establish a 42-point lead heading into the Hockenheim decider.

Drago Racing Team ZVO swept the Sachsenring weekend with its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos.

The first 60-minute race saw Jules Gounon — making his return to the wheel from a back injury — and Fabian Schiller take top honors, before Marvin Dienst and Jan Marschalkowski prevailed in Race 2.

Marciello had pole for the opening race but braked too late into Turn 1 and lost the lead to Schiller, who kept ahead of the Team Landgraf driver during the first stint.

Gounon remained ahead after the pit stops and went on to beat Juncadella by just over a second, while Marciello’s nearest title rivals Christian Engelhart and Ayhancan Guven dropped to fifth at the end due to a late puncture for their Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Things went from bad to worse for Engelhart and Guven at the start of Race 2, as their car was involved in a first-lap accident that resulted in retirement.

Marciello, meanwhile, took another second place with Juncadella to extend his points lead.

Christopher Mies led the early running, but the Land-Motorsport Audi driver fell out of contention due to a puncture after 11 minutes. That promoted fellow Audi factory driver Dennis Marschall, whose co-driver Kim-Luis Schramm led after the stops.

Late contact between Dienst and Schramm resulted in a puncture for the Rutronik Racing Audi and paved the way for a Mercedes-AMG one-two with Marciello in second.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2 / Standings

Optimum Keeps GT Open Close with Monza Win

Nick Moss and Joe Osborne maintained their International GT Open title chances by winning the second race of the penultimate International GT Open round at Monza.

The Optimum Motorsport McLaren pairing split the Oregon Team Lamborghini crews in the drivers’ standings and now sit four points behind new leaders Leonardo Pulcini and Benjamin Hites heading into the season finale at Barcelona.

It was a sub-par weekend for Kevin Gilardoni and Glenn van Berlo, who dropped from first to third in the championship after finishing seventh in Race 1 and retiring from Race 2 with a mechanical failure.

GT Open debutant Dinamic Motorsport won the first race with its Porsche Klaus Bachler and Riccardo Cazzaniga.

Cazzaniga was one of several drivers to go off the road during the first run to the Rettifilio chicane in damp conditions. The Italian went straight on, while three cars trundled through the gravel and Gilardoni was turned around in his No. 19 Lamborghini.

Yannick Mettler led out of the ensuing safety car, with Pulcini second and Cazzaniga fourth.

The order shuffled around as two further interruptions occurred during the pit window, with Bachler emerging as the leader and Mettler’s SPS Automotive Performance co-driver Dexter Mueller dropping to fifth.

Just behind Mueller, the Oregon Lamborghinis went side-by-side through the Rettifilio. As they did, the No. 19 of Van Berlo was clattered by Marcin Jedlinski’s out-of-control Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II which had collided with Janine Shoffner’s Mercedes-AMG.

The race was red-flagged with Dinamic in the lead, while all involved drivers walked away from the accident.

Race 2 took place in dry conditions, with Osborne taking an early lead that he was forced to relinquish to pole-sitter David Fumanelli for cutting the first chicane.

Bachler soon joined the entertaining fight and worked his way past both Fumanelli and Osborne, while the two Oregon Lamborghinis closed in.

Pulcini in the No. 63 Lamborghini rose to second after the pit stops, between Moss in the McLaren and Fumanelli’s co-driver Murat Cuhadaroglu.

Despite closing an eight-second gap, Pulcini was unable to get past Moss, who delivered his and Osborne’s third win of the year.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2

Other Racing Action

***George Kurtz clinched the GT America powered by AWS drivers’ title in the main SRO3 class by winning the first of two races at Sebring. The CrowdStrike CEO swept the weekend in his Riley Motorsports-prepared Mercedes-AMG, while Jason Harward and Mirco Schultis completed the podium on both occasions. Race 1 / Race 2

***Tim Heinemann will take a 50-point cushion into the DTM Trophy season finale after the Ring Racing Toyota driver finished 12th and second in last weekend’s races at the Red Bull Ring. Team Project 1’s Colin Caresani won the opener but retired from Race 2 after his BMW M4 GT4 developed a fuel pump failure. Rodrigo Dias Almeida took his first DTM Trophy win for Muecke Motorsport. Race 1 / Race 2

***Conquest Racing’s Michai Stephens and Gavin Sanders dramatically won the first Pirelli GT4 America race at Sebring after Stevan McAleer’s leading RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR encountered an issue at the final corner. McAleer and Eric Filgueiras achieved redemption in the second race by taking a clear 23-second victory that boosted their status as title favorites. Race 1 / Race 2

***ADAC GT4 Germany held its penultimate round of the season at the Sachsenring, where Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse won both races to generate a 20-point lead in the drivers’ standings. The PROSport Aston Martin pair beat three Doerr Motorsport Aston crews in the second race, as the British manufacturer took a 1-2-3-4 result between two of its customer teams. Race 1 / Race 2

***Zhuzhou International Circuit hosted the second round of the China Endurance Championship season, which went the way of Harmony Racing’s Ferrari driven by Alex Liang, Charles Leong and Alexandre Imperatori. Results

On this weekend: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta), Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup (Barcelona), Super GT (Autopolis)