Weekly Racing Roundup (8.13.18)

Juncadella, Di Resta Win in DTM’s Return to Brands Hatch

Daniel Juncadella scored his maiden DTM win in Race 1 while Paul Di Resta led a British 1-2 on Sunday as DTM returned to Brands Hatch and the UK for the first time since 2013.

The Spaniard held a 7.9-second lead to the line to score his first win in Saturday’s first race with his Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Remus car despite initially losing two positions at the start.

His first win came in his 67th DTM race and just a few weeks after securing his first podium finish at the Norisring. 

He finished ahead of Augusto Farfus who was on the podium for the first time since 2016 with his BMW Team RMG M4 DTM.

British drivers Di Resta and Gary Paffett finished first and second in Race 2 on Sunday in front of their home crowds although Paffett increased his points lead over the Scot with a stronger finish on Saturday.

Di Resta passed pole-sitter Paffett at the start and remained out front following a first-lap safety car to clean up an incident involving Farfus, Robin Frijns and Lucas Auer.

Paffett heads to Misano, where the series will hold its first ever night race, with a 29-point lead over Di Resta.

RESULTS: Brands Hatch

Lewis Closes Points Gap to Eversley With Double PWC TCR Win

Michael Lewis won the weekend’s pair of Pirelli World Challenge TCR races at Utah Motorsports Campus to close his points deficit to Ryan Eversley. 

Bryan Herta Autosport’s Lewis scored his third and fourth wins of the season driving the No. 98 Hyundai i30 N TCR, winning both races from pole.

Eversley’s points total of 225 is now just eight more than Lewis’ heading into the season finale at Watkins Glen in three weeks’ time.

The RealTime Racing driver finished third in both races in Utah, picking up a total of 42 points compared to Lewis’ 52. 

Mark Wilkins was classified second on both occasions, giving BHA a pair of 1-2 results and maximum championship points. 

Wilkins will also be in the title hunt at Watkins Glen, heading into the weekend 25 points behind.

RESULTS: Race 1; Race 2

Vanthoor, Engelhart Win 24H Zolder

Dries Vanthoor and Christian Engelhart were among the winning lineup in the 24 Hours of Zolder, driving a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup along with Niels Lagrange, Xavier Stevens and Lieven Goegebuer.

The Independent Racing-run car finished four laps in the lead after 806 laps of the Belgian circuit to give Porsche its 18th victory in the race.

They beat Belgium Racing’s similar Porsche with the GT cars ultimately proving more reliable than the CN prototypes that took command in the first half of the race.

The No. 1 Norma M20 FC of Aqua Protect Racing Team, which had Marc Goossens and Frederic Vervisch in its lineup, still managed to recover to third position after a crash for Goossens around midnight.

Vincent Wouters contributed to this report

News & Notes

***Sebastien Ogier has been announced as the latest DTM guest driver and will enter the Red Bull Ring round on Sept. 21-23. The five-time World Rally Champion will drive a Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM and is the third guest driver this season. He will follow Mattias Ekstroem who entered Hockenheim as his farewell weekend and Alex Zanardi who will make an appearance at Misano later this month.

***Marc Lieb will replace Kevin Estre at Team75 Bernhard in the ADAC GT Masters this weekend, with the Frenchman competing at Silverstone in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Lieb will join fellow former Porsche LMP1 driver Timo Bernhard in the Porsche 911 GT3 R for the pair of races at Zandvoort.

***Next Monday’s edition of the Weekly Racing Roundup will include a race report from the fifth VLN race of the season.