Weekly Racing Roundup (7.24.23)

Fagg, De Haan Take Second Win of GT Open Season

Charlie Fagg and Sam De Haan kept their International GT Open momentum going with a victory and a sixth place in last weekend’s round at Paul Ricard.

The drivers of the Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo left southern France with a single championship point in hand to Team Motopark’s Diego Menchaca and Marcos Siebert after both crews had solid events.

Fagg started Race 1 from second on the grid after he and Maximilian Paul posted identical lap times in qualifying.

The Oregon Team Lamborghini driver maintained his pole advantage through an early safety car caused by an accident for Kiki Sak Nana coming onto the Mistral Straight.

Optimum then moved ahead after the mid-race driver swaps, with De Haan possessing an eight-second cushion over Paul’s co-driver Pierre-Louis Chovet, however the gap came down as the second stint wore on.

Chovet got close enough to make a move on De Haan up the inside at Bendor, but contact resulted in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 spinning around. That enabled De Haan to take his and Fagg’s second win of the campaign, while Chovet ended up 15th.

The next 60-minute encounter saw Paul and Chovet make up for their Race 1 disappointment by taking victory from pole position.

Chovet led the opening stages but came under pressure from Eastalent Racing Audi driver Christopher Haase, who seized the lead just before the pit window with a move around the outside at Signes after bouncing over the curb on entry to the Mistral chicane.

Haase’s co-driver Simon Reicher took over the leading Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II but Paul maintained the pressure and regained the position when he drew alongside out of Virage du Pont before edging ahead into Turn 1.

Menchaca and Siebert completed the podium, adding to their second place on Saturday which saw them close the gap to series leader Fagg and De Haan by two points.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2

Ibrahim, Stolz Take GTWC Asia Lead at Motegi

Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Luca Stolz didn’t win either of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS races at Motegi but they still moved into the points lead courtesy of fourth and third-place finishes.

The drivers of the No. 88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo leapfrogged Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, whose Porsche 911 GT3 R had a challenging weekend.

Overall honors at Motegi went to Absolute Racing’s Andrew Haryanto and James Yu Kuai, who delivered Audi’s first win of the season, and the R&B Racing Porsche duo of Dennis Olsen and Wei Lu.

Inthraphuvasak was third in the early stages of Race 1, but the points leader was turned around by fellow Absolute Racing Porsche driver Jinlong Bao and then had an altercation with the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that yielded a drive-through.

Aside from helping Ibrahim and Stolz in the championship stakes, it also boosted the race day chances of the two Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs driven by Haryanto and leader Kang Ling that were running at the head of the field.

Haryanto pitted early in the pit window whereas Ling brought his Phantom Pro Racing Audi in towards the end, and the lead soon changed as Yu dispatched Cao Qi shortly after the stops.

The second race saw Olsen and Lu rebound from an earlier retirement by taking victory from second on the grid.

Olsen, who was promoted to the front row after a 10-place penalty for Inthraphuvasak and Alessio Picariello’s Porsche due to behavioral warning points, tailed Absolute Racing’s Matteo Cairoli with Stolz in third.

After the driver swaps, Lu applied pressure on Bao and moved ahead at Turns 3 and 4 with 15 minutes remaining. Ibrahim was also part of the battle but settled for third, although that was enough to leave Motegi with a nine-point lead over Inthraphuvasak.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2

Adam Equals Keen’s British GT Wins Record 

Jonny Adam equaled Phil Keen’s record number of victories in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship on the series’ first visit to Portimao.

Adam and James Cottingham won the three-hour race in their 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo after overcoming a 10-second success penalty in the pits.

Cottingham started from second on the grid behind local favorite Miguel Ramos but the GT3 order shuffled around during the first hour as pit stops took place during two safety car periods caused by GT4 cars.

After the second restart, Cottingham benefited from contact between Lucky Khera and Matt Topham to be on the tail of John Ferguson, whose RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG had jumped from seventh to second in the pits.

The leading car was the off-sequence Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, making Cottingham and Ferguson’s battle an important one in the overall stakes.

Cottingham eventually found a way past around the outside at Turn 13 and proceeded to build a gap to Ferguson that effectively overturned the 2 Seas car’s success penalty.

Adam then jumped in for the run to the checkered flag and, after a final safety car that bunched the field, the Scottish driver delivered his record-equaling win 3.2 seconds ahead of Rob Bell in the Optimum McLaren.

The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini duo of Sandy Mitchell and Shaun Balfe was third, ahead of Ferguson and Raffaele Marciello.

RESULTS: Portimao

Other Racing Action & News

***Two different Audi teams took victory during the fourth round of the Fanatec GT2 European Series season at Portimao. Henry Hassid and Anthony Beltoise prevailed in Race 1 for LP Racing, which claimed a one-two result with series founder Stephane Ratel in second. The next race went the way of PK Carsport’s Peter Guelinckx and Stienes Longin, who sit three points behind Hassid and Beltoise in the Pro-Am standings. Race 1 / Race 2

***Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand, operated by KCMG, will join the ADAC GT4 Germany grid at the Nürburgring next month with Brock Gilchrist and Rylan Gray sharing the wheel. KCMG has already run the Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo in the Nürburgring 24.

***Another new GT4 Germany entry is an additional Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for PROSport Racing, which is fielding German youngsters Leon Erger and Raphael Rennhofer for the rest of the season.

On this weekend: Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup (Nürburgring), Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS (Sydney)