Weekly Racing Roundup (6.19.23)

Bingo Racing Callaway Corvette Takes Historic GTWC Asia Win at Fuji

Bingo Racing secured a landmark triumph with its Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS round at Fuji, marking the first Corvette win in SRO competition in more than a decade.

The duo of Shinji Takei and Akira Iida took victory by a narrow margin of 2.5 seconds over the No. 911 AAS Motorsport by Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak and Alessio Picariello.

It marked the first time the Callaway Competition-built car took victory in an SRO Motorsports Group-organized championship, while ending a Corvette win drought that dates back to the 2010 FIA GT3 Championship round at Portimao.

Takei started the race from pole position but dropped back to fourth position in the opening exchanges, which was interrupted by a safety car when the No. 992 Absolute Racing Porsche of Jinlong Bao spun and was collected by the CREF Motor Sport McLaren 720S GT3.

Once the race restarted, Bingo took advantage of the undercut during the mandatory to capture the race lead after which a challenge from the No. 47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 driven by Tomonobu Fujii came undone thanks to a one-second stop and go penalty.

A three-way scrap between Dennis Olsen, Alessio Picariello and Dennis Lind for the remaining podium positions then allowed Iida to maintain his advantage and take victory, while Picariello outmaneuvered Olsen at the end of the penultimate lap to seal second place.

Olsen’s No. 4 R&B Racing Porsche, which he shares with Wei Lu, finished third ahead of the No. 2 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Lind and Bihuang Zhou.

The No. 88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG, driven by Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Luca Stolz, was declared the winner of an incident-packed Sunday race after post-race penalties were applied to the first 13 cars that crossed the line.

Ibrahim and Stolz were provisionally classified 14th, but the crew was one of the few that heeded race control’s instruction to avoid an incident on the start-finish straight by passing through the pit lane during a third safety car period. The cars that didn’t follow the order had 30 seconds added to their race time in lieu of serving a drive-through penalty.

The No. 8 EMB Porsche of Setiawan Santoso and Reid Harker was classified second, ahead of R&B Racing’s Lu Wei and Dennis Olsen. Initially, D’station Racing was on course to complete the revised podium if not for an additional 10-second penalty for overtaking a competitor outside of track limits.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2

Gidley Loses GT America Weekend Sweep in Technical Infraction

Memo Gidley was stripped of his victory in Race 1 of GT America powered by AWS at Virginia International Raceway due to his TKO Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo not having a FIA-homologated catalytic converter.

The ruling was released more than eight hours after the completion of Race 2, which saw Gidley also take top honors in.

Gidley capitalized on a mechanical issue for the Race 1 pole-sitting No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Adam Adelson to take the lead just prior to halfway in Saturday’s 40-minute contest, which featured four full course cautions.

The race ended under yellow after an accident for the No. 427 Bartone Bros Racing by RealTime Mercedes of Anthony Bartone. Todd Treffert, in the second-placed No. 41 CRP Racing Mercedes, has been awarded the win in Race 1 retroactively.

Gidley, meanwhile, claimed a flag-to-flag win on Sunday in his TKO Mercedes after coming under early pressure from Bartone until the second-generation racer had a slight off-course moment.

Jason Daskalos finished second in Race 2 in his CRP Racing Mercedes, followed by the SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 ultra of Johnny O’Connell, who completed the overall and SRO3 class podium.

GT4 class honors in both races went to the No. 099 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Robb Holland.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2

Ferguson, Marciello Victorious in Four-Way Snetterton Scrap

The RAM Racing duo of John Ferguson and Raffaele Marciello took victory in Sunday’s second Intelligent Money British GT Championship race at Snetterton by a mere 0.042 seconds as the race concluded with a four-way battle for victory between Bronze-rated drivers.

Marciello started the No. 15 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from third and maintained the place, running behind Beechdean Motorsport’s Ross Gunn and fellow Mercedes-AMG factory driver Jules Gounon aboard the No. 1 2 Seas Motorsport entry.

The order remained the same after the mandatory stops, until Andrew Howard’s No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 received a one-second stop and go penalty for a minimum pitstop time infringement.

Ferguson then overtook Ian Loggie’s No. 1 Mercedes-AMG at Murrays, setting up what would eventually become a four-way scrap for victory as the No. 4 2 Seas Motorsport entry of James Cottingham also became involved.

Cottingham overtook stablemate Loggie round the outside at Riches to claim second before the No. 4 car put Ferguson under pressure in the closing stages of the race, resulting in a sprint to the flag that saw the pair of Mercedes-AMGs separated by just 0.042 seconds.

Loggie, meanwhile, held off a charging No. 67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Simon Orange to complete the podium as the entire top four was covered by just 0.7 seconds.

During the first race of the weekend, also held on Saturday, Barwell Motorsport took a lights-to-flag victory as the No. 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Shaun Balfe and Sandy Mitchell controlled the race from pole to win by 11 seconds.

The No. 91 Century Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 of Darren Leung and Dan Harper finished second, while a pair of McLarens fought for the final step on the podium,

The Optimum Motorsport duo of Mark Radcliffe and Rob Bell came out on top ahead of Sky Tempesta Racing’s Kevin Tse and Chris Froggatt.

Froggatt ran as high as second after the round of mandatory stops, but was overtaken by both Century’s Harper into Riches with 21 minutes remaining before losing third to Bell not much later.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2

BMW’s NLS Dominance Continues with Walkenhorst Win

BMW’s run of form at the Nordschleife continued as Walkenhorst Motorsport delivered the Munich marque’s fourth consecutive NLS win.

Kuba Giermaziek and Christian Krognes took victory by a margin of two minutes over Racing One’s new Ferrari 296 GT3, which received its series debut in the hands of Bjorn Groesmann, Luca Ludwig and Jonathan Hirschi.

The No. 34 BMW M4 GT3 started on the front row alongside the No. 5 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Frank Stippler, but lost second place in the opening corners to the No. 17 ProSport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mike David Ortmann.

Ortmann then took the lead as Stippler pulled into the pits before entering the Nordschleife with tire issues, while the No. 11 Schnitzelalm Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo took second place with a charging opening stint from Colin Caresani. Caresani’s race came to an end when the car stopped at the Caracciola Karussel roughly an hour into the race.

After Ortmann handed the No. 17 car over to Bronze-rated Maxime Dumarey, Walkenhorst gained the upper hand and came out on top to secure its second NLS victory of the season. Ortmann and Dumarey completed the podium, ahead of the No. 5 Audi driven by Stippler and Vincent Kolb.

RESULTS: RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen

Oregon Team Takes Last-Gasp Hungaroring GT Open Win

Maximilian Paul took a dramatic victory in the second of two International GT Open races at the Hungaroring, coming out on top in a contest that saw two lead changes in the final few corners.

Paul, who shared the No. 63 Oregon Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 with Pierre-Louis Chovet, ran in third position overall at the start of the final lap behind points leader Sam de Haan and AF Corse’s Nicola Marinangeli.

De Haan looked set to extend his points advantage aboard the No. 69 McLaren, were it not for a lunge from Marinangeli at turn 9, forcing De Haan off the track and allowing the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 through into the lead.

Paul then overtook Marinangeli around the outside through the final corner, beating the Italian to the flag by 0.287 seconds to claim Oregon Team’s first win of the season.

A post-race penalty dropped Marinangeli and Riccardo Agostini to fifth, promoting the Team Motopark duo of Diego Menchaca and Marcos Siebert to second while Al Faisal Al Zubair and Fabian Schiller completed the podium.

Al Zubair and Schiller had steered the No. 77 Mercedes-AMG to victory during the weekend’s first race on Saturday, thanks to a charging drive from the Mercedes-AMG factory ace.

The German driver moved from third to second place in the space of a lap, first capturing second place when Menchaca attempted to pass race leader Chovet through turn two. Instead Menchaca ran wide, allowing Schiller to slip through before the Mexican driver spun.

Schiller then completed on Chovet’s No. 63 Oregon Team Lamborghini a lap later to take the lead.

Chovet, sharing the car with Maximilian Paul, came across the line in second place but dropped to third behind the No. 23 Eastalent-Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase after a five-second penalty for having the engine on while refueling.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2

***Reinhard Kofler took his first overall race victory of the season in the Fanatec GT2 European Series round at Dijon, sharing the No. 17 True Racing KTM X-BOW GT2 with stand-in co-driver Martin Koch. Peter Guelinckx and Stienes Longin bounced back from retirement in the first race to win the second contest in the No. 1 PK Carsport Audi R8 LMS GT2. Race 1/Race 2

***Benjamin Lessenes and Ricardo van den Ende swept the weekend during the FFSA French GT round at Dijon. The French-Dutch pairing won both races aboard their No. 17 L’Espace Bienvenue BMW M4 GT4. Race 1/Race 2

On this weekend: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (Watkins Glen), DTM (Zandvoort)

John Dagys contributed to this report