Weekend Racing Roundup, 10.27

The Italian and French GT Championships as well as VLN wrapped up its seasons this past weekend. At Monza and Paul Ricard the championship was decided in the final race of the weekend. At the Nürburgring it was time for the 39th running of the DMV Münsterlandpokal. Details of the three events in this week’s Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup.

VLN
Not for the first time a VLN round was marred by bad weather at the Nordschleife. The final race got underway, but was red flagged after just two laps due to fog, while the Bentley Continental GT3 was leading and the Alzen Ford GT was in the pits for repairs.

Two hours later the race was restarted, with teams taking up their original grid order. Once more the Bentley took the lead before turn 1, but two pit stops in four laps took the Bentley out of contention for the win. The Manthey Racing Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki and Otto Klohs took the lead, followed by the Alzen Ford GT3 of Jürgen Alzen and Dominik Schwager. The Ford drivers closed the gap to the Porsche lap after lap, until taking the lead on lap 17 and pulling away immediately.

Schwager and Alzen went on to win the race, overcoming the problems earlier in the day. On the final lap the Frikadelli Porsche of Klaus Abbelen, Sabine Schmitz, Patrick Huisman and Frank Stippler passed the Manthey Porsche and took second place. Rolf Derscheid and Michael Flehmer, racing a BMW 325i in the V4-class, won the overall VLN title.

Race – 1. H&R Spezialfedern GmbH (Alzen/Schwager) Ford, 2. Frikadelli Racing Team (Abbelen/Schmitz/Huisman/Stippler) Porsche, 3. Manthey Racing (Klohs/Makowiecki) Porsche.

Italian GT Championship
The Italian GT Championship season finale was held at Monza. Heading into the final race of the weekend Audi Sport Italia drivers Thomas Schoeffler and Marco Mapelli led the championship by three points. The outcome of the series will be decided behind the green table of the sports tribunal.

On Saturday it was MP1 Racing driver Alessandro Balzan who took the lead at the start, ahead of the Audi of Mapelli. Mapelli was under pressure from another title contender, Raffaele Giammaria. This allowed Balzan to take a small lead. After the driver changes, however, it was the Ombra Racing Ferrari of Stefano Constantini in the lead, Schoeffler and Casè were fourth and fifth. As the cars behind him battled for position, Constantini went onto an unchallenged victory. Schoeffler finished fourth, with Tomas Enge (Camaro) pushing Casè down to sixth.

Enge and teammate Francesco Sini scored the SaReNi-built Camaro’s first race win, despite an incident in the first corner that nearly took out the Solaris-run car. Mapelli and Schoeffler eventually finished ahead of rivals Casè and Giammaria. Contact between Mapelli and Giammaria in the closing stages resulted in a 10-second penalty for the Audi team. As the team lodged an appeal the final results are provisional. If the penalty stands Scuderia Baldini 27 will be champion, if not Audi Sport Italia will take the title.

Race 1 – 1. Ombra Racing (Constantini/Frassineti) Ferrari, 2. Krypton Motorsport (Pezzucchi) Porsche, 3. MP1 Racing (Benucci/Balzan) Ferrari.

Race 2 – 1. Solaris Motorsport (Sini/Enge) Camaro, 2. Scuderia Baldini 27 (Casè/Giammaria) Ferrari, 3. Audi Sport Italia (Mapelli/Schoeffler) Audi.

FFSA GT
The French GT championship was decided in the final race of the season, albeit in a somewhat controversial way as well. The FFSA reinstated the Nogaro results, which meant Henry Hassid and Mike Parisy started the final race with a 22-point lead.

Philippe Giauque, who started from pole position, held onto the lead at the start of race one, but a safety car prevented him from pulling away. After the restart Hassid moved into second place, with Narac taking third after 13 laps. Halfway through the race Giauque pulled into the pits for his compulsory stop, ahead of Hassid and Narac. IMSA Performance Matmut driver Armindo exited the pits in first place, while Parisy rejoined in 11th place. Narac and Armindo went on to score their second win of the season, with Hassid and Parisy eventually finishing in seventh position.

In the final race Parisy started from the back of the grid, but the Sebastien Loeb Racing Audi made up a lot of positions. With Hassid in tenth place, Narac moved into fifth place, enough to take the title. When Hassid was penalized for a collision with one of the SOFREV ASP Ferrari entries it was all over for the Audi drivers. Fifth was enough for Narac and Armindo to claim the title, just two points ahead of Hassid and Parisy.

Race 1 – 1. IMSA Performance Matmut (Narac/Armindo) Porsche, 2. Sport Garage (Cayrolle/Santamato) Ferrari, 3. SOFREV ASP (Giauque/Moullin Traffort) Ferrari.

Race 2 – 1. Sport Garage (Vannelet/Guibbert) Ferrari, 2. SOFREV ASP (Debard/Panis) Ferrari, 3. Sainteloc Racing (Hallyday/Guilvert)