Weekend Racing Roundup, 4.20

A short Weekend Racing Roundup this week. At the Lédenon circuit in southern France the French GT Championship got underway, while over in Barcelona the inaugural event of SRO’s GT Sports Club took place.

French GT Championship
Team AKKA-ASP won the opening round of the French GT Championship at the Lédenon circuit this weekend. The Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Philippe Giauque, Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Morgan Moullin-Traffort dominated the race and eventually finished over six seconds clear of the second placed Sébastien Loeb Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra of David Hallyday, Philippe Gaillard and Mike Parisy.

The second race of the weekend was cancelled after heavy rain hit the circuit on Sunday and made racing impossible for any of the series competing this weekend.

Race 1 – 1. Team AKKA ASP (Giauque/Beaubelique/Moullin-Traffort) Ferrari, 2. Sébastien Loeb Racing (Hallyday/Gaillard/Parisy) Audi, 3. IMSA Performance Matmut (Pernaut/Narac/Dumez) Porsche.

Race 2 – Cancelled

GT Sports Club
The brand new SRO GT Sports Club kicked off at the Barcelona circuit, with 13 gentlemen drivers entered for the Espíritu de Montjuïc-weekend. Krypton Motorsport driver Stefano Pezzucchi and his Porsche 997 GT3 R dominated free practice and qualifying and the Italian went on to win the Qualifying Race on Saturday, beating the Ferrari and Lamborghini entries in the 25-minute long race.

Pezzuchi started from pole in the Main Race, but after three laps the Italian had to retire his Porsche from the race. Dutch driver Martin Lanting took the lead and held it until the halfway point, but shortly after Kessel Racing’s Massimiliano Bianchi passed him and moved into the lead. Bianchi pulled away, finishing the race with an 11-second lead over his nearest rival.

Race 1 – 1. Krypton Motorsport (Pezzuchi) Porsche, 2. AF Corse (Cordoni) Ferrari, 3. Kessel Racing (Bianchi) Ferrari.

Race 2 – 1. Kessel Racing (Bianchi) Ferrari, 2. Scuderia Villorba Corse (Mezard) Ferrari, 3. AF Corse (Van Glabeke) Ferrari.

Next week’s roundup will include: VLN, International GT Open, ADAC GT Masters