Weekend Racing Roundup, 6.9

Le Mans week kicked off with scrutineering on Sunday, but that didn’t stop other European GT series from competing this weekend. International GT Open went to Portimão for round two of the championship, the Supercar Challenge Powered by Pirelli raced at Spa-Francorchamps, while ADAC GT Masters went to Austria for their second race outside Germany. Here’s another Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup!

International GT Open
At the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve it was the Selleslagh Racing Team Corvette of Maxime Soulet and Isaac Tutumlu taking its second win of the season on Saturday. Tutumlu, in his first race for SRT, started from pole and while others got into trouble he held onto the lead until the pit stops.

After the stops Soulet was six seconds behind Villorba Corse driver Schirò, but on lap 29 the Belgian driver passed his Italian rival and went on to win the first race. Behind the numbers one and two Nicky Pastorelli fought hard with SMP Racing’s Daniel Zampieri, the Dutchman eventually taking third place.

Pastorelli and his Portuguese teammate Miguel Ramos did even better on Sunday. From the start Soulet and Zampieri battled for the lead, with Pastorelli taking third on lap five and within striking distance of the two leaders.

After the pit stops the SMP Racing Ferrari, now driven by Roman Mavlanov had taken the lead, but a puncture took them out of the battle for the win. Ramos inherited the lead and went on to win, ahead of the other V8 Racing Corvette of Diederik Sijthoff and Archie Hamilton. Behind them GTS leader Maleev spun, forcing Tutumlu to go wide and allowing Montermini to take third. After the race Sijthoff/Hamilton were excluded, promoting Soulet and Tutumlu to third.

Race 1 – 1. Selleslagh Racing Team (Soulet/Tutumlu) Corvette, 2. Scuderia Villorba Corse (Montermini/Schirò) Ferrari, 3. V8 Racing (Ramos/Pastorelli) Corvette.

Race 2 – 1. V8 Racing (Ramos/Pastorelli) Corvette, 2. Scuderia Villorba Corse (Montermini/Schirò) Ferrari, 3. Selleslagh Racing Team (Soulet/Tutumlu) Corvette.

ADAC GT Masters
The ADAC GT Masters went to the Red Bull Ring in Austria this weekend and it was a weekend dominated by the American muscle cars. On Saturday Oliver Gavin and Daniel Keilwitz converted their pole position into the first Corvette victory of the season.

The Callaway Competition Corvette led from start to finish, finishing 5.802s ahead of the Reiter Engineering Chevrolet Camaro. Albert von Thurn und Taxis initially moved into second place before losing a couple of places. Teammate Tomas Enge fought back to take second place, taking advantage of a rare mistake by Buhk.

In race two on Sunday Tomas Enge took the lead on the opening lap, ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen. The pair pulled out a five-second lead, before handing a penalty for start infringement.

Enge’s race came to an end as the drive shaft on his Camaro failed when he tried to pull out of the penalty box. Bleekemolen, who was right behind him, was blocked and the Gavin/Keilwitz Corvette took the lead. Gavin controlled the race and finished 1.670s ahead of the Prosperia C. Abt Racing Audi.

Race 1 – 1. Callaway Competition (Keilwitz/Gavin) Corvette, 2. Reiter Engineering (Enge/von Thurn und Taxis) Camaro, 3. HTP Motorsport (Buhk/Götz) Mercedes.
Race 2 – 1. Callaway Competition (Keilwitz/Gavin) Corvette, 2. Prosperia C. Abt Racing (Rast/van der Linde) Audi, 3. HTP Motorsport (Buhk/Götz) Mercedes.

Supercar Challenge
Hot conditions caused trouble during the Supercar Challenge round at Spa-Francorchamps, but not for the Volvo of Henry Zumbrink. The Dutchman fought hard with the Team RaceArt Viper GT3-R and the AF Corse Ferrari of Louis Machiels and Niek Hommerson

The Viper retired early with an overheating engine and Machiels closed in on Zumbrink as the safety car was deployed. In the final stages Machiels tried everything, but despite worn tires giving Zumbrink a hard time the Volvo driver went on to win race one.

On Sunday Zumbrink held onto the lead as the cars went into La Source for the first time, followed by two Ferrari’s. Zumbrink managed to pull away from the cars behind him and went on to win race two.

Kelvin Snoeks, racing the DKR Engineering BMW Z4 GT3 on Sunday, took second place. The Aston Martin of Andy Schulz and Paul Bailey also passed the Ferrari duo and secured a third place finish on the last lap.

Race 1 – 1. Day-V-Tec (Zumbrink) Volvo, 2. AF Corse (Hommerson/Machiels) Ferrari, 3. Martino Rosso Racing (Lanting/Herber) Ferrari.
Race 2 – 1. Day-V-Tec (Zumbrink) Volvo, 2. Day-V-Tec (Snoeks) BMW, 3. Horse Power Racing (Bailey/Schulz) Aston Martin.