Weekend Racing Roundup, 9.7

The first Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup of September features GT racing from the Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Portimao and Sepang, Porsche Supercup from Monza as well as the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia from Sentul in Indonesia. Keyword for this week: rain.

VLN
Black Falcon drivers Hubert Haupt, Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, Adam Christodoulou and Yelmer Buurman won the Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal race, the VLN season’s highlight, on Saturday with their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

After six hours of racing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife the team completed almost 1,000 kilometers, beating the Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Wolf Henzler and Alexandre Imperatori by almost 90 seconds. A rain shower before the start made conditions difficult, with the pole-sitting Lexus RC-F GT3 opting for the wrong tyres. Black Falcon and ROWE Racing went out on wets, changed to slicks after two laps and fought for the lead, until the ROWE Mercedes retired on lap 23 with suspension damage. Black Falcon controlled the race from that moment on.

Race – 1. Black Falcon (Haupt/Al Faisal/Christodoulou/Buurman) Mercedes, 2. Falken Motorsports (Henzler/Imperatori) Porsche, 3. Twin Busch Motorsport (Basseng/Busch/Busch) Audi.

GT Asia Series
Round seven of the 2015 GT Asia Series was held in Malaysia. For the first time in the history of the series a three-hour race took place, the Sepang 3 Hours. Teams, drivers and spectators witnessed an interesting race with changing weather conditions.

Craft-Bamboo Racing started from pole position and Darryl O’Young led for much of the opening hour, but in the end Antony Liu and Davide Rizzo went onto win their second race of the season in the BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3. TP12 Racing’s Todd Piti and Carlo van Dam briefly led the race, but retired after being hit. Bentley drivers Keita Sawa and Adderly Fong finished in second place, ahead of Daniel Lloyd in the Craft-Bamboo Aston Martin.

Race – 1. BBT (Liu/Rizzo) Ferrari, 2. Absolute Racing (Sawa/Fong) Bentley, 3. Craft-Bamboo Racing (O’Young/Lloyd) Aston Martin.

Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup
Porsche Junior Sven Müller enjoyed a perfect weekend at Monza this weekend, scoring a double victory in the two Formula 1 support races at the Italian circuit.

Michael Ammermüller started the first race from pole position, but it was Porsche Junior Matteo Cairoli who quickly moved into the lead, before the safety car was deployed. The Italian driver maintained his lead after the restart, until the tenth lap when Müller overtook him and went on to win the race.

Cairoli and Müller started the second race from the front row and it was Müller who won the battle into the Variante del Rettifilo. Cairoli was unable to attack Müller during the 18-lap race and the pair finished first and second for the second time. Müller eventually finished 4.9 seconds clear of Cairoli.

Race 1 – 1. Team Lechner Racing Middle East (Müller), 2. Market Leader Team by Project 1 (Cairoli), 3. Team Lechner Racing Middle East (Ammermüller).

Race 2 – 1. Team Lechner Racing Middle East (Müller), 2. Market Leader Team by Project 1 (Cairoli), 3. Team Lechner Racing Middle East (Ammermüller).

International GT Open
Spa-Francorchamps played host to the fifth round of International GT Open, but it wasn’t a very warm welcome for the team. Both races were hit by rain, causing all kinds of drama during the races.

The Teo Martin Motorsport McLaren 650S GT3 of Rob Bell led the first part of the race, but the car crashed out of the race at Raidillon. Andrew Watson had just replaced Bell behind the wheel of the McLaren when it started to rain and on slicks he lost control at Eau Rouge and hit the barriers. Tim Verbergt (Aston Martin) was the first driver on wets, but he was unable to keep Pasin Lathouras behind him and on lap 23 the AF Corse driver took the lead and went on to win race 1.

Alvaro Parente and Miguel Ramos dominated race two with their McLaren. Parente moved into the lead at the start and was already 10 seconds clear of teammate Watson and Verbergt. Ramos took over from Parente and continued to lead the race, slowing down in the latter part of the race when conditions began to deteriorate. Behind him Ezequiel Perez Companc and Rob Bell fought for second place, until they made contact with three laps to go. Perez Companc spun, Bell was given a post-race penalty and the Aston Martin Brussels Vantage moved into second place.

Race 1 – 1. AF Corse (Lathouras/Rugolo) Ferrari, 2. Teo Martín Motorsport (Ramos/Parente) McLaren, 3. Aston Martin Brussels (Verbergt/Schmetz) Aston Martin.

Race 2 – 1. Teo Martin Motorsport (Ramos/Parente) McLaren, 2. Aston Martin Brussels (Verbergt/Schmetz) Aston Martin, 3. AF Corse (Lathouras/Rugolo) Ferrari.

GT Sports Club
The third and penultimate round of the maiden season of the GT Sports Club produced some was held at the Autodromo Internacional Algarve in Portugal. AF Corse driver Mario Cordoni won both the Qualifying and Main Race. Cordoni dominated the Qualifying Race, but had to fight for the lead with Max Bianchi in the Main Race. Once Cordoni passed Bianchi on lap 15 the AF Corse driver pulled away and won his second race of the weekend. As a result of a double podium finish Kessel Racing driver Bianchi now leads the championship.

Race 1 – 1. AF Corse (Cordoni) Ferrari, 2. AF Corse (Lanting) Ferrari, 3. Kessel Racing (Bianchi) Ferrari.

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

Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia
The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia teams headed off to Sentul, Indonesia for the fourth round of the 2015 season. Both races started behind the safety car, with Lamborghini Squadra Corse Young Driver Program driver Afiq Yazid starting from pole position. Yazid dominated the event, taking two victories on Sunday.

Other series
The two Euro Series by Nova Race races at Spa-Francorchamps were won by GT4 European Series regular driver Pavel Lefterov in his Lotus Evora GT4. The Bulgarian driver dominated in Belgium.

Also racing at Spa-Francorchamps was the German DMV GTC championship. Christian Gläsel won the first race in his McLaren MP4-12C GT3, while Pertti Kuismanen won race two with his Viper GTS-R.