Weekend Racing Roundup, 9.8

This week’s Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup has quick reports and results of the International GT Open round at Spa, the the French GT Championship races at Magny Cours, the Belgian Racing Car Championship from Spa plus the Super Taikyu race at Okayama International Circuit. And a first in many weeks that the weather didn’t play any role in the races.

International GT Open
V8 Racing came to Spa-Francorchamps as the International GT Open championship leader, but despite a race victory on Saturday they left the circuit having lost the lead to Villorba Corse.

On Saturday the Chevrolet Corvette of Nicky Pastorelli and Miguel Ramos took their fourth win of the season. Ramos made an early pit stop and the team was lucky Isaac Tutumlu crashed his Corvette at the Raidillon on his outlap, bringing out the safety car. This favorited the early pitters, which were leading the race after all teams had made their mandatory stop. Pastorelli kept Pasin Lathouras and Duncan Cameron behind to take the win.

Tutumlu started from pole on Sunday and kept Pastorelli behind at the start. The V8 Racing driver was forced to retire on lap four, hurting the title chances for the Dutch team. Tutumlu continued to lead until the pit stops, handing over the Corvette to Archie Hamilton.

After the stops Hamilton was nine seconds clear of Zampieri and Maleev in the SMP Racing Ferrari’s and Andrea Montermini in the Villorba Corse Ferrari. Hamilton went on to win race two, with Montermini taking third place and the championship lead.

Race 1 – 1. V8 Racing (Ramos/Pastorelli) Corvette, 2. AF Corse (Lathouras/Lyons) Ferrari, 3. AF Corse (Cameron/Griffin) Ferrari.

Race 2 – 1. Selleslagh Racing Team (Tutumlu/Hamilton) Corvette, 2. SMP Racing (Mavlanov/Zampieri) Ferrari, 3. Villorba Corse (Montermini/Schirò) Ferrari.

Belgian Racing Car Championship
The penultimate round of the Belgian Racing Car Championship was held at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. On the opening lap Pierre Grivegnée crashed his Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at Blanchimont, resulting in a broken rib and a concussion for Grivegnée and a destroyed Aston Martin.

After two of the three hours the No. 99 Belgium Racing Porsche was in the lead, followed by the No. 1 PK Carsport Audi of Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin. The PK Carsport Audi passed the Porsche, which then headed into the pits for its final stop. 15 minutes before the end of the race a puncture resulted in the loss of another position, the No. 100 Brussels Racing Aston Martin taking second place.

Race – 1. PK Carsport (Kumpen/Longin) Audi, 2. Brussels Racing (Verbergt/Redant/Coens) Aston Martin, 3. Belgium Racing (Derdaele/Heyer/Maassen) Porsche.

French GT Championship
The French GT championship was back in action with a double-header at Magny Cours.

On Saturday Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Ludovic Badey were victorious in the first race of the weekend. The IMSA Performance Matmut team took the lead at the start, Narac pulled away until a safety car bunched up the field again. Narac held onto the lead until the mandatory pit stops, where the SOFREV ASP Ferrari took the lead. A faultless stint by Badey in the second part of the race resulted in the first victory of the season for the pair

In the second race of the weekend on Sunday it was Audi driver Grégory Guilvert who led the field, battling with Mike Parisy in the Loeb Racing Audi. The two Audis dropped behind the Team Duqueine Ferrari of Jean-Claude Police and Soheil Ayari during the pit stops, a result of the handicap times. David Hallyday got the gap down to less then a second, before spinning out of contention. Police went on to take the team’s second win of the season.

Race 1 – 1. SOFREV ASP (Beaubelique/Badey) Ferrari, 2. IMSA Performance Matmut (Narac/Armindo) Porsche, 3. Sébastien Loeb Racing (Hassid/Parisy) Audi.

Race 2 – 1. Team Duqueine (Police/Ayari) Ferrari, 2. SOFREV ASP (Giauque/Moullin Traffort) Ferrari, 3. IMSA Performance Matmut (Narac/Armindo) Porsche.

Super Taikyu
Race four of the Super Taikyu series was held at the Okayama International circuit. The No. 81 GTNET Advan Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 of Kazuki Hoshino, Takayuki Aoki and Naofumi Omoto started from pole position and dominated the race. The No. 24 Threebond Technical College Nissan GT-R and No. 3 Endless Advan BMW Z4 GT3 were the only cars to stay on the lead lap, finishing more than 30 seconds behind the No. 81 Nissan after three hours of racing.

Race – 1. GTNET Advan (Hoshino/Aoki/Omoto) Nissan, 2. Endless Advan (Taniguchi/Mineo/Iida) BMW, 3. Threebond (Fujii/Gamisan) Nissan