CMR Pro-Am Pairing Picks Up Second Overall Win in Monza

CMR Pro-Am pairing Georgi Dimitrov and Stephan Guerin captured overall victory in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe for the second weekend in a row, coming out on top in a red-flagged Monza Race 1 while Vincenzo Sospiri Racing took its first outright win of the season in Race 2.

The No. 13 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 enjoyed a strong start to the season with a Pro-Am sweep and an overall win at Paul Ricard and looked set to continue that momentum with Dimitrov on the front row for the opening race in Italy.

At the start, he wrestled his way past the No. 6 VSR Lamborghini of Paul Levet to capture the overall lead, with Levet subsequently dropping to fourth overall in the opening exchanges.

That scramble also saw the Frenchman drop the Pro lead to the No. 99 Leipert Motorsport car of Silas Rytter, only for Ritter to spin into the wall at Ascari and drop the lead back to Levet.

However, VSR’s hopes of victory slipped away when the No. 6 car developed an alternator problem that cost the car two seconds per lap prior to the pit window, which allowed the No. 36 Oregon Team Lamborghini of Josef Knopp and Enzo Geraci to capture the lead in class.

Geraci found himself in second place overall with ten minutes to go, six seconds down on Guerin, who had kept the overall lead after taking the No. 13 CMR Lamborghini over from Dimitrov.

At that point however, a safety car was triggered for a pair of unrelated incidents that happened practically simultaneously.

While Adrian Lewandowski and Raffaele Giannoni clashed at Variante del Rettifilo, a more serious accident occurred at Lesmo 2 when Gerhard Watzinger went off.

The American racer, piloting the No. 70 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini, lost control of his car on the exit of the corner and made heavy contact with the right side barriers, inflicting significant damage to both the car as well as the guardrail.

This ultimately forced race control to upgrade the safety car to a red flag, bringing the contest to an early end and declaring Guerin and Dimitrov overall winners.

In addition to claiming a second overall win of the season, it also marked a third consecutive Pro-Am victory for the No. 13 car.

Geraci and Knopp captured the Pro victory and finished second overall, with another Pro-Am car completing the overall podium as Diego Locanto and Luca Segu took third aboard the No. 72 HC by DL Racing Lamborghini.

Piergiacomo Randazzo and Stephane Tribaudini took the Am victory for VSR, while Holger Harmsen took the LB Cup win aboard the No. 90 GT3 Poland entry.

Race 2 on Sunday saw the No. 44 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini of Calle Bergman starting from pole position, although a messy start led to the emergence of an early safety car.

Two cars made contact at the start as Milos Pavlovic’s No. 33 ASR car clipped the rear of the No. 27 CMR entry of Stephane Lemeret, eliminating both, while Cedric Leimer and Jerzy Spinkiewicz also clashed at the first corner.

At the restart, Benedetto Strignano charged up from fourth to briefly challenge for second place before settling in third place behind Bergman and the No. 10 Target Racing car in the hands of Guido Luchetti.

Behind them, fourth-placed Adam Putera made an early pitstop in the No. 6 VSR Lamborghini to hand over to Levet, with the Frenchman using the undercut and clear track to leapfrog up to second place.

Levet then had to wait until a second safety car restart to place an attack for the lead, with the race having been neutralized to recover Francesco Turzo’s No. 23 DL Racing car from the Lesmo 2 gravel.

Once the race resumed, Levet immediately challenged the No. 44 car, now in the hands of Manz Thalin, charging his way into the lead at the Rettifilo chicane.

Thalin subsequently came under attack from Strignano, with the two then making contact and both spinning out at the Variante della Roggia, ruining any chance of a podium for both drivers.

The chaos behind allowed Levet to open up a sizeable gap and cruise to victory, as the No. 6 Lamborghini crossed the line 5.072 seconds ahead of Luchetti in second place.

Geraci and Knopp completed the overall podium, allowing them to maintain their position at the top of the Pro standings after four races.

Guerin and Dimitrov continued their run of dominance in Pro-Am with a fourth consecutive class win in fourth overall, resulting in a 22-point advantage in the championship standings.

Similarly, Randazzo and Tribaudini completed a weekend sweep in Am, while Karim Ojjeh won in LB Cup.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2