• Second place reinforces Guerrero-Aicart leadership• Castro-García (Porsche) win in GTB
Italian team and regular competitor in the Italian GT Championship Victory Engineering won in their debut in the International GT Open at Valencia , thanks to a penultimate lap victory in Race 1 of the Spain GT Open of the white Ferrari 430 driven by Maurizio Mediani and Damien Pasini. Finishing second, Guerrero-Aicart on the Bengala/GTA Mosler reinforce their leadership in the overall standings of the GT Open. Santiago García and Antonio Castro, on a Porsche 996 Cup, won a closely-fought GTB race.
QUALIFYING 1: While free practice 1 saw the ASM Portugal Porsche Gt3 (Amaral-Castro) setting the fastest time and the Bengala Mosler (Guerrero-Aicart) was the quickest car in free practice 2, it is the GPC Sport Ferrari 430 driven by former f.1 driver Andrea Montermini that clinches the pole for Race 1, in a time of 1.36.668, only 4 thousands of a second ahead of the Bengala Mosler of Aicart. It is Ferrari-Mosler again in row two, with the Edil Cris 430 of Ruberti preceeding the Motor Competición MT900 of Gutiérrez. Gaps are minimal in the twisty Valencian circuit, with the eight first cars within a second. Belicchi wins the family contest among Racing Box’ Vipers for the top spot in GTS, while the pole in GTB is conquered by Spanish ever-green legend Kuru Villacieros on the González Camino 430.
Forty-eight took part in the session, with only the Cetea Ferrari 360 Ch. (Lloveras-Izquierdo) being forced to inactivity bfor mechanical problems. Only two “no-shows” among the 51 entrants: the #3 Drivex Porsche GT3 (Hugues-Cano) and the #18 Noël Del Bello Porsche GT3 of the Caternet pair.
HANDICAPS RACE 1: In addition to the imposed minimum time for the driver change (60”), the following success handicaps apply (to GT Open participants):
#2 Escudería Bengala Mosler MT900R (Guerrero-Aicart) – 40”#4 GPC Sport Ferrari 430 (Montermini-Lambertini) – 10”#27 Racing Box Viper (Zonca-Belicchi) – 40”#29 Racing Box Viper (Perazzini-Cioci) – 35”#31 Médard Porsche 996 (Médard-Pla) – 10”#34 Playteam SaraFree (Gião-Amorim) – 25”#35 Giudici Ferrari 360 Ch (Arlotti-Gini) – 30”#36 Playteam SaraFree Ferrari 430 (Bartyan-Vilander) -20”#42 Escudería Roger Ferrari 430 Ch. (Robert-Villacieros) – 15”#43 Escudería Roger Ferrari 430 Ch. (Santos-Van Zoest) – 10”#55 Edil Cris Ferrari 430 (Ruberti-Gianmaria) – 45”
RACE 1: Despite the crowded grid (47 cars), the start and the first lap are quiet, with Aicart taking the lead on the Bengala Mosler, in front of the GPC Ferrari of poleman Montermini, di MC Mosler of Gutiérrez and the other 430s of Ruberti (EdilCris), Sala (AC Andorra), Vilander (Playteam) and the 360 Playteam of Maceratesi. The leading Mosler will manage a maximum lead of 3 seconds but will lose progressively almost all of it before opening the pit stop phase in lap 12.
In the meantime, there have been relatively few changes in the top positions, except for Ruberti that has to let pass Sala and Vilander. Sundberg (RSV Ferrari) is forced to stop in the pits in lap 7 with a transmission problem, while Bravo on the ASM Portugal Ferrari spins in the gravel, followed one lap later by Jourdain on the Estudio 2000 Porsche. In the warm afternoon tyres are starting to suffer, and neither Monti (Mastercar 360) nor Vivancos (Sun Red Seat Cupra) can’t avoid spinning.
When the group re-emerges from the mandatory driver change, the situation is drastically different: Lambertini leads in the GPC 430, ahead of the MC Mosler of Villalba, the Andorran 430 of Cerqueda, the Victory ferrari 430 Mediani, the Playteam 360 of Tedoldi, and the Playteam 430 of Bartyan, the best placed of the title-contenders. The other two are sixth (Guerrero in the Begala Mosler) and tenth (Gianmaria on the Edil Cris 360).
The star of this second part of the race is Maurizio Mediani, on the newcomer 430 of Victory Engineering. He passes Cerqueda first and Villalba later, reducing the gap with the leader from 12 to nothing and passing in the penultimate lap Lambertini, who will spin a little later in an attempt to recover the lost lead. Other emotions come from the spin of Santos (Roger Ferrari 430 Ch.) in lap 24 and the impressive fire that wraps the front of the Eficar Porsche of Gil in lap 20, giving some hard time to the marshals. Guerrero ends second after an impressive final charge ahead of the other Mosler, Bartyan, amaral, Gião, Cerqueda, Tedoldi and Ganmaria.
The family fight among the Racing Box Vipers, the sole entrants in GTS, is won by Zonca-Belicchi, while the GTB class sees a very interesting and disputed race. After the initial supremacy of the Camino Ferrari of Villacieros, after the pit stop, it was the Sande e Castro Porsche of Cruz which took the lead but Santiago García on the Porsche he shares with Antonio Castro managed to claim victory in the final laps.
Maurizio Mediani (1°): “I was sorry to miss the pole in Qualifying 2 this morning because of a red flag shown a few seconds before the end of my lap, but the victory is a very nice compensation! The track was quite slippery, because of oil and rubber, and the traffic was sometimes quite hectic, but we had a nice race and we are impressed with the championship. This is really GT racing, with a lot of cars!”
Damien Pasini (1°): “I drove the first part of the race and the main problem was to be able to see something, because the car in front of me was losing oil and the windscreen was completely dirty. Nevertheless, I could follow those in front of me and was able to keep a good pace. We had planned to do the stop quite early and this proved to be the right decision in order to avoid traffic”.
