With the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge now at the halfway stage, SPEED EuroSeries racer Ivan Bellarosa remains at the top of the standings after his fifth win of the season.
Last weekend saw a busy few days of racing for both eligible series in the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge. The Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship held their 5th round at Snetterton, whilst in the Italian sunshine the SPEED EuroSeries were racing at their 3rd round of the season in Imola.
The Britcar qualifying session took place early Saturday morning and saw the Ferrari 430 of Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz storm up the grid with Andy behind the wheel. Schulz took pole with a strong time of 1:37.561 and the extra points up for grabs towards the Challenge. Current fourth placed Challenge entrant, Javier Morcillo, was close behind with a gap of just 0.155 separating them both.
The 3-hour endurance brought with it drama for the two class 1 cars with both the Mosler of Javier Morcillo/Manuel Cintrano/Paul White and the Bailey/Schulz Ferrari having mid race problems. Schulz fell to p7 but first in class and Morcillo/Cintrano/White to 13th but 2nd overall due to the smaller than usual grid.
Meanwhile with six manufacturers on the grid and 9 new drivers entered, the SPEED EuroSeries was heating up over in Imola - not only with the new arrivals but also in the blistering high 30 degree heat!
Team Tatuus were a new arrival to the SPEED EuroSeries grid and with former GP2 racer Davide Rigon behind the wheel of the Tatuus factory chassis they were looking to give current Challenge leader Ivan Bellarosa a run for his money. Another new arrival Frenchman Yann Zimmer was also looking to impress.
Come qualifying the early pace was set by the cars from British manufacturer Juno with former second placed in the Challenge Darren Burke topping the times after 20 minutes, in the factory Juno he shares with owner Duncan Williams.
Just a few minutes later Rigon was at the top of the time screens and he continued to improve on his times until Bellarosa joined the fray and entered back where he has so often been – the top of the time sheets and gaining the vital extra 20 points on offer towards the Challenge.
16 cars from the 18 car entry lined-up on the grid for race 1 and the cars got away at the rolling start first time. Drama shortly followed when another newcomer Team Tiga unfortunately ended up with a suspected oil fire. The fire was out within a few minutes with thankfully no harm to the driver but with so much damage to the chassis the car was very much out of the race.
The drama continued back out on track with Rigon pulling out a lead and by lap 4 he was nearly 10 seconds in front of Zimmer who was fighting to hold Bellarosa behind him - Federico Vecchi, Sarah Reader and Anthony Gandon rounded off the top 5. Reader however was soon out of contention when the #24 Juno suffered from over heating issues due to a hole in one of the radiators and the team decided to retire rather then risk damaging the engine.
Half an hour into the race the pit lane window opened for single drivers, which included the front 3 of Rigon, Zimmer and Bellarosa. Confusion in the pitlane lead to a 32 second time penalty for Bellarosa which meant he needed to cross the finish line 32 seconds ahead of Rigon and Zimmer. When the drivers got the news on their radios they all upped their pace and were pushing hard making it clear that the race was well and truly on.
Zimmer couldn’t keep the pace and shortly fell back leaving Rigon and Bellarosa fighting it out at the front of the field. Bellarosa managed to pull out what would normally be a solid lead of around 15 seconds but with the added time penalty it looked as if Rigon was on for the win until a sudden misfire with his Tatuus machine caused him to loose crucial time.
The chequered flag was flown and Bellarosa crossed the line in first taking the maximum 100 points towards the Challenge as well as 20 for fastest lap, with Rigon, Zimmer, Gandon, Pittori and Belotti following.
Sunday dawned at the Imola circuit and temperatures once again were in the high 30s for the second and final race of the weekend. The grid thundered away to turn 1 with Bellarosa leading the pack but with Zimmer putting on the pressure and Darren Burke close behind.
Come the mandatory pitstops there were no mistakes such as those of the previous day and after his stop Bellarosa rejoined the race 49 seconds behind Darren Burke with Zimmer close behind. Despite a number of race incidents and position changes Bellarosa went on to bring his Wolf car home in first, 10 seconds in front of Zimmer with the Burke/Williams Juno taking the last podium position.
This result sees Bellarosa extend his lead going into the next eligible round of the Challenge – the SPEED EuroSeries at Donington on the 14th and 15th of July. The next eligible race for the Britcar Endurance Series will be at Brands Hatch on the 14th of July.
Current top 10 standings:
1. Ivan Bellarosa, SPEED, 125.832. Anthony Gandon, SPEED, 65.003. Gugliemio Belotti, SPEED, 44.174. Javier Morcillo, Britcar, 42.605. Darren Burke/Duncan Williams, SPEED, 40.836. Tony Mastroberardino, SPEED, 40.007. Paul White, Britcar, 36.208. Rowland Kinch, SPEED, 35.009. Andy Schulz, Britcar, 33.7010. George Murrells, Britcar, 30.30
