• 39 drivers compete in Supercup at Monza, the fastest track on the calendar • Spike finishes 13th and 15th in rounds eight and nine and collects eight points in championship • Spike finishes 3rd and 4th place among the Rookies and moves up to 5th place in the Supercup Rookie Championship
This past weekend, the eighth and ninth rounds of the Porsche Mobil
1 Supercup took place at the famous 5.77 km-long race-track in the National Park at Monza. The young Australian Racing Driver, Spike Goddard, impressed once again with a good run from P20 to finish in P13 and P15 respectively.
Monza is the fastest track on the Supercup and Formula 1 calendar with its long straights followed by sharp chicanes and fast corners, in particular the Curva Grande and the Parabolica that leads on to the long pit straight.
Most race meetings start on the Friday, but in our case this one started on the last lap at Spa two weeks ago, when Spike’s engine cut out unexpectedly due to electrical issues. These electrical problems continued at our test-day in Oschersleben two days later. On that day, Spike drove Engelhart´s car and was immediately quicker by 1.5 seconds. Since the MRS-team managed to fix the issues on Spike´s car, a shakedown was scheduled to take place at Hockenheim two days before Monza. Spike had a lucky escape following an accident into the wall after a tyre failure, however the car was damaged beyond repair. Thanks to the team, who put together a spare car for the Australian, he was able to compete at Monza. “I would not have been able to race this weekend if it were not for the tremendous effort by the entire MRS team to prepare two cars over the past week. This weekend’s drive will be dedicated to my team. I hope I do a good job and score points for both the team and myself”.
Once again, the weather conditions were perfect all weekend. 39 cars took part at the weekend since over a dozen drivers from the Italian Porsche Carrera Cup series took the opportunity to compete in the Supercup at their home track. As usual, the 45-minute Free Practice session took place on Friday afternoon. This was first time Spike had the opportunity to drive the new, spare car. He was going well and in P16 when he pitted to put on his best set of used tyres for the session. As the team was in the process of changing the tyres, they noticed that the driveshaft was damaged (it turned out to be the boot which cost €20!). Since this could not be repaired in time, Spike´s Free Practice was over with 15 minutes left of the session. “I was disappointed, that I was not able to run for the last 15 minutes of Free Practice but I am confident that the car is good and that my pace is closer to P16”.
Qualifying took place just before mid-day on Saturday. Spike used two of his three sets of new tyres. He ended up setting his fastest time of 1:52.565 on the fourth lap on the first set. Halfway through qualifying, as he was changing to his second set of new tyres, he was P15 and 0.7 seconds off his team mate Christian Englehart, who was running in P1. On the second set of tyres, he was quicker by 0.6 seconds on one lap, but made a mistake at the Parabolica, giving it all back. Hence he did not improve on the second set and ended up dropping down to P20 (1.15 seconds off Ammermuller on pole).
Race 1 was over 14 laps and took place at 6:30pm on Saturday afternoon. Spike elected to use his last set of new tyres for this race. Taking into consideration, 39 cars went into the first race, an accident at Turn 1 was imminent. But following a good start by Spike, he made it through the corner although getting tapped on his rear bumper. After a few retirements on the first lap already, Spike had moved up into P17 at the end of lap one. The Safety Car was deployed for three laps while the five stricken cars were removed.
When the race went green again Spike got a good re-start. Over the remaining ten laps, he had good pace and several good battles with other drivers, being able to pass four cars to finish in 13th place. However, he earned six points for 10th place as guest drivers are not eligible for points in the Championship. His fastest lap was 1:53.72. “I got a good start, got through the chaos of the first lap, and then I had good pace all race where I was able to pass several cars. I am also very pleased to have come 3rd in the Rookie Category. I dedicate this result to my team for working so hard to get me on the grid this weekend”.
In the second race on Sunday, Spike started from 20th on the grid. This time he was on used tyres from his qualifying session on Saturday morning. He had another good start and fortunately there were no first-lap-incidents as all 37 cars made it safely around the track. In fact, the Safety Car was never deployed in the second race. This meant, that drivers had to work for every position gained. Again, he drove well and after several successful battles gained five places to finish 15th (and 4th amongst the Championship Rookies). His pace throughout the race was good with a fastest lap of 1:53.15 (0.79 off the fastest lap set my Sven Muller the winner).
Next weekend, Spike races at Oschersleben in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany.
