FIA GT, Oschersleben – Race Report
Plain Sailing For Hezemans & Kumpen

(With apologies for the tardiness of this report.)

Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen dominated the third race of the season in Eastern Germany to take PK Carsports’s first win of the season and Hezemans’ 13th in the FIA GT Championship.

Things began with a bang when the first three runners managed to collide at the tight first corner, allowing Hezemans to nip through in the confusion and emerge in the lead in the #4 Corvette having started seventh. The three cars involved in the incident – the #2 Vitaphone Maserati of Alex Muller, the #14 K plus K Saleen of Karl Wendlinger and the #19 Luc Alphand C6.R – were all significantly delayed, but able to continue.

As the Corvette got to work in building up a lead, Bert Longin was the nearest challenger in the #3 SRT Corvette, followed by Mario Dominguez’s #18 Saleen.

In GT2, Gimmi Bruni had made an excellent start in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari and was up to seventh overall by the end of the first lap. He was followed closely by the #97 Brixia Porsche of Martin Ragginger – who had started from pole following Trackspeed’s post-qualifying demotion to the back of the grid for incorrect tyres and a non-airtight air box – and the two CRS Ferraris. Jorg Bergmeister, meanwhile, was making only slow progress from the back in the early laps.

After 20 minutes, rain started to fall and from then on got heavier with every lap. In that time, Dominguez had caught and passed Longin for second, before crashing with a stuck-open throttle on lap 12.

Longin now trailed the Dutchman by 11 seconds and had the looming threat of the #1 Maserati of Andrea Bertolini to factor into the equation. The gap widened slightly over the next few laps, but as the rain intensified the #3 suddenly found itself adapting to the conditions quicker than the #4 and the PK car’s advantage began to diminish.

But Bertolini was himself coming under threat from the recovering Karl Wendlinger and on lap 26 the tall Austrian managed to find a way past the Italian and took third. His glory was short lived, however, as the saleen found the grass on the next lap and spun, losing almost half a minute in the process.

Martin Ragginger had taken back the lead in GT2 and managed to build and maintain a four second lead over Bruni, but a collision with the #77 BMS Ferrari saw the championship-leading #60 Prospeed Porsche forced into retirement.

By lap 31, the order was 4,3,2,1 and just seven seconds covered the cars. Hezemans’ lead was down to two seconds, with Muller back on the tail of Longin following his earlier misfortune.

Two laps later, with the rain at its worst, Longin slid across a gravel trap and dropped to third; but before Muller could challenge for the lead the #4 Corvette pitted and Anthony Kumpen took over. The three other top-four cars all followed suit on the next lap.

When the cars rejoined, Kumpen had a 15 second lead over Miguel Ramos, but the Portuguese drifted wide in the tricky conditions on his second lap and allowed james Ruffier through in the SRT Corvette.

Kumpen proved himself to be very comfortable in the rain and, with Ruffier keeping the two Maseratis behind him, the Belgian started to extend his lead rapidly.

Ragginger kept his lead in GT2 right up to his stop, but once all the front-runners had made their stops, Toni Vilander found himself leading in the #50 Ferrari. Luigi Lucchini had dropped to fourth in the Brixia Porsche, but the two CRS Ferraris were still in second and third. Unfortunately for Andrew Kirkaldy, he suffered a misted up windscreen at the stop which refused to clear and he had to stop again to get it sorted; “I seriously couldn’t see a thing and I went off a few times as I couldn’t see the corners,” said Kirkaldy. “It got so bad that it was hard to even see the team when I came into the pits. It really is a shame as we were on for second place today but there’s not much you can do if you can’t see where you’re going!” The problem persisted through the remainder of the race, with Kirkaldy and Rob Bell eventually finishing a distant sixth.

But the #56’s misfortune was to the benefit of the #55 sister car and Chris Niarchos was now in second. Alas, he too was to fall victim to the conditions, as a trip across the gravel towards the end of his stint dropped the 430 to fifth.

But Vilander was driving brilliantly in the rain and increasing his lead with every lap.

At the head of the field, Kumpen’s lead was up to 25 seconds by lap 44, but a spin for Ruffier dropped the SRT Corvette to fifth. This left Bartels in second, with Ramos just behind and trying to fend off a very impatient Wendlinger; both 2 and 14 receiving the driving-standards flag as a result of the tussle.

Now that he was clear, Bartels could do something about the #4’s lead and indeed it started to reduce; but only by about a second per lap. By lap 56, it was down to 12 seconds, but this was when the #1 MC12 had to pit.

Kumpen stayed out for a further 11 laps and when Mike Hezemans took over once more, he still had a ten second lead. With just a few minutes remaining, Bertolini would need to do something special to close the gap, or Hezemans would have to slip up in some way.

Neither of these scenarios played out and the Corvette came home to win by 9.207 seconds from the #1 Maserati, with the #2 a further 25 seconds back. The #14 Saleen’s challenge ended when the car had to pit for repairs when the windscreen wiper parted company; leaving the #3 SRT Corvette as the only other car on the lead lap.

“We had a completely trouble-free race," said Mike Hezemans. "I said to Anthony that I wanted to be completely inside at the start, I don’t want to move even one inch to the right, because I hoped that everybody would move to the right, as it happens every year here.  Then I was just lucky.  And then I was amazed by my own pace.  I got a lot of traction control from the tyres, and I was still continuing to pull away.  I was a little too cautious when the rain started, and let them come closer. But then I could pull away, and we came in at the right moment. Anthony did the next hour. And then I did the last eight minutes, and I took it slowly.  It was a very easy win this time.”

As PK Carsport was celebrating its first win, so too was AF Corse in GT2 after the #50 Ferrari came home 17 seconds clear of the #61 Prospeed Porsche of Sean Edwards and Marco Holzer; the young driver pairing having recovered well from losing ground early on.

“The race was really good," said Gimmi Bruni. "I made a good start and took the lead for three laps.  Then the aim was to be consistent and not to overheat the tyres.  The Brixia Porsche came behind me, and was a bit faster, while I was blocked.  So he went through, he had the top speed and no weight, so I let him go.  Then I was second and always looking in the sky to see what the weather would do. It looked very dark, so I thought it would rain soon.  Then the rain started. We kept going with the same tyres, taking some risks – I think we were one of the last cars to pit for rain tyres.  Once it started to rain, we had the rainman, Toni, and he had a very good run.”

Third was the #80 Hexis Racing Aston Martin Vantage – Stefan Mucke and Frederic Makowiecki recording the car’s first podium result in the championship – while fourth was the #55 CRS Ferrari; Chris Niarchos again winning the Citation Cup.

Next up for the FIA GT Championship is the big one – the Spa 24 Hours.

MH