Bucharest - GT3 Race 1 Report
Drama – Most Of It Bad
© Janos Wimpffen

Not sure why we’re reporting on this event, the way it turned out, but here goes.

Before we do, the Berlanga Ascari team manager confirms that Ben Collins has a broken sternum and cracked ribs after today’s earlier accident. Ben is going to be airlifted home. He has told the team that the marshals were taking photographs of the Lamborghini that left the oil he slid off on, and therefore weren’t waving oil flags, so he had no warning off the slippery track.

NB. Ben Collins has since recounted the correct detals of the incident, and there were no cameras involved. He didn't, thankfully, break his sternum.

With several cars already missing, including the pole-sitting Lamborghini, the GT3 field got underway—sort of—for a one-hour race. There were problems even before the start as the No. 50 Morgan (wow, they look weird with the big roll cage) of Jean-Francois Le Roch stalls in the middle of the course and the field is kept under yellow for an extra lap, although the clock had started.

Richard Williams, having been upgraded to effective pole, led the early laps with the No. 5 Trackspeed Porsche. Two laps later we had our first incident when Luc Paillard (No. 6 Trackspeed Porsche) went into one of the runoff areas and has some difficulty finding his way around the tire barriers back to the course. Things got more serious when a lap later Martin Greenhalgh (No. 32 Berlanga Ascari) and Jonny Lang (No. 2 Tech 9 Motorsport) clouted the tire barriers and partially blocked the circuit. Some of the walls also took a beating in this incident – one breaking in two. This has brought out the safety car.

Has anyone kept track of how many cars are already out between the race and practice?

Here are some of the other starting drivers:
No. 1, Quaife
No. 30, Bertram
No. 34, Khan
No. 38, Vannelet
No. 44, Bera
No. 10, Navarro
No. 24, Sardell
No. 4, Ashburn
No. 23, Frassinetti
No. 19, Peyrolles
No. 18, Pirri
No.26, Lagniez
No. 25, Mateu
No. 9, Claudiu
No. 7, Duqueine
No. 36, Rambeaud
No. 21, Lacroix-Wasover
No. 43, Bartek
No. 11, Tuchbant
No. 14, Kuzminykh
No. 22, Maggi
No. 33, Gibson
No. 30, Stanton
No. 39, Warren
No. 13, Knauss
No. 35, Greasley

Non-starters
No. 16, 28, 29, 8, 3, 12, 10 (from yesterday)
Non-gridded late starter, No. 49, O’Neill

With only 34 minutes remaining the track reverted to green, which coincided with most teams making mandatory stops.

Nicolas Navarro (No. 10 First Racing Lambo) jumped into the lead while Paillard has made a pit call with serious problems on the No. 6 Porshe. Arnaud Peyrolles is second in the Riverside Corvette and dropping back to about 4 seconds down. The No. 22 Aston Francesco Maggi came to a momentary stop on course, but got going again with a only a local yellow handling the situation.

James Pickford is now in the erstwhile leading Trackspeed Porsche started by Williams. He has clouted a wall someplace but managed to continue with a bent and no longer round wheel.

With 23 minutes to go Navarro stops and Peyrolles inherits the lead for a lap before his mandatory call. Navarro stays aboard while James Ruffier takes over the Corvette. This elevates Thomas Mutsch into first. He is now in the No. 43 Matech Ford GT – having made the driver change under the last lap of the safety car.

Then we have drama of a different sort as a dog wanders onto the circuit. Amazingly, he makes it safely into pit lane but then is scared back onto the course. Yellow flags are shown in the area and everyone manages to miss him before he finds an exit.

The Editor adds (having watched this unfold on Men & Motors) -that Richard Whatever his name is’s commentary was among the most insensitive I have ever heard on TV. Two or three times he made light of (if not jokes about) the dog being on the track. Had that frightened animal bolted across the track, at the wrong moment (it did cross the track, fortunately avoiding cars at racing speed), we could have had more injuries, not just to the dog. Exceedingly crass and insensitive. Oh, and by the way, it would help immensely if Richard (Surname unknown) knew who had started each car, because some knowledge of driver abilities would have made an explanation of this silly race at least make some sense to anyone unfortunate enough to have witnessed it. Richard (Surname unknown) seems to possess a unique combination of failings: unutterably boring, lacking in knowledge of his subject and, as explained, highly insensitive. Janos Wimpffen has now confronted him about his ‘commentary’.

As the circuit goes green the rain restarts in good measure and we have a plethora of spins. Ronayne O’Mahony (now in No. 6) and Rory Bertram (in for Zwart in the No.31 Ascari) collide with the Porsche suffering some damage. Jürgen von Gärtzen (No. 18 Callaway Corvette) spins on his own, as does Chris Hyman on the No. 39 Kessel Ferrari. Christopher Haase (No. 14 S-Berg Lamborghini gets sideways and continues at that angle mot of the way down the back straight.

A lap down after the stops, Ed Morris was charging in the #30 Ascari.

Then we have the mother of all accidents. Toni Seiler gets sideways in the No. 24 BMS Aston Martin. It has happened at the fastest spot on the course. He slams backwards into one wall, forward into another, and then back again. On this ricochet along comes another Aston Martin (Makowiecki’s) and he gets squeezed into the wall. Both cars are heavily damaged and the safety car comes back out. It happened with less than 10 minutes to go and has doomed the rest of the race.

The Moser Ferrari and Mutsch Ford had pitted for wets, Daoudi stays out on slicks (below) - and although the track could not be cleaned up in time for any more racing (thank heavens) at least a bright sun has burst through the clouds just as this mess ended and the cars were ignominiously flagged off the circuit.Inappropriate circuit for inexperienced drivers, not helped of course by the rain – but some / most of the carnage occurred before the rain anyway. The GT3 Championship deserves better than this. Heaven knows what the GT1s and 2s are going to make of this place tomorrow.

Daoudi and Khan atop the podium.

Here are four of the winning pairs by marque.

Result
1 34 F Khan/Daoudi Ferrari 430 55:49.715 27 90.27
2 43 FGT Bartek/Mutsch Ford GT 56:05.010 27 15.295 89.86
3 38 F Vannelet/Moser Ferrari 430 56:07.624 27 17.909 89.79
4 10 L Navarro/Dubrulle Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 56:18.348 27 28.633 89.50
5 7 D Duqueine/Mortimer Dodge Viper Competition Coupe 56:20.077 27 30.362 89.46
6 18 C Pirri/Von Garten Corvette Z06R GT3 57:18.965 27 1:29.250 87.93
7 23 AM Frassinetti/Alessi Aston Martin DBRS9 55:52.236 26 1 LAP 86.86
8 4 P Ashburn/Hooker Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 55:55.829 26 1 LAP 86.77
9 1 P Ferrier/Quaife Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 55:59.977 26 1 LAP 86.66
10 16 C Berberich-Martini/Ludwig Corvette Z06R GT3 56:02.454 26 1 LAP 86.60
11 5 P Williams/Pickford Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 56:03.331 26 1 LAP 86.57
12 13 L Knauss/Grobl Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 56:04.591 26 1 LAP 86.54
13 44 FGT Bera/Campenhoudt Ford GT 56:05.979 26 1 LAP 86.51
14 30 AS Stanton/Morris Ascari KZ1R GT3 56:08.938 26 1 LAP 86.43
15 37 F Kessel/Kremer Ferrari 430 56:12.659 26 1 LAP 86.33
16 25 AM Mateu/Rodrigues Aston Martin DBRS9 56:14.682 26 1 LAP 86.28
17 14 L Kuzminykh/Haase Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 56:16.448 26 1 LAP 86.24
18 9 D Claudiu/Marinescu Dodge Viper Competition Coupe 56:22.098 26 1 LAP 86.09
19 6 P Paillard/O'Mahony Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 56:23.563 26 1 LAP 86.06
20 11 L Tuchbant/Ballay Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 57:19.780 26 1 LAP 84.65
21 31 AS Bertram/Zwart Ascari KZ1R GT3 55:56.754 25 2 LAPS 83.41
22 35 F Greasley/Walker Ferrari 430 55:58.963 25 2 LAPS 83.35
23 39 F Warren/Hyman Ferrari 430 56:10.867 25 2 LAPS 83.06
24 24 AM Sardelli/Seiler Aston Martin DBRS9 46:30.896 23 4 LAPS 92.29
25 26 AM Laginiez/Makowiecki Aston Martin DBRS9 46:38.405 23 4 LAPS 92.04
26 36 F Rambeaud/Comar Ferrari 430 55:51.414 23 4 LAPS 76.86
27 22 AM Maggi/Zenere Aston Martin DBRS9 55:54.729 23 4 LAPS 76.78
28 19 C Peyrolles/Ruffier Corvette Z06R GT3 45:24.267 22 5 LAPS 90.44
29 49 M O'Neill/Lafitte Morgan Aero 8 GT3 47:15.741 21 6 LAPS 82.93
30 21 C Lacriox-Wasover/Charriol Corvette Z06R GT3 55:58.002 18 9 LAPS 60.03
31 2 P Lang/Keen Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 9:02.625 4 23 LAPS 82.55
32 32 AS Greenhalgh/Gibson Ascari KZ1R GT3 9:05.813 4 23 LAPS 82.07
33 50 M J-F Le Roch/Sturdza Morgan Aero 8 GT3 0 27 LAPS N/A
34 28 AS Rich/Thompson Ascari KZ1R GT3 0 27 LAPS N/A

Fastest Laps By Marque
38 F Vannelet/Moser Ferrari 430 1:21.359 16 85.53mph 137.65
16 C Berberich-Martini/Ludwig Corvette Z06R GT3 1:21.591 18 85.29mph 137.26
26 AM Laginiez/Makowiecki Aston Martin DBRS9 1:21.753 18 85.12mph 136.99
5 P Williams/Pickford Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 1:21.923 16 84.94mph 136.70
30 AS Stanton/Morris Ascari KZ1R GT3 1:22.488 18 84.36mph 135.77
14 L Kuzminykh/Haase Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 1:22.813 18 84.03mph 135.24
43 FGT Bartek/Mutsch Ford GT 1:22.909 17 83.93mph 135.08
7 D Duqueine/Mortimer Dodge Viper Competition Coupe 1:23.548 15 83.29mph 134.05
49 M O'Neill/Lafitte Morgan Aero 8 GT3 1:29.091 14 78.11mph 125.71