FIA GT, Bucharest – “Qualifying Race” Report
Phoenix And CRS Withstand The Heat

Why the inverted commas? Well, with the late decision to award both races half points, there was now no qualifying to be done. It would, though, still serve to set the grid for the Sunday race. Why the teams weren’t sounded out on their opinions prior to the meeting, instead of during it, is anyone’s guess.

The race would start in high temperatures and with three empty slots on the grid. Markus Paltalla had done a job on the #60 ProSpeed Porsche while crashing during qualifying, and the subsequent damage was sufficient to render its weekend over. Much more significantly, Marcel Fässler had the company of Andrea Bertolini alongside him on the front row, rather than Karl Wendlinger, who had qualified there.

Both Jetalliance DBR9s had been withdrawn from the meeting late on Saturday afternoon, with team owner (and driver of #36) Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer issuing the following statement; “We have discovered technical problems with both cars after qualifying, whose causes are yet unknown. I’m accustomed to giving safety the top priority in aviation. And in this case, I applied the same principle to the race team, forcing myself to take this unpopular, yet certainly only appropriate decision. This measure is even harder because we are giving up a front row start.”

Fässler controlled the pace beautifully at the start in the #5 Corvette (he had to, owing to having a radar gun trained on him to ensure the pre-lights pace was below 90 kph) and then won the race to the first corner.

As things turned out, this was a crucial move, for it set the basis for the car’s subsequent victory. Behind him, Mike Hezemans followed through in the #6 Phoenix Z06, having got the drop on Bertolini’s #01 Vitaphone Maserati. Instead, it would be Anthony Kumpen’s Peka Saleen that was in fourth and he would be in for a frustrating few laps, as he fought to get his wide car past a wider car on the narrow circuit.

In GT2, Rob Bell made a great start in the #56 CR Scuderia Ferrari, as did Fabio Babini in the #62 Scuderia Ecosse 430; both drivers having got past Toni Vilander in the #50 AF Corse prancing horse. Bell was having to work to keep his rivals behind him, the car leaping into the air at the chicane as he hit the kerbs hard each lap. His aggressive style paid off, however, and he stayed ahead to the stops.

Fässler began to pull out a lead over Hezemans and, with Bertolini in defensive mode, the Dutch driver found himself in ever increasing areas of empty track. Christoph Bouchut’s windscreen, on the other hand, was rapidly filling with the sight of the rear end of a Saleen as he caught up with Kumpen; and a great, but brief, duel was about to be played out; the sight of two fast and assertive drivers dicing with each other on this unforgiving track providing great entertainment for the spectators.
Bouchut briefly got ahead of the S7, but ran on to the dirty part of the track and lost traction, allowing Kumpen to get back in front. The two cars were then nose to tail and side by side before the Frenchman landed a move on the inside that stuck; Kumpen possibly having missed a gear. The SRT Corvette then needed just three laps to close the gap to Bertolini’s MC12 and Bouchut was up to third on lap 14, just before the 20 minute mark.

Allan Simonsen, meanwhile, was suffering the same frustrations experienced by Kumpen earlier, as he tried to get the Gigawave Aston Martin past the #2 Maserati of Alexandre Negrao. Like Kumpen, he was unsuccessful and could only watch the gap to the leaders widen before pitting on lap 20.

In GT2, Henri Moser had just moved the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari up into sixth place when he saw all his good work come to naught when he had a coming together with Mike Hezemans that caused race-ending damage to the right rear of the car; “I think he wanted to let me pass, but I didn’t want to pass at that spot,” said the Phoenix driver. “So he slowed down too much, and I wanted to stay behind and pass into the Marriott hotel corner.  He meant well, but it came out wrong.  I had full lock and it was just the wrong place.”  Matias Russo had even worse luck when the fire extinguisher went off in the #95 Advanced Engineering Ferrari, as he waited at the pitstop. His visor was up at the time and he got a large quantity of extinguishant in his eyes, necessitating a trip to the hospital. Fortunately, he had not suffered any injury as a result.

After the stops had all been completed, the top two in GT1 were unchanged, but in GT2 the top three had been shuffled. Jamie Davies now led in #62, from Gimmi Bruni in #50, with Andrew Kirkaldy third in the #56.

This three-way fight would be the highlight of the race and the fighting was spectacular, with the cars more often than not nose to tail.

On lap 32, Kirkaldy pulled off a beautiful pass on Bruni to take second at the end of the main straight and then was all over Davies, jinking out to try and find a gap (the TV race director deciding that this was the perfect moment to switch to a CRS garage-shot, prompting an angry response from a watching Rob Bell). The hugely experience Davies, however, loves street racing and was having none of it; but on lap 36, with Bruni once more with Kirkaldy, the Ecosse driver finally had to yield and the #56 led.

Fabrizio Gollin was reeling in Jean-Denis Deletraz at the head of the field, while further back, Xavier Maassen was fighting with the Vitaphone Maseratis. The SRT Corvette had lost two places at the stops and Maassen had the #2 of Miguel Ramos ahead.

Having caught up, Maassen found he couldn’t get by; and his frustration led to him overcooking things and locking up the breaks at the ‘bus stop’. Fortunately for him, but less fortunately for Tomas Biagi, he found the #51 Ferrari ahead of him and used it as a brake. The AF Corse was spun round, but continued, while the SRT Corvette found itself back on course, but with a damaged hood.

Jamie Davies’ race fell apart at this point, with a spin that lost him seven places; but Gimmi Bruni was still with Andrew Kirkaldy and not letting up at all. The only let up for the Scottish driver was a few moments when Ramos’ Maserati was between the two Ferraris while lapping them, but he hung on to take CR Scuderia’s very first win in the series by just two tenths of a second.

“That was fantastic!” said Kirkaldy. “Every single member of the team has put in so much work and to do it here, at the hardest track of the year, is amazing. Rob did a mega job and I’m delighted we finally got our first win.”

Things were just as close in GT1, with Deletraz a car’s length ahead of Gollin. There were suggestions that team-orders had been issued, but, if so, Gollin was hiding it well; looking suspiciously keen to take the win in the final couple of laps.

Deletraz took the flag, however; a just result and one that rewarded Marcel Fässler’s earlier pace. “I am really happy,” said the Swiss. “I had a great start and the first few laps were unbelievable.  I was able to pull away.  I was so surprised, as I didn’t think I would be able to pull away like then.  It was a bit difficult in the traffic, but by the end I could give the car over to Jean-Denis with a ten-second gap.  Gollin then closed up, and the end was quite tough for us.  In the end, I don’t think he tried really hard as it would have been difficult to overtake. If he took the risk we could have both gone out.  Now we both have points for the Team championship, and we have the front row for tomorrow’s race.  From Gollin’s side it was really clever, and we are very happy!” 

MH