FFSA GT, Dijon - Race One Report
1-2 For DKR Engineering

GT1

Six GT1s were entered for the second meeting of the 2009 FFSA GT Championship : two Corvettes for DKR Engineering - a C5-R for Laurent Cazenave and Jean-Claude Police and a C6.R for Eric Debard and Kurt Mollekens who replaced Olivier Panis, on duty at Spa for ORECA-, a Saleen S7R for Larbre Compétition, driven by Patrick Bornhauser and Laurent Groppi,  another S7R, the Tarrès Team Saleen for Olivier Porta and Didier Cormorèche, a Corvette C6.R for Soheil Ayari and Bruno Hernandez (Luc Alphand Aventures and another C6.R, the SRT Corvette of Jean-Philippe Dayraut and Wilfried Merafina.

Qualifying

Eric Debard (#3 C6.R) was first quickest, one tenth ahead of Police (#5 C5-R) while Merafina (#7 C6.R) was third, Hernandez (#9 C6.R) fourth, Bornhauser (#1 Saleen) fifth - all these drivers being within the same second. Cormorèche (#4 Saleen) was in sixth place, far behind.

Race

The track was dry and the sun was shining over the Dijon track. At the start, the two DKR Corvettes were fighting hard, Debard ahead of Police. However, as early as lap 5 Police's C5-R succeeded in passing Debard who could widen a large gap upon his pursuers until the driver-changes.

Behind Police and Debard, Hernandez and Bornhauser were coming back quickly on Merafina. The fight was very rife and Hernandez had a penalty for unduly crossing the white line.

After the driver changes, Cazenave, who had taken over from Police, was now in the lead but he was threatened by Jean-Philippe Dayraut (SRT C6.R) who was soon in the exhaust of the #5 Corvette. Following some tough moves, Dayraut overtook Cazenave at lap 27. Cazenave stayed on the tail of the SRT Corvette and was pushing hard to take the lead again. On lap 34, both Corvettes has a contact and Dayraut incurred some problems with his tyres and had no more grip. So, he gave up, slowed his pace and Cazenave could cruise to the finish line.

Kurt Mollekens was second under the chequered flag and so DKR Engineering claimed a 1-2, ahead of Bornhauser/Groppi Larbre Saleen, Hernandez/Ayari LAA Corvette and Porta/Cormorèche Tarrès Saleen while Dayraut/Merafina SRT Corvette were further adrift, amidst  the GT3 field.

GT3

It was the first FFSA GT race of the ORECA Audi R8 LMS. Stéphane Ortelli being at Spa behind the wheel of the ORECA LMP1, Yvan Lebon's partner was none other than Franck Biela.

Qualifying

Arnaud Peyroles, defending FIA GT3 Champion, had set the pole position with the #59 Ruffier Racing Lamborghini Gallardo, ahead of Philippe Gaillard (#64 Ruffier Racing Lamborghini Gallardo), David Tuchbant (#54 First Racing Lamborghini Gallardo), Romain Brandela (#60 Sport Garage BMW Alpina) and Bruno Dubreuil (#58 First Racing Lamborghini Gallardo).

Race

At the start, Arnaud Peyroles, poleman, kept the lead with his Lamborghini and had the race under control while his contenders were fighting really hard. Peyroles pitted first and Olivier Thévenin took over from him. However the pitstop had been quite long and Thévenin was now in seventh position. He set then a very strong pace to move up to the front. Ahead of him, the First Racing drivers had some misfortunes. Ullrich Amado (#58 Gallardo) and Antoine Leclerc (#54 Gallardo) suffered both from a puncture and had to give up. Within the last ten laps, seven cars had a puncture, including the #63 Sport Garage Ferrari F430 (Moureu/Cayrolle) who was in second position. So, Olivier Thévenin's Lamborghini was back in the lead and crossed first the finish line, ahead of Briché/Tardif (#53 JSB Compétition). Yvan Lebon and Frank Biela finished in third place following a good start of Lebon and a great stint of Franck Biela, at the wheel of the #-68 ORECA Audi R8 LMS.

Full Race One results here

Claude Foubert