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GT4 European Cup – Race 2 Report With no Michael Mallock, after his weekend-ending shunt early in Saturday’s race, the qualifying times for race two suggested this would be a four car race, De Doncker’s Mustang versus the three Aston Martins piloted by van Hover, Engelhorn and Smyth. No-one else looked quick enough to be in contention and that was indeed the case, the ‘others’ didn’t provide much interest either, other than a first corner tripping up between the #18 BMW and lead KTM X-bow. Pole-sitting De Doncker looked like he had fluffed his start too as it was van Hover leading Smyth out of Copse, Engelhorn practically going backwards off the line. The Mustang’s grunt showed though and by the end of Vale the Ford was back in the lead, Smyth and van Hover swapping places too. Engelhorn soon reeled van Hover in and muscled his way down the inside at Luffield, a long, rubbing contact finally spitting the Dutch Aston Martin into a spin off the inside of the corner. So by the end of the first lap we had only three cars in contention. van Hover fell to the very back of the field, and then some, as he tried to get going again, yet such was the gap in pace between these four and the rather forgettable remainder that he was still able to recover and finish fourth. Engelhorn rubbed his way past Smyth through Vale on lap three and this lead trio showed peaks and troughs of performance as gaps waxed and waned. It gave one moment when all three were fighting for the next corner, but ultimately Engelhorn ran out of tarmac having snatched the lead momentarily at Vale, pitching him across the grass and allowing Smyth back into second, only for him to lose it again after running wide at Copse some laps later. Subsequent to that the Beechdean car looked out of sorts, twitching and smoking from the front right as Engelhorn set out alone to chase an increasingly ‘lairy-looking’ Mustang.
Cooked tyres on the Mustang – brake problems on the Beechdean Aston Martin. The lightest of touches nose to rump, Aston Martin to Mustang, was made at Luffield just two minutes from the end and Engelhorn’s Aston deposited De Doncker’s car just where van Hover’s had ended up. The Mustang was so twitchy at that point that a well placed breath would probably have pitched it into a spin. Smyth went through as the Mustang got back up to speed and so the podium was decided. Whilst Engelhorn’s was a physical drive and each pass was well-earned, he never really over-stepped the mark. However, the officials disagreed (after the podium celebrations) and granted him a 15 second penalty for the tap on the Mustang’s rear – so Jamie Smyth took the win for Beechdean. He had seemed pretty happy with second...
“This was a great end to the weekend after the problems we had on Friday, a win for the team in our first FIA attempt is just brilliant,” commented the winner. “During the race the car was a bit difficult in the slow corners and was understeering quite a lot, but I had built up a bit of a gap after the frantic start so it was a case of maintaining my position and bringing the car home."
You only need two cars to
make a race, here we had three, but other than a few brief moments, it wasn’t
really that entertaining, certainly not when compared with the rest of the
weekend’s fine racing. More cars needed. Result |
