MOGYORÓD (25 September 2016) – Villorba Corse drivers Patrick Zamparini and Luca Anselmi scored a commanding victory in the second race of the Competition102 GT4 European Series at the Hungaroring. The Italian team was denied a podium finish on Saturday after suffering a puncture, but bounced back during the final race of the weekend to claim its second victory of the season. Jérôme Demay and Damien Dupont also claimed their second GT4 AM victory of the year, by beating Sofia Car Motorsport drivers Chris Chadwick and Nicolae Sergiu George.
Luca Anselmi started the final race of the weekend on tyres they used in the second part of Saturday’s race. On a fresh set of tyres Ricardo van der Ende was able to outpace the Italian on the straight and before the first right-hander the Racing Team Holland by Ekris Motorsport M4 GT4 was already in the lead. Anselmi struggled with his tyres and initially dropped back behind PROsport Performance drivers Peter Terting and Nicolaj Møller Madsen. On lap five he was able to pass the Dane to retake third place.
The PROsport Performance drivers were unable to catch Van der Ende, who had built up a comfortable cushion over his rivals during the early stages of the race. Behind the Porsches and the Maserati, six drivers were fighting with each other for sixth place, with the Street Art Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Damien Dupont leading the pack. Soon RYS driver Chris Vlok joined the fight, which lasted for laps. Positions were swapped several times, until the mandatory pit stop temporarily ended the battle.
Terting, Anselmi and Møller Madsen made their pit stop at the end of lap 13, Van der Ende and his team decided to wait for two more laps. Just as Van Oranje came into the pits, teammate Rob Severs went off into the wall at the exit of turn 1. The race director deployed the safety car in order to safely recover the #8 Ekris M4 GT4. Almost seven minutes later the safety car pulled in and the race was restarted, with Patrick Zamparini right on the tail of the leading Ekris M4 GT4 of Van Oranje.
Going into the chicane Zamparini overtook Van Oranje to take the lead on lap 19. Jörg Viebahn also tried to overtake the Dutchman, but he himself came under threat from RYS driver Mads Siljehaug and Swiss Team driver Giuseppe Fascicolo. Siljehaug and Van Oranje made contact several times in their fight for second place, but with five minutes left on the clock Dutchman spun off after being hit by the RYS Team Hohenberg KTM X-Bow GT4.
Siljehaug then began to chase down Zamparini and had reduced the gap to 5.5s, when he made a mistake and brushed the barrier out of the chicane with just a minute left. The Norwegian was able to continue and kept Fascicolo behind, but any chance of catching race leader Zamparini was gone.
After 26 laps Zamparini crossed the line to take the win, finishing 5.5s clear of Siljehaug. Fascicolo came across the finish in third place, which became second place after Siljehaug was given a 25-second penalty for the collision with Van Oranje. Peter Terting and Jörg Viebahn originally finished in fourth place, but yesterday’s race winners were promoted to third thanks to Siljehaug’s penalty.
Having been beaten by PROsport Performance in yesterday’s race, Street Art Racing drivers Jérôme Demay and Damien Dupont clinched the GT4 AM victory in today’s race. Their Aston Martin Vantage GT4 finished just 0.265s ahead of the Sofia Car Motorsport Sin R1 GT4 of Chris Chadwick and Nicolae Sergiu George. Bald Eagle Racing’s Oskar Krüger and Kari Mäkinen secured the final podium finish in the class.
Patrick Zamparini (#90 Villorba Corse Maserati): “We had two pole positions, we set the fastest lap in yesterday’s race. We were really unlucky because we had a blown tyre. Today, Luca struggled a bit in the first part, because the others were on new tyres and we had used ones from yesterday. When I went in I knew I was faster than the others, but we were a bit lucky today with the safety car. I tried overtake the BMW as soon as possible, I pushed for a few laps and then tried to make it to the end. Big thanks for Luca! It has been a great weekend, if we had not blown the tyres yesterday we would have been on top of the podium as well.”
Luca Anselmi (#90 Villorba Corse Maserati): “We knew that this circuit didn’t really suit the Maserati, but we did a really good job. The car was perfect since the very first lap I did. I had some problems today with the tyres in the first couple of laps, but when you win it is all good!”
Damien Dupont (#7 Street Art Racing Aston Martin): “Race two was more difficult than race one. The setup was different and the front of the car wasn’t really good today. I battled with the car all race, so it was difficult to keep my position. At the end of the day the safety car was very good for me and Jérôme, because he had no brakes so it would have been very difficult. The result is good, but we had a lot of work on the car. We’ll have to work hard to set it up well for Zandvoort.”
The final two races of the 2016 Competition102 GT4 European Series will take place in The Netherlands, at Circuit Park Zandvoort (October, 7-9). Both races are to be held on Sunday, with qualifying taking place on Saturday
