Saintéloc Junior Team Audi secures Pro-Am Cup championship
Alexander Hartvig and Nathan Schaap drive the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche to an overall win in Hockenheim's Race 2
#30 W&S Motorsport Porsche (Still/Kronberg) takes back-to-back Pro-Am victory• #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi executes a solid race plan to take the 2023 Pro-Am Cup title
Stunning drive in #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche earns yet another Am Cup win for Varutti/Piguet
Race 2 at Hockenheim got underway at 11.30 CEST with 38 cars on the starting grid, after a handful of crews were not able to join following the late accident in Race 1. The #17 V8 Racing Chevrolet led the way from pole position, but once the leading car had picked up a double penalty, there was no stopping the Porsches taking another triple category win at the German track.
First things first: in the early stages of Race 2, it was Alban Varutti who displayed some truly spirited driving to bring the freshly crowned #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche Cayman into contact with the front runners, before handing over to Julien Piguet who finished the job with a solid P5 overall. This was yet another dominant Am Cup victory for the duo, leaving the #442 W&S Motorsport Porsche (Dawson/Xavier) and W&D Racing Team BMW (Meloni/Meloni) far behind.
Leading up to the pit window, the pole-sitting #17 V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro came under attack from a swarm of angry Caymans, but was able to fend off every move by the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche (Hartvig/Schaap) and the #94 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche (Ekelchik/Möller-Madsen). After emerging out of the pit window well in the lead, it turned out the Chevrolet had picked up a five-second penalty for track limits – and another 11-second penalty for a short pitstop.
That put the #17 Chevrolet out of contention for good and opened the door for the entire Porsche fleet following behind. Exciting battles emerged, and in an entirely uninterrupted race full of elbows-out action, the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche (Hartvig/Schaap) came out on top. The #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche looked all set to take P2, but Hendrik Still and Max Kronberg finally had to settle for P3, still concluding a perfect Pro-Am weekend for them.
Second overall was claimed, in the very late stages, by man-on-a-mission Benjamin Lariche, who had taken over the #3 Team Speedcar Audi from Robert Consani. That brought the Audi back from the DNF in Saturday's Race 1, but more importantly bagged some very important points to stay within Silver championship reach against the #2 and #12 BMW crews of Piana/Schrey and Edgar/Besler respectively. Both the Bavarian GT4 cars were struggling to find pace all weekend, finally coming home in 13th and 8th overall.
With the Pro-Am win safely in the hands of the #30 Porsche, Grégory Guilvert and Christophe Hamon knew exactly what they had to do in the #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT4. The French crew picked their fights carefully, steered well clear of any kind of trouble and finally finished third in Pro-Am Cup, one place behind the #36 Code Racing Development Alpine A110 GT4 EVO of Leclerc/Bouvet. Mission accomplished for Guilvert/Hamon, who can now proudly call themselves the 2023 Pro-Am champions!
After an action-packed weekend at Hockenheim, the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club has now completed 10 of its 12 races. The grid will battle it out for points one last time in the season finale at Barcelona, with the competitive action scheduled for Saturday, September 30th and Sunday, October 1st.
