Morgan Scores Debut FIA GT3 Win at Silverstone
03
May 2009
Dimitri Enjalbert and Johan-Boris Scheier celebrated the maiden win
for the AutoGT Racing Morgan Super Sport in the opening round of
the FIA GT3 European Championship at Silverstone. Starting from pole
position Enjelbert briefly lost the lead but bounced back to hold
the advantage until Scheier came under pressure late in the race
from the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Haase. The German
swept into the lead on lap 22, but a technical problem forced the
Audi into the pits to retire, promoting Scheier back into the lead,
which he held until the flag.
Round 1
Gearbox failure forced the #8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia of
Andrea Palma and Stefano Gattuso to miss the start, so the Morgan Aero
Super Sport of Dimitri Enjalbert led the thirty-six car field around
the 5.14 kilometre Silverstone Grand Prix circuit but as the lights
went out it was the Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin of Thomas Accary
that got the better start and led as the cars swept around Copse for
the first time, with the Morgan glued to rear of the leaders car. Enjalbert
got the better run into Maggotts and retook the lead as the field headed
out of Becketts and down the long Hanger Straight. Christopher Mies
in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS also got ahead of the Team Rosberg
Audi of Nicolas Armindo and set off after the second placed Aston Martin.
Further back the Morgan of Gael Lesoudier had moved into 5th place
but a spin at Brooklands on lap 2 put the French driver back down the
order.
On lap 3 Walter Salles in the #1 Matech GT Racing spun at Maggotts,
taking to the grass but was collected by the unfortunate James Gornall
in the #10 Brixia Racing Aston Martin DBRS9, which damaged the Aston’s
radiator and forced the British GT champion to retire. Jaromir Jirik
also managed to miss the spinning Ford GT in the Muehlner Motorsport
Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S.
Enjalbert led from Accary, who was coming under pressure from Mies
and Armindo in the two Audi R8s. The top four started to open a gap
to the 5th placed car of Christoffer Nygaard in the #28 Fischer Racing
Ford GT and the #33 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS of Martin Matzke.
On lap 8 Luca Moro retired in the #6 Callaway Competition Corvette
Z06R, pulling off the circuit at Club. There was also contact between
Manuel Rodrigues in the #4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 and
Csaba Walter in the Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3, with the Aston suffering
from damage to the front suspension which forced Rodrigues into the
pits to retire.
Dimitri Enjalbert opened a small gap to the following Aston Martin,
ending lap 11 nearly two seconds ahead as Accary was forced to defend
his second place from Mies and Armindo.
The pitstop window opened on lap 12 and Jaromir Jirik and Csaba Walter
were the first two cars into the pitlane for their mandatory pitstop.
Meanwhile 4th placed Nicolas Armindo challenged Mies for third on the
exit of Stowe and on the entry to Club had to take the grass as he
appeared to outbrake himself. The Audi speared across the grass on
the inside of Club corner and rejoined the track still in 4th but losing
a lot of time to the Phoenix Racing Audi.
On lap 16 Enjalbert and Mies came into the pits for their stops to
hand over to Johan-Boris Scheier and Christopher Haase respectively,
with Accary continuing for one lap in the lead before pitting to hand
over the car to Julien Rodrigues. Scheier rejoined the track in the
lead of the race with Rodrigues in second and Haase right on the tail
of the Aston Martin.
On lap 18 the Phoenix Racing Audi swept past the Aston Martin at Abbey
and rapidly closed the gap to the leading Morgan. Haase made his move
at Priory on lap 22 passing the Morgan on the inside of the lefthander.
Haase then opened up a 1.6 second gap and looked good to take the first
win of the year but a suspected transmission problem forced the car
to slow down on lap 25 and Scheier moved back into the lead as the
Audi went into the pitlane to retire.
The gap from the leading Morgan and the second placed Aston Martin
was nine seconds with a further seventeen seconds to Cesar Campanico
now at the wheel of the #32 Team Rosberg Audi R8. Behind the leaders
the battle was for 5th place as Diego Alessi struggled with his Marc
Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R and was passed by Tim Bergmeister in the
Muehlner Motorsport Porsche and then the #101 Morgan of Maxime Martin.
The chequered flag signalled a debut FIA GT3 win for the Morgan Aero
Super Sport, for AutoGT Racing, Dimitri Enjalbert and Johan-Boris Scheier.
Dimitri Enjalbert: “I didn’t get a good start which allowed
Thomas Accary to overtake me but I retook the first place at the next
turn. The car felt very good on the track and fortunately the Audi
gave up and we won the race. The goal is now to win the second race
tomorrow and take a lot of points for the championship. This is very
good for the whole team, for Morgan and for us.”
Johan-Boris Scheier: “Dimitri gave me the car while in first
place and I just concentrated on our objective. I think tomorrows race
will be more difficult than today. We are very happy with this result
and hope we can be in the same position tomorrow but it is going to
be hard.”
Thomas Accary: “I was first at the first corner, unfortunately
Dimitri overtook me; he did a very good race. It was very difficult
with the car because we had a lot of understeer in the fast corners.
Julien Rodrigues did a great job and second place is not so bad. It
was difficult to keep the Audis behind in the race but we managed to
beat them in the race.”
Julien Rodrigues: “It was a hard race because we have a lot of
problems and found it difficult, but we got the car to the finish.
We will work on the car tonight; we do have a very good car and I know
we can do a good job tomorrow. So thank you to Hexis.”
Nicolas Armindo: “At the start it was two Audis on the same row
and it would’ve been a mistake to block the second car because
he had a better start than me. In the beginning I was quicker, but
the car in front was losing a Iot of fuel, it was a technical problem,
and it caused me some problems as I had a lot of oversteer and it was
hard to keep the car on the track because of the fuel. At one moment
I missed the brake; I was very lucky not to clip the Aston Martin because
I touched the ABS when I was on the fuel. It was not easy but in the
end we were very lucky because the second Audi was very fast. Cesar
did a good job because we could finish the race without any problems.
We have seen that we weren’t fast enough to catch the Aston Martin
and the Morgan but we have to work this evening. But first race and
first podium for Audi which is a good basis for the rest of the season.”
Cesar Campanico: “It was very hard. The track was very dirty
and the car was quite difficult to drive. I saw my mechanics telling
me that I was very far away from 2nd placed car and the 4th was too
far behind, so I just kept the car on the track. The car is still new
and of course we have some problems but in these races you have to
finish and I’m very happy with this podium.”
FIA GT3
See 2009 series calendar for FIA
GT Championship
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