Double Top for Morgan and AutoGT Racing in FIA GT3 Openers

03 May 2009

In a perfect display of Anglo-French relations the Morgan Aero Super Sport of Maxime Martin and Gael Lesoudier scored a lights-to-flag victory in the second round of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship at Silverstone. The British car, prepared and run by the French AutoGT Racing team, dominated the opening weekend of the championship, with the second Morgan of Johan-Boris Scheier and Dimitri Enjalbert having won the opening round of the weekend.

It was also a good race for Audi with the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies moving up through the field from 16th to finish in 2nd place and making up for the disappointment of missing a podium finish in the first race. Third place was snatched by Nicolas Armindo with a last corner move on Thomas Accary in the Team Rosberg Audi to take the second podium of the weekend for himself and Cesar Campanico.

Round 2
With the #37 Zakspeed Viper not starting due to the damage sustained in round 1 and the #22 Trackspeed Porsche of Tim Sugden starting from the pitlane, the FIA GT3 European Championship grid of 35 cars were led round to the start by the #101 AutoGT Racing Morgan of Maxime Martin. As the lights went out the Belgian driver got a good start to lead into the first corner at Copse as the #17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette of Diego Alessi moved ahead of the Mühlner Motorsport Porsche of Sean Edwards. Edwards lost a further place to Dino Lunardi’s Matech GT Racing Ford GT at Stowe. Further back Sascha Bert made up three places on the opening lap and progressed a further two places to end lap 3 in 5th place in the sole Zakspeed Racing Viper.

The leading Morgan was able to maintain a comfortable 1.5 second lead over the second placed Corvette while Sean Edwards was battling with Dino Lunardi’s Ford GT and moved ahead at Luffield when the Ford spun after contact with the flying Porsche. Edwards then closed the gap to Alessi’s Corvette to just 0.5 seconds but was unable to find a way round the second placed car for the next few laps. Edwards finally made a move on lap 11 to move back into second place.

The race one winning Morgan of Johan-Boris Scheier had been making steady progress after losing a place on the opening lap. The French driver move ahead of Thomas Accary on lap 4 at Bridge Corner and was chasing down the Ford GT of Thomas Mutsch as the pitstops approached.

The pit window opened on lap 13 with some of the back markers electing to stop early while the front runners stayed out. Johan-Boris Scheier brought the Morgan in on lap 17 but the Morgan failed to start after Dimitri Enjalbert jumped in, leaving car and driver going nowhere. After the pitstops Gael Lesoudier, now at the wheel of the #101 Morgan, had a lead of nearly 15 seconds over the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette, now driven by Luca Pirri.

Further back Sascha Bert in the Zakspeed Viper was fending off the attentions of Thomas Mutsch in the Matech Ford GT. The Viper had to defend at nearly every corner on the circuit but the highly experienced Bert held onto 5th place. However on lap 17 the two cars clashed at Stowe when Mutsch tried to dive down the inside of the Viper and Bert was committed to the corner. The Viper was out on the spot, with heavy damage, and the Ford limped back to the pits with tyre smoke billowing from the front left of the car.

On the same lap the #29 Fischer Racing Ford GT of Harald Becker was hit from behind by the #11 Prospeed Competition Porsche of Niki Lanik. The Porsche was launched into the air in the impact at Copse and both cars were heavily damaged, but the drivers emerged unscathed. Lanik was later handed a five place grid penalty for the next race by the race stewards.

After the pitstops the #26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 of Christopher Mies was in 4th place and catching the #4 Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Frederic Makowiecki. On lap 22 Mies passed the Aston to move into 3rd place and then started to rapidly close the gap to the second placed Corvette, which had been given a drive through penalty for work carried out on the grid just prior to the start. Pirri continued to circulate in second place as the Audi caught the Corvette. Mies wasn’t sure when Pirri was going to go into the pits to take the penalty, so the German moved ahead with an inside move at Abbey on lap 27. The Corvette did peel off into the pitlane at the end of the lap and emerged back on track in 7th place.

Lesoudier continued to lap the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and now held a 17 second lead over Mies with just two laps remaining. However the Audi was now coming under pressure from Thomas Accary in the #3 Hexis Racing Aston Martin, who was in turn being caught by Nicolas Armindo in the Team Rosberg Audi. Accary moved ahead of Mies on lap 29 but on the next lap slid off the track at Priory and a trip across the gravel put him into the clutches of Armindo, as Mies regained his lost second place.

Thomas Accary began the last lap with the Team Rosberg Audi filling his mirrors but the French driver was holding on to the final podium position. As the two cars entered the stadium for the last time Nicolas Armindo saw an opportunity and at Luffield made a lunge down the inside of the Aston Martin to push past and take the final podium position by a tenth of a second.

The race belonged to Gael Lesoudier and the French driver, in a French prepared British car, took the chequered flag to give the team its second win of the weekend. Christopher Mies crossed the line 18 seconds later but was pleased to take the podium after starting in 16th place.

The next two races will take place in at the Adria International Raceway in Italy on Saturday 16th May with the second race taking place at 22:30 on Saturday evening, the first time the FIA GT3 European Championship has ever held a night race.

Maxime Martin: "I had a very good start so I could stay in first at the first corner. We were very fast, so it was great and Gael was very good at the end, so it was fantastic for the whole team. It wasn't easy, but we could stay first, so it was fantastic. We had some problems at the end of the race with the tyres, but it was good at the beginning. It is good for the team with two wins, we can't do better."

Gael Lesoudier: "I had some trouble with the rear of the car, with the tyres. So I tried not to push to try and keep the rear tyres good until the end of the race. Maxime pushed a lot at the beginning, so we had a little gap which was OK. It is a fantastic weekend for Morgan and we are in England, so for Charles Morgan it is a fantastic day."

Christopher Haase: "I had a very good start. After the first and second laps I was able to overtake a lot of cars, eight cars by the driver change. For me it was a good race and Christopher, my teammate, also did a good job to the end of the race and it was very nice. After the problem yesterday the car was OK; we didn't have any problems."

Christopher Mies: "I had a good race; it was a little bit difficult because the tyres were very bad, especially in the last ten minutes. Now I'm happy with second place and over the distance the car was very good. I was told that Alessi had a penalty but he didn't pull off into the pits and so I decided to overtake him because I was much faster. In the corner he had a few problems and I was able to overtake him."

Cesar Campanico: "It was very difficult because I was in the middle of a group of cars. I went up to 19th and the group I was in was very close and to overtake was very risky. I saw our group wasn't very far from the top ten group, so I just kept the car on the track. We did a very good job in the pitstop and what can I say about Nicolas? He did a great race and in the last lap to be third, well we never expected to be there from 25th, so I'm very happy."

Nicolas Armindo: "When I took the car I was not directly behind the Aston Martin. Thanks a lot to Cesar; when he gave me the car the tyres were nearly new and I could push for the rest of the race and I could overtake cars. Before the last lap the team said to me that if I could be third I was to push as hard as I can - so I did. The last lap, the last corner it was very close and a little hard, but this is racing. We worked a lot on the car yesterday evening because we destroyed the tyres in the first race and we found out how to do it. We'll have to see next time because we get a weight penalty. Adria is a completely different race track. Here we have fast corners and high speed and in Adria it will be different because there is a lot of braking, a lot of heat in the car, it will be a lot more physical."

FIA GT3

See 2009 series calendar for FIA GT Championship

Related Story 03.05.2009 - Morgan Scores Debut FIA GT3 Win at Silverstone