Bonnet, Czaczyk win F1600 races in Trois-Rivières
The Formula Tour 1600 Groupe STCH staged three races during the prestigious GP3R, the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières.
Photo by: Olivier Delorme
In race 1 of the meeting, pole position holder Michel Bonnet pulled away from the rest of the field in his Vector. Parker Thompson (Spectrum), unable to follow the leader, was a distant second. A huge battle for third place developed between Roman de Angelis (Piper) and Didier Schraenen (CMV).
Guillaume Archambault (CMV) was fifth ahead of Konrad Czaczyk (Spectrum), and the two ran together around the mid-race point. Now de Angelis, Schraenen and Archambault were involved in a close battle.
Out in front, Bonnet had a solid three-second lead. Thompson was still second, all by himself, and then came De Angelis, Schraenen, Czaczyk Archambault and F1600 returnee, Marc-Antoine Cardin. With just four minutes left in the race, Cardin moved ahead of Archambault. At the same time, Schraenen has dropped back some four or five car lengths behind Angelis.
After 25 laps, Bonnet crossed the line in first place ahead of Thompson and De Angelis.
Czaczyk in command
Parker Thompson was on pole for the second race of the meeting held at 7 p.m. on Friday night.
This time, Konrad Czaczyk from Loxahatchee, Florida, proved to be unbeatable. At the wheel of his No. 91 Spectrum-Honda prepared by Exclusive Autosport, Czaczyk mated his rivals on the gruelling street course.
He won the 22-lap race with a two-second advantage over Roman de Angelis. Parker Thompson arrived home in third place. The winner of Race 1, Michel Bonnet was fourth ahead of Didier Schraenen. Sadly, only 13 cars took part of the race.
A wild race
Disaster struck for Michel Bonnet at the start of the third race when his Vector was sent into a series of wild spins in the middle of the pack. Unfortunately, Marc-Antoine Cardin could not avoid him and hit the spinning Vector, causing both drivers to retire.
The Safety Car came in action while the track workers cleaned the mess. The green as waved on Lap 3 with De Angelis in command from Didier Schraenen. Moments later, Parker Thompson stopped his Spectrum on the race track and retired. The incident forced the Safety Car to take to the track, again.
The race was restarted on Lap 6. De Angelis took control of the race and one lap later, Czaczyk powered ahead of Schraenen for second place. Archambault tried to pass Schraenen for third place under the Porte Duplessis. Archambault was not alongside his rival and the two cars touched. Archambault retired on the spot while Schraenen undid his belts in the pit lane. Guess what? The Safety Car returned to the track.
The green was waved on Lap 11. Czaczyk moved ahead of de Angelis for the lead corners later. One lap later, De Angelis retook the lead of the race as he and Czaczyk fought furiously. On the last lap, Czaczyk outbraked De Angelis at the end of the long straightway to take the lead and win the race. Jacob Astren finished third in front of Ben Hurst and Matthew Taskinen. Only nine cars reached the chequered flag.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments