GTO: Series Catalunya race one report

Pilet-Narac Back To Victory With The IMSA Porsche

Porsche and the team IMSA Performance Matmut found again the way to victory today, as they imposed their 911 GT3 RSR in a clear way in the first race of the Barcelona GT Open. Freshly-married Patrick Pilet and Raymond Narac were not afraid in this Halloween day and went for a perfect race and a fourth win this season, keeping alive some title chances.

Marcel Fassler and Joel Camathias finished second, therefore making another step forward in their title bid, as main rivals Lietz-Roda (Autorlando Porsche) finished fourth. The Swiss duo drove an impressive race, with Fassler dominating the first part of the race and Camathias clinching a superb second place, despite the Trottet Ferrari had a maximum handicap of 45". The Swiss pair has now a 32-point advantage (206 versus 174) on Lietz- Roda, while Pilet-Narac have 152 points. Excellent third today was the Vittoria Competizioni Ferrari of Ferdinando Monfardini and Marco Frezza.

The GTS category offered a lively race, which had many stars in the first phase, mainly the Corvette of GiacomoPiccini and the Ascari of Luis Monzon, but ended with an all- Ferrari podium. Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin imposed the F430 of Mtech Racing ahead of Frederic Mackowiecki-Jean Philippe Dayraut (AS Events) and championship leaders Philipp Peter-Michal Broniszewski in the Kessel Racing car.

Fassler takes the lead at the start followed by Aguas, Monfardini, Guierrez, Peter and Wiser, who gets busy in a beautiful fight with Giacomo Piccini (in the Corvette) and Luis Monzon on the surprisingly fast Ascari. The race was extremely lively since the first laps, with some incidents: Balandras and Kuzminykh got tangled in lap 1, while in lap 4 Monje on the SunRed suffered a contact and was sent into a spin, touching the armco. In lap 9, Amaral loses his Porsche and spins hitting the Corvette of Brichet and the Ascari of Monzon, which brings into the track the safety car for 3 laps.

At the re-start, Gutierrez stars passing both Aguas and Monfardini to take second, while Giacomo Piccini has a contact with Perazzini before going off in lap 15, and Giammaria passes Monfardini.

In the lead, Fassler continues to fly and manages to rebuild an advantage of 12" before giving the car to Camathias and serve a long 45" handicap. Once the window for driver changes is closed, it's Pilet leading ahead of Frezza (who has passed Garofano, who will later incur a drive-through), Camathias, Lietz, Bonetti, Cioci and Cameron (who leads the GTS category).

The final laps are pretty uneventful for the leading duo of Pilet and frezza, separated by 10 seconds, while Camathias holds his main title rival Lietz behind him. In the GTS category, Cameron is first ahead of Makowiecki, with Broniszewski and Guerrero fighting for third and the Phoenix Audi of Piccini fifth, despite having to stop for a punctured tire. The final thrill comes in the last lap when Camathias passes Frezza and takes second and some additional precious points.

-credit: gto