Welcome to Season 9, Week 2 of ThePitCrews GT3 weekday championship Highlights, I’m Terry Farish your commentator and founder of ThePitCrew, and what a week we have in store for you!
Catch the VOD below, and for the full write-up, continue reading!
GT3 Double Dash – Round 2 – Race 1
Sign up: https://thepitcrew.co.uk/championship/season-9-monday-double-dash/
Pree Masand in the Green and Yellow #78 Lamborghini followed suit on last weeks qualifying, taking pole position from the qualifying, with Pip Homer in his black McLaren 720s GT3 in second and Callum Spinks in the purple and yellow Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo in Third Place position on the grid for both races.
The start of the race would see Pree continue in his pole position, with Pip Homer and Callum Spinks dropping back slightly, but it was the mid-pack where we saw all the action this week, where on lap 4, the new driver of Kacper Swider in the Number 10 McLaren would make a move past Fernando Diaz Gonzales in the number 998 McLaren, in a war of the blue McLarens to take the position going through turn 9, the battle would continue through turns 10 and 11 with Fernando eventually retaking the position through the inside line on the exit of Turn 11.
The next battle was going to be who could take home 5th Position, with Victor Jansen in the number 90 Mercedes AMG and Ian Watkins in the AMR V8 Vantage attempting to find out who’s the quickest, as they went into the fast right-hander of turn 8, Ian Watkins would slip up the inside to claim 5th Position.
Fernando Diaz Gonzales was involved in a lot of the battles during the race, including one with Paul Cook as they came around through turn 8 on Lap 7.
Ian Watkins next target was Sebastian Leinmuller for 4th Place Position, as he made his way down the start-finish after a fantastic exit out of the last turn on the track, with his pedal to the floor, he managed to go around the outside and take over Sebastian Leinmuller before the first corner!
Pree Masand would claim the first place points for the Pro Class in the end, picking up 25 points for his pace and consistency in the Lamborghini throughout the race.
Onto the standings and overall, it was Pree Masand to finish first, Pip Homer to finish second, Callum Spinks taking the third step on this weeks podium overall!
GT3 Double Dash – Round 2 – Race 2
Sign up: https://thepitcrew.co.uk/championship/season-9-monday-double-dash/
Race two once again saw Pree Masand start in Pole Position, with Pip Homer and Callum Spinks in second and third, all drivers bunched up as they went into turn one, with not a single driver wanting to lose out on the positions like last race, Pip Homer was soon under fire from the number 52 Ferrari of Callum Spinks though, although managed to hold off for long enough!
Kacper Swider would lose a position to Roland Racz’s Audi on Lap 3 in the first sector, mirroring the driving we saw on the first lap!
Callum Spinks would use the power of the #52 Ferrari to cruise past Victor Jansen who was struggling with top speed throughout both races at the fast right-hander at the end of the long straight here at Paul Ricard, turn 8, eventually taking that position and leaving Victor Jansen in his rearview mirror.
This would be a very similar story for Jake Davenport who managed to cruise past the McLaren 720S of Kacper Swider going down the back straight, to take the position going into Turn 8!
Roland Racz and Ian Watkins were next to try drafting each other and see who could break the tow, with Ian Watkins going side by side with Roland down the majority of the straight and into turn 8, but eventually, it would be a step too far in the end and Roland and Ian had a collision, dropping them both right down the field, with Ian picking up damage to his rear.
Pree Masand would finish the race in first place position again picking up 25 points for his pace and consistency.
The final overall podium for the race was such:
Pree Masand in first place position in the Pro Class.
Pip Homer is in second place position in the Silver Class.
Sebastian Leinmuller is in third place position in the Silver Class.
GT3 Sprint Cup – Round 2 – Race
Sign up: https://thepitcrew.co.uk/championship/season-9-wednesday-sprint-cup/
On-to the main event of the week, the GT3 Sprint Cup, where 40 drivers took to Monza for the Second Round and only race of this round in the championship, with a lot of drivers on track, this meant a lot of overtaking, and with everyone going flat out into Turn 1, it was sure to be an exciting one, with a slight collision at the back of the pack, it allowed the front runners of Dylan Beeson and Manuel Benz to take off through variante alta and into the second chicane!
This isn’t where the majority of the action happened though, as we saw Ben Smith in his Porsche take the position from Wiehan Van Rooyen the #22 Ferrari in Lap 3, going into the second chicane on Lap 3.
Ian Vaeremans was the next to lose out on a position, with Paul Cook in the #63 Lamborghini Huracan powering through on the first chicane with a very nice move, with the #55 Audi attempting to take the position too.
Martin Almand and Daniel Ryan were next to duke it out to find out who could get the position, with Martin Almand taking the position as they went down and into Ascari.
Joonas Koivisto was next to pin it on the back of Jordi Zambrano as they came through the start/finish straight in his #189 Lexus, taking the inside line down the straight and also taking the position!
Thomas Pirello and Timi Lehtonen had a battle that lasted a few laps, with Timi eventually missing a braking point and Thomas claiming the position going into the second chicane.
James Suckling who started at the back of the pack due to a qualifying ban from the last race made up a huge tonne of positions, including this one past Jeremy Thomas.
Ilias Bilis would find just enough space to attempt to squeeze through the outside of Igor Vavro on Lap 24 in his Aston Martin, eventually taking the position coming down into Ascari with a move that paid dividends for the #23 Aston.
Timi Lehtonen and Ben Lopard would battle for a majority of the Race after Ben Lopard sustained early damage whilst attempting to close down the gap onto the Leader, but the battles never stopped for Ben Lopard as he came down into Turn 1 side by side with Timi Lehtonen, with the 2 drivers stuck to each other through Turn 1 and 2, eventually, Ben got the run and gained the position.
Resident Alien of ThePitCrew, Manuel Benz claimed his second win of the Season here at Monza, crossing the line in first place position in his Black, Grey and Red McLaren 720s, will he be able to hold on throughout, as we saw a lot of fighting start to come his way at the start of the race and we head to Imola next week!
The overall results in this week’s main event were:
Manuel Benz in first place in the Pro Class.
Thomas Pirello picking up second place in the Silver Class.
Ben Lopard with the move onto Timi Lehtonen claimed himself third place in the Pro Class.
Beginners Cup – Sundays
We also have the beginners cup from last week, which is a perfect series for those drivers who are just getting started racing online, limited to 3 cars, with the results for the top 3 being:
Gabor Kerek in first place.
Adam Jankowski is in second place.
Ginger Viking is in third place position.
Finally, the PitSkill Ranked Daily Race, with information at https://thepitcrew.co.uk/pitskill
How to watch the races live
Tune in live next week at https://twitch.tv/thepitcrewtv