Porsche Cup: Double victory for Ernst Keller
SWISS RECORD IN AUSTRIA Around 80 drivers from the Porsche Cup Suisse held their first championship races of 2018 in Spielberg at the end of April. In the GT3 Cup Challenge, Ernst Keller won both races ahead of defending champion Jean-Paul von Burg. While it was still cold and wet in free practice, the Red Bull Ring presented itself as a [...]
While it was still cold and wet in free practice, the Red Bull Ring presented itself from its most beautiful side on the two race days - especially for Ernst Keller. Having only started here in 2017, he won both races of the GT3 Cup Challenge.
In the first race, Jean-Paul von Burg started a little faster, but as pole setter Keller was on the better inner line with his Porsche 991 II GT3 Cup and thus stayed ahead of the defending champion after the first corner until the finish.
A battle broke out for third place on the podium between Marco Sacchet, who started third, Manuel Nicolaidis and Rémi Terrail. The Frenchman kept the upper hand, Sacchet only finished fifth.
A perfect weekend for Ernst Keller
The finish also gave the starting lineup for the second sprint. This time von Burg managed to overtake Keller, but braked in the following turn. So Keller took the lead again and celebrated his second victory on the first race weekend.
Ernst Keller: "A perfect weekend for Sportec Motorsport and me. Since we couldn't do any test kilometers with the new Porsche, expectations weren't very high. But I knew that the Red Bull Ring suits me, as we also posted the fastest race lap here twice last year."
Time penalties brought rank shifts
Champion Jean-Paul von Burg thought he was in second place before he was given a time penalty for failing to stay within the track boundary, causing him to slip to fourth. Rémi Terrail and Patrick Schmalz also received a time penalty for the same reason and thus dropped back in the standings.
So second place went to the presumed third Andreas Corradina. Manuel Nicolaidis benefited even more, having fought his way up from grid position 13 to sixth place and in the end was classified third.
In the 30-car Porsche Sports Cup Suisse, the drivers with the Cayman GT4 Clubsport dominated the action as in the previous year.
In the first sprint, Stefano Monaco, Leonard Rendulic and Patrick Schetty started from the best grid positions, which they turned into corresponding podium finishes. Monaco thus also won on a car supported by Sportec.
From 5th place to the top
There were more shifts in positions in the second race, which Rendulic started at the front after Amedeo Pampanini was given a time penalty. On the eighth lap, Marcel Zimmermann, who started from 5th place, grabbed the lead and never relinquished it. With him also Amag First Rennsport came to a success.
Stephan Heim advanced even further: from the very beginning he started an impressive race to catch up, which was rewarded with fourth place.
Fastest in the entire field in both races was Christian Pfefferle in the 991 GT3 Cup R from ANT Performance. Thomas Fleischer was ahead at times in his 997 GT3 Cup R from Fach Auto Tech, but still had to admit defeat twice.
Master of regularity
In the Porsche Driver's Challenge, in which the average of a driver's ten race laps is defined as the reference lap, Peter Meister in his 991 GT3 was the most regular. Second place went to Martin Kaufmann on a 996 GT3 RS, while senior Sonja Heiniger was pleased with third place in her 991 GT3, which was still moving briskly.
Since the previous season, all six races have been organized centrally by the Association of Swiss Porsche Clubs. The next round will be held in Le Castellet, France, from June 8 to 10. Instead of two sprints, there will then be a sprint and an endurance race for the Porsche Sports Cup as well as the GT4 Clubsport and GT3 Cup Challenge.
