Porsche Cup: Promoted drivers come up trumps
YOUTH AHEAD The three talents sponsored by the Association of Swiss Porsche Clubs and Porsche Schweiz AG settled the action among themselves at the second GT3 Cup round in Le Castellet. While Antonio Teixeira dominated the 12-lap race on the 5.822-kilometer variant of the Circuit Paul Ricard, Dominik Fischli emerged victorious from the 100-mile race - after [...]
While Antonio Teixeira dominated the 12-lap race on the 5.822-kilometer version of the Circuit Paul Ricard, Dominik Fischli emerged victorious from the 100-mile race - after Teixeira looked like the sure first-place winner until shortly before the end. Hockenheim double winner Alexander Fach claimed two second places.
Texiera's revenge in the GT3 Cup
In the sprint race, last year's runner-up took revenge for his average start to the season in Hockenheim. Antonio Texeira, who is in his second year of sponsorship by the VSPC and Porsche Schweiz AG, started from pole position and controlled the race from the front to the finish.
Behind the 19-year-old from Bilten, Alexander Fach took second place in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup fielded by his family's own team. However, the 18-year-old double winner at Hockenheim had to let Dominik Fischli pass him temporarily.
Fischli had moved past the Schwyz driver on the first lap, but lost second place again in the fourth round. Fach and Fischli are the two new young drivers in the field of competitors who will be included in the development program in 2020 by the Association of Swiss Porsche Clubs and Porsche Schweiz AG.
José Teixeira, the older brother of the winner, had secured fifth place in qualifying. However, he started the race from eighth position because he had had his Cup sports car with around 485 hp fitted with two new tires. His race to catch up took him up to fourth place.
Behind them followed another pair of brothers: Ricardo Burkhard beat Gregor Burkard by just 0.75 seconds. Sébastien Pidoux and Peter Hegglin finished behind them.
Unknown hero
Before the 100-mile endurance race Antonio Teixeira also had two new tires fitted, which is why he was relegated to grid position 13 in the cross-class field. From there, the youngster quickly worked his way back to the front.
In the 18th of 28 laps, Texeira even took the lead and defended it until shortly before the black and white checkered flag fell. However, due to a puncture he rolled off the track on the last lap and slipped down to 19th place in the GT3 Cup standings as a result.
Fischli inherits the victory
Dominik Fischli, who had been chasing Teixeira for a long time, was the beneficiary of this mishap. Alexander Fach finished a good 19 seconds behind in second place ahead of Ricardo Burkard and José Teixeira, who had already passed Sebastien Pidoux and reached the rear of the car in front of him.
Professional Klaus Bachler, who started from the best place of the GT3 Cup cars, led the class standings in the first half of the race. For him and second driver Paul Kasper, the 160-kilometer run was over on lap 20.
Repeat offenders from Italy
In the GT4 Challenge, Francesco Fenici repeated his commanding performance at the season opener in Hockenheim: The Roman won both rounds in impressive style.
The Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse was won by Peter Gafner with the most consistent lap times. We will come back to both classifications and the GT Open of the other groups, which was dominated by foreigners, in the course of the week in a separate report.
