Porsche Cup Suisse: Champion freestyle by Misbach and Garski
PREVIOUS Like Alexander Fach in the GT3 Cup, Laurent Misbach decided both races in Misano in his quest for the GT4 championship title. In the Porsche Drivers Challenge, Nicolas Garski remained unbeaten in 2021.
Last year's runner-up in Class 10 of the GT4 Clubsport category secured the title with his sprint wins number 6 and 7 in the current season. However, Laurent Misbach's successes were not a foregone conclusion.
In the first Misano race, the Geneva native had to work his way up from fourth on the grid. It wasn't until the twelfth of 15 laps that he was able to wrest the lead from Thomas Herbst. The latter finished second ahead of guest entrant Giuseppe Ghezzi and Alexandre Mottet.
Strong return of the master
In the second race, Misbach (center gallery) took a start-finish victory, but danger threatened from behind in the form of Francesco Fenici. Last year's champion had taken over the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR with around 425 hp from Valerio Presezzi and started the race from 11th place.
After a strong race to catch up, the Roman was able to take over second position on lap 12 and reduce his gap to Misbach to eight tenths - but it was no longer enough to overtake. Third place in this class went to Thomas Herbst ahead of Giuseppe Ghezzi and Paolo Gnemmi.
Also two class wins for Schetty
In Class 11 for Porsche 718 GT4 Clubsport without MR package, Patrick Schetty (gallery left) had a final weekend to measure. In the first race, he drove to victory from pole position. Behind him, Renzo Kressig, who had started fourth in this category, was able to catch Andreas Greiling first and then Thomas Brauch on the last lap.
This shuffled the cards for an exciting second race. Schetty again took the class lead. Kressig (gallery, right) took up the chase but had to let Alexandre Mottet's MR Cayman pass on lap 12 and shortly afterwards lost his second position to the strong Jens Richter. The German had still been in 16th place overall after the start before a furious chase took him to the second highest step of the podium in Class 11.
Foreigner wins in GT Open
In the GT Open category, Germany's Jörg Dreisow won the first race in a 911 GT3 R ahead of Loic Villiger in a Cup model, with the Italians Pieri and Alessandri ahead in the second race. In the two-hour final race under floodlights, Jan Klingelnberg and Dino Zamparelli drove another 911 GT3 Cup to class victory.
Jörg Dreisow and Manuel Lauck started from pole position in their 911 GT3 R, but had to park their sports car on the first lap. The driver trio of Sadamoto Takahashi, Alessandro Baccani and Simone Iaquinta finished as the best-rated Cayman team.
Unbeaten master of uniformity
Nicolas Garski can look back on a flawless season after the sixth round of the Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse. He remained unbeaten in Misano as well - rarely has a champion in the uniformity competition earned the title as Garski has in his Porsche 911 GT3.
At the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, his deviations from his own average time varied by just 1.53 seconds over the nine laps scored. Peter Gafner was unable to do anything about this. Last year's champion once again had to settle for second place with a deviation of 2.52 seconds. Places 3 to 5 went to Franco Castellazzi, Marius Hutmacher and Robert Schwaller.
