World Challenge: Podium for the Safenwil team 🎥
AND VICTORY FOR "NIDI" IN GT OPEN At the GT World Challenge in Magny-Cours, Emil Frey Racing took its first podium with Lamborghini. Meanwhile, Patric Niederhauser won the GT Open in Spielberg with KTM. The highlights reflect the atmosphere of the night race and offer plenty of action on the track. For Emil's first success of note [...]
The highlights reflect the atmosphere of the night race and offer plenty of action on the track.
The duo of Mikael Grenier/Norbert Siedler ensured Emil Frey Racing's first respectable success in the GT World Challenge Europe with Lamborghini. The Canadian created an excellent starting position with the second-best time in qualifying for the first of the two sprint races at the former GP circuit of Magny-Cours.
Hunter of the night
The start of the one-hour run under floodlights was scheduled for 10:15 pm. Grenier and his Austrian partner coped well with the special conditions and gave the Lamborghini partner team from Safenwil the targeted first podium with the Huracán GT3 Evo with second place.
The home team of Giacomo Altoè and Albert Costa, on the other hand, did not have luck on their side. Just a few minutes after the start, a Mercedes touched their Lamborghini. The resulting damage led to the early retirement of the #163.
Mistake with consequences
On Sunday, Costa qualified the car, which had been repaired overnight, for a good fifth place on the grid, Siedler for tenth. Impressive fact: 1st and 10th place were not even two tenths apart, reflecting the high performance density in the field of 23 GT3 sports cars.
Siedler and Grenier made up several positions in the course of the race and finished seventh again in the points. For the second duo, a collision between the Spaniard and a competitor first caused a loss of time during the pit stop with tire and driver changes, and on top of that they were given a penalty for Costa's misconduct. The result was twelfth place.
The team boss had one laughing and one crying eye after the fourth championship round.
Lorenz Frey-Hilti: "I'm extremely happy about the second place of our #14 in the night race. Grenier and Siedler did a great job. It feels good to be back on the podium with Lamborghini. The collision of the Mercedes with our #163 in the first race was very unfortunate - nevertheless we have to accept it that way. I'm basically satisfied with the performance of our two Lamborghinis in the second race. Of course the stop-and-go penalty is very annoying, because the chances for a better ranking were really good. Nevertheless, I look back on an instructive race weekend and am already looking forward to the next race at Zandvoort."
KTM victory with reservation
KTM saw the use of its X-BOW GTX Concept at the International GT Open round at the Red Bull Ring as a test under racing conditions. For this purpose, the team was allowed to exceptionally start in the G3 prototype class with the not yet homologated sports car.
Audi released factory driver Patric Niederhauser and Stefan Rosina fulfilled this task with flying colors. They turned third place on the grid into victory, which was unfortunately subsequently disallowed.
The definition of the rear brake disc did not correspond to the technical documentation - allegedly a typing error in the preparation of the documents.
Hans Reiter, head of KTM development partner Reiter Engineering: "This had no influence on the performance or even the BoP. That's why we have lodged a protest and assume that the decision here will be in favor of the riders, whose great performance should not and must not be diminished by this."
Potential shown for 2021
The unexpected success prompted the series organizers to change the BoP for the second race on Sunday (plus 50 kilos, minus 20 hp). In addition, the mandatory pit stop after the previous day's victory had to be extended by 15 seconds according to the regulations.
As a result, the duo had no realistic chance of another top finish. Nevertheless, KTM was very satisfied with ninth place in the end. The new KTM X-BOW GTX and KTM X-BOW GT2 will be presented in October. They will be able to compete in various sprint and endurance racing series worldwide from 2021.
