The race started well for the MP/Barwell outfit. With Mücke behind the wheel the car almost had a lap advantage on the entire field after 50 minutes. But then the troubles started. Mücke lost one of the cars its rear wheels. With the car being brought back to the pits to repair the damage, the team returned to the track with 17 laps behind the leader and in P.54.
After a lot of hours of pushing from drivers Mark Poole, Bruno Senna, Richard Abra and Stefan Mücke the car was back in fifth position. During the evening the car again hit troubles. Bruno Senna brought the car back in the pits. This time the car had a hole in its radiator. The team worked hard to fix it and the car was back out in an hour.
But during the morning hours, at around 04:20, a couple of cars touched on the main straight. Norbert Pauels (No. 12 Porsche) and Stefan Mücke crashed hard together into the outside wall on the main straight. The Porsche came to a sudden halt while MP/Barwell Aston continued down for some distance, spinning and with heavy damage. It was so severe that part of the engine was protruding outside the frame. Mücke was brought to the hospital for check-ups and is o.k.
This was definitely not the result the team deserved after being the fastest car all weekend. Next year another chance.
In race 1 Enzo Ide started the yellow-white GPR machine. Ide and Soulet climbed up the order during the race to finish fifth overall and third in the GTS class. The second race was a bit more chaotic. The track was still wet during the start, but the GPR Aston with Maxime Soulet starting it, was on slick tyres. In the first corner Soulet got hit by another competitor and spun. With the track drying the Aston climbed quickly up the order to third when the pit window opened. The car had to stay for a long time in the pit, because of the penalty seconds the car received after the good results in the previous races. Eventually Enzo Ide brought the car back home in third overall and second in class.
Ide/Soulet are now fifth (34 points) in the GTS (GT3) standing after only competed in two of the six weekends. They are only 8 points behind the leader. The GPR team is hoping to continue in the championship with two weekends left at Monza and Barcelona.
In the last lap the #9 art car from Grivignee/Schmetz had a 30 seconds lead, but waited for the #100 (Verbergt/Dupont/Redant) to give them the victory. Pierre Grivegnée explains: “Tim, Damien and Bert can still win the title. We, Micheal and I don't have that chance anymore. So it's logical to give the victory to the #100.”
Tim Verbergt (winner #100): “Michael and Pierre drove a superb race today. We lost some time when Bert Redant used the full pit lane to come into the pit, instead of using only the endurance part of the pits. I think we all know how important this win is for the final race of the championship in a few weeks.”
After a bad first qualifying session the Beechdean AMR team had to start from 19th. After winning the endurance race at Brands-Hatch the team also had to make a longer stop. Eventually Howard and Adam finished on P11, just outside the points. For race two the team had qualified in fifth. Adam started the car and shuffled some places. After the mandatory pit stop Howard rejoined in sixth place and managed to overtake two spots and finish in fourth place. With this result having a 0,5 point championship lead, and more importent no penalty second for the pit stop in the final race that will take in a few weeks time at Donington.
PGF-Kinfaun AMR scored two point finished at Zandvoort. After qualifying in fifth, for race 1, and thirteenth for race 2, Dryburgh and Gaw took solid points. In race one they just finished outside the podium on fourth place and in race two they became eighth.
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