ETC Black Cup 2008 - Round 4
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
by Damian Dainhumain
The weather was one of the main subjects going into round 4 of the championship as the ETC went to Donington Park and Degen Simracing’s home GP. For the first time the weather settings were set to changable and this would effect both GT classes.
The warm up for the GT Pro race was sooking wet which made the drivers set their cars up for what would be a wet race… at least that was what everyone thought. But as the race was about to start the sun was out and not a single drop of rain in sight. This made for some confusion as Mikae Simian (Flat Out) and Mikael Hellén (The Black Rebels) among others would have to pit early on to change tyres etc. No problem though for polesitter and early race leader Robin Taylor (GMT-DH Racing) as he would quickly pull out a gap on the guys behind. But shortly after the pitstops were made he suffered a disconnection which promoted the Black Rebel driver Ben Buitendijk to score his first major racewin ever and The Black Rebels 3rd of the season.
Damien Dainhumain, the only GMT-DHR car still in the race, would clinch second place 10 seconds behind Ben after pretty much fighting with others the entire race. 3rd would go to Tom Ilsbroux in his Flat Out Koenigsegg CCGT which accroding to him in the post-race interniew was a big, but a very much welcome, surprise. Kristofer Larsson for Blue Flag Racing was another one that had alot of battles throughout the race and ended up in 4th with RPM driver Jari Vinnari rounding up top 5.
Would it rain for the GT Sport class then? The answear would be no but despite the blue sky the track was flooded and the driver had a hard decision ahead of them. Should they go for slicks or wet weather tyres, was the big question. A wet weather setup was the right move as Damien Dainhumain would win to add to the one GMT-DHR already had taken this season. As in the Pro race things could have gotten much better for GMT-DHR as Panu Ronkainen was on the front row but had problems later in the race.
Angelo Buttarazzi took a long awaited podium finish for The Burning Tyres as he ended the race as runner up with Yoeri Gijsen (RPM) in 3rd. Team GG driver Antoine Morin managed 4th ahead of second RPM driver Kevin Ascher. This result together with the less good result of The Black Rebels means that Roaring Pipes Maniacs are still in the lead halfway through the season.
Now it is time for a Christmas break but the league will be back on January 16th with the GT Sport race. As usuall you can watch it on PSRtv!
