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September 07, 2016
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Lee Davidson reports from a frantic second round of the 2016 International Touring Cup, held at Estoril Circuit.
The 2016 GPVWC International Touring Cup rolled on into Portugal this week, with the Estoril track hosting the second round of the season, following on from a barnstormer of an opening round at Donington two weeks ago.
The distinctive Vod:Bul BMW, dressed in their special pink liveries for Cancer Research UK, left the opening round in the lead of both standings, with Adam Taylor leading the driver?s standings after winning one and scoring top six finishes in the other two races. However Estoril would prove to be a whole new challenge for the Englishman with the 45kg success tallest added to his car not only for the first race, but also qualifying. This resulted in the first shock of the race meet, with Taylor only managing 24th on the grid, leaving him with a lot of work to do for the remainder of the race meet.
Qualifying was indeed a close affair with the top fourteen drivers covered by less than a second. However it was a familiar sight at the sharp end of the grid with Vod:Bul and Epic Racing once again fighting over pole position, this time it was Niki Djakovic who edged pole position in his BMW, posting a time of 1:43.903 to edge out Donington pole sitter Chris Shepherd by 0.094s. Shepherd?s team mate Geoffrey Fournier made it a 2-3 for Epic, a further half a tenth behind in his Honda Civic. Enterprise also showed well in Qualifying, with their drivers Adrian Holm and Bart de Vos lining up 4th and 6th respectively whilst reigning Champion Eric Stranne made his return for Ice Cold Racing with a fine 7th.
Race 1 saw the top two make an early get away from the rest of the field with Djakovic eventually stretching out a 3.5s lead over Shepherd late in the race. However disaster would strike for the Englishman when a technical issue with his force feedback caused him to lose a certain podium finish on the final lap of the race. Instead it was Adrian Holm who would finish in the runner up position, five seconds off Djokovic whilst Eric Stranne made it a 2-3 for Sweden, finishing his 2016 debut in third. The luckless Shepherd would eventually finish fourth whilst Bart de Vos rounded off the top 5 on the track, but will have a tense wait after a controversial collision with Geoffrey Fournier was due to be investigated by the DC after the event.
With the grid for race two being set by the results of race one, Djokovic once again started from pole and once more controlled the race from the get go, this time winning with a larger margin of 8 seconds, ahead of what proved to be the main source of action in the race. A five way battle for second thundered into the final lap with Shepherd, Stranne, Sven de Vries, David Francic and Bart de Vos all nose to tail. It was all to end in tears however with Shepherd and de Vos coming off worst in a collision triggered in the third turn. Strange would take the runners up position whilst de Vries bagged an unexpected third in the unfancied Mitsubishi Lancer ran by Edonis. Francic and Shepherd finished off the top five whilst Adam Taylor?s recovery from qualifying continued with a fine sixth place.
The draw for Race 3?s grid saw the top 15 reversed, giving Lewis McGlade (Driving for Woods Racing after driving with Ice Cold Racing at Donington) Pole Position in his Ford Focus. He was joined on the front row by Tobias Olsson, driving for Aurora - a interesting predicament for team manager McGlade! However, neither would go on to take the chequered flag, the honour going to the driver who started behind them in third, Adrian Holm, finally making good on the great pace he has shown throughout the race meet. Behind him were two drivers who registered their first podium finishes of the season, James Wilson and Wopke Hoekstra whilst David Jundt and Bart de Vos completed the top five. Double race winner Djakovic could only fight through to 13th, but that still meant three points finishes which pushes him to second in the driver standings and perhaps more importantly, raised much more money for Cancer Research UK.
Indeed, Djakovic finds himself three points off championship leader Adrian Holm (96pts) whilst Adam Taylor drops to third (77pts) after a trying race meet. Francic (65pts) and de Vries (56pts) finish off the top five. In the team?s standings, Vod:Bul continue to lead the way with 170pts ahead of Enterprise (148pts). There is then a large gap to third placed Ice Cold (99pts) and Edonis (97pts) whilst newcomers Holland Racing Team lead the fight for fifth with 65pts.
The next round takes place at a brand new venue for GPVWC - Poznan Racing Circuit for the Polish round of the ITC Series on the 19th of September at 19:45BST, exclusively live on GPVWC?s YouTube page.
The distinctive Vod:Bul BMW, dressed in their special pink liveries for Cancer Research UK, left the opening round in the lead of both standings, with Adam Taylor leading the driver?s standings after winning one and scoring top six finishes in the other two races. However Estoril would prove to be a whole new challenge for the Englishman with the 45kg success tallest added to his car not only for the first race, but also qualifying. This resulted in the first shock of the race meet, with Taylor only managing 24th on the grid, leaving him with a lot of work to do for the remainder of the race meet.
Qualifying was indeed a close affair with the top fourteen drivers covered by less than a second. However it was a familiar sight at the sharp end of the grid with Vod:Bul and Epic Racing once again fighting over pole position, this time it was Niki Djakovic who edged pole position in his BMW, posting a time of 1:43.903 to edge out Donington pole sitter Chris Shepherd by 0.094s. Shepherd?s team mate Geoffrey Fournier made it a 2-3 for Epic, a further half a tenth behind in his Honda Civic. Enterprise also showed well in Qualifying, with their drivers Adrian Holm and Bart de Vos lining up 4th and 6th respectively whilst reigning Champion Eric Stranne made his return for Ice Cold Racing with a fine 7th.
Race 1 saw the top two make an early get away from the rest of the field with Djakovic eventually stretching out a 3.5s lead over Shepherd late in the race. However disaster would strike for the Englishman when a technical issue with his force feedback caused him to lose a certain podium finish on the final lap of the race. Instead it was Adrian Holm who would finish in the runner up position, five seconds off Djokovic whilst Eric Stranne made it a 2-3 for Sweden, finishing his 2016 debut in third. The luckless Shepherd would eventually finish fourth whilst Bart de Vos rounded off the top 5 on the track, but will have a tense wait after a controversial collision with Geoffrey Fournier was due to be investigated by the DC after the event.
With the grid for race two being set by the results of race one, Djokovic once again started from pole and once more controlled the race from the get go, this time winning with a larger margin of 8 seconds, ahead of what proved to be the main source of action in the race. A five way battle for second thundered into the final lap with Shepherd, Stranne, Sven de Vries, David Francic and Bart de Vos all nose to tail. It was all to end in tears however with Shepherd and de Vos coming off worst in a collision triggered in the third turn. Strange would take the runners up position whilst de Vries bagged an unexpected third in the unfancied Mitsubishi Lancer ran by Edonis. Francic and Shepherd finished off the top five whilst Adam Taylor?s recovery from qualifying continued with a fine sixth place.
The draw for Race 3?s grid saw the top 15 reversed, giving Lewis McGlade (Driving for Woods Racing after driving with Ice Cold Racing at Donington) Pole Position in his Ford Focus. He was joined on the front row by Tobias Olsson, driving for Aurora - a interesting predicament for team manager McGlade! However, neither would go on to take the chequered flag, the honour going to the driver who started behind them in third, Adrian Holm, finally making good on the great pace he has shown throughout the race meet. Behind him were two drivers who registered their first podium finishes of the season, James Wilson and Wopke Hoekstra whilst David Jundt and Bart de Vos completed the top five. Double race winner Djakovic could only fight through to 13th, but that still meant three points finishes which pushes him to second in the driver standings and perhaps more importantly, raised much more money for Cancer Research UK.
Indeed, Djakovic finds himself three points off championship leader Adrian Holm (96pts) whilst Adam Taylor drops to third (77pts) after a trying race meet. Francic (65pts) and de Vries (56pts) finish off the top five. In the team?s standings, Vod:Bul continue to lead the way with 170pts ahead of Enterprise (148pts). There is then a large gap to third placed Ice Cold (99pts) and Edonis (97pts) whilst newcomers Holland Racing Team lead the fight for fifth with 65pts.
The next round takes place at a brand new venue for GPVWC - Poznan Racing Circuit for the Polish round of the ITC Series on the 19th of September at 19:45BST, exclusively live on GPVWC?s YouTube page.
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