The fifth round of the Dopamina
Endurance Series, the 500 km of São Paulo at Velo
Città, counting points for the Brazilian championship, was
another demonstration of the power that the Porsche 911 GT3 R
and Stuttgart Motorsport have, as Ricardo Maurício,
Marcel Visconde and Max Wilson secured the victory in
an easy manner despite some very early challenges. This also secured
the title for Maurício and Visconde with a race to go.
The race was with a 27 car grid but
some absences were noticeable, like the No. 71 SATTI MCR, the No. 31
Mottin Lamborghini, the No. 65 NC Racing MRX and the No. 3
Fibralex/GTA Tornado, but the return of the MetalMoro AJR was quite a
highlight, now with a Stock Car V8 engine to fight with the top GP1
class contenders.
The start was incident-free with the
No. 28 JLM AJR keeping a defensive position in the lead for
two laps until the No. 20 Stuttgart Porsche found a gap on the
outside to take the first place, and even though both were involved
in this battle, their paces were clearly higher than the rest of the
field.
Then in an interval of 15 minutes the
No. 117 SPMEC MR18 and the No. 226 Spyder retired and brought the
Safety Car to track, the first due to a suspension break and the
other with engine failure, and the green flag appeared only with 30
minutes of racing. The No. 20 soon pushed to extend the gap while the
No. 28 spun after the turn 1 due to a combination of a broken
suspension and transmission problems and stopped to not return,
bringing another Safety Car entrance.
With an hour gone the No. 20 was
already with a minute ahead of the No. 5 MC Tubarão IX, but
the No. 75 SPMEC MRX was with strong pace, enough to maybe
pose a threat from its third place, and although the Tubarão IX
reacted some minutes later, the MRX was still in place to reach them.
Some minutes later the thirs caution came with the No. 172 MRX
retiring with engine failure, but it was brief and the race kept
going. The No. 5 then fell miserably in terms of pace and the No. 75
took second place overall, being the only P2 class car active
in the race until the No. 7 Sette Car machine returned to
competition.
Even with the problems that hindered
the pace of the Tubarão IX, Tiel de Andrade kept with the car on
track until the lap 89 when the team started checking what could be
the problem, and this promoted the No. 151 Spyder, the P3 class
leader, to third overall.
From that moment the race was already
in the hands of the No. 20 Porsche it was just the effort of doing a
secure drive to bring it to the finish in the final hour, with the
No. 75 crossing in second and the No. 151 completing the podium,
with them winning in the GP1, P2 and P3 classes respectively.
The GT1 class was won by the No. 64 MC
Tubarão BMW, but not without a good fight with the No. 46 Mottin
Lamborghini, while the GT2 win went for the No. 777 Mitsubishi
Lancer.
Maurício and Visconde now have 580
points against 430 Tiel de Andrade and Franco Pasquale from MC
Tubarão, and with the season finale at Tarumã at October 28th
and the mandatory discard of a result, the GP1 trophy is settled,
with MC Tubarão still having to fight with Marcelo Sant'Anna and
William Freire to secure the second place in the class.
PHOTO: Endurance Brasil
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