MC Tubarão conquers 12 Hours of Tarumã


The 2017 edition of the 12 Hours of Tarumã had a lot less stars than the previous years but those present at the circuit in Viamão, south of Brazil, did an absolute spectacle as they battled for survival in the race, with MC Tubarão winning it in the final hours, but the overall top spot stayed with their Ford Duratec powered P2 class entry, driven by Mauro Kern, Paulo Sousa and Sergio Ribas.

One of the worries during this weekend was the incredible heat around the circuit as summer wasn’t even here but temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius were commonplace, followed by lack of wind at certain points, making it brutal for the Copa Classic guys as well for those involved with the main event. It really felt like endurance racing, as the first thought was to conserve equipment, keep at a certain pace and have the least troubled race as possible, with the pace floating around 4 to 8 seconds slowed than the pole position, which brought the P2 class cars to the fight with the GP1 class cars for the overall win.


The early stages of the race had the GP1 cars fighting equally for the lead until the second hour, when the No. 71 SATTI MCR took control of the night time part, while some contenders like the No. 65 NC Racing MRX succumbed with engine failure and the new Sigma P1 simply couldn’t do a few laps without going to the pits as problems were still being solved until they quit in the late night. When dawn came in, SATTI Racing’s fortunes changed as a wastegate valve forced the No. 71 to stop to remove the part and do immediate repairs, which sent them 5 laps behind the leader, the No. 32 MC Tubarão.

Then Ian Jepsen Ely and Daniel Claudino started the chase that saw the No. 71 overtake the No. 27 AUTO Racing MRX and then finally retake the lead in the ninth hour, keeping it a two-way fight for the win as the No. 27 was in the shadows waiting for issues with the contenders up front.

Claudino was in a hard charge with the No. 71 and ready to deliver to Ely for his last stint, but then a suspension link failure near the tenth hour sent the car to the pits again, losing ten laps with the repairs and also a shot to the win. The No. 27 was also knocked out with contact damage and didn’t return, which opened the way for the No. 05 MC Tubarão to get second place, with possibility to recover the four laps gap to the No. 32.


In the final hours the No. 05 wasn’t in with the pace to fight the No. 32 and so they practically settled for position, almost in the same way of the No. 26 Proto V8 and the No. 71 SATTI MCR, until a fire in the back of the No. 26 took the Scheer family car out, gifting SATTI Racing with a hard fought podium, and with this the No. 32 just had to be brought to the finish, bringing the dream to life as a P2 class car beat all the mighty GP1 entries.


The No. 56 Motorcar MRX took the P3 class win even after various visits to the pits in the late stages of the race with bodywork damage, while the No. 111 Mottin Lamborghini was the only GT1 class car in the field. The touring car class had pure domination as the T1 winner was the No. 22 Spengler VW Gol, which again made an inspiring to a top-10 overall finish without a single problem, and the T2 class win was with the No. 28 Corsa, which also had a faultless race, which pretty much granted more than 80 laps of advantage to the second car in class.

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