The 2019 Endurance Brasil season had a bunch of new things to show, but somehow the clash between prototypes and GTs is still on, with the No. 88 JLM Racing MetalMoro AJR of Vicente Orige, Carlos Kray and Tarso Marques capitalizing on everybody’s woes and winning the 4 Hours of Curitiba, but not without a bit of drama at the final laps.
The race had a high number of yellow flags and Safety Car interventions, and although some of them were the expected problems that occur occasionally, a good part of it were result of contact of cars from the same classes or from different classes. In fact, most of the class wins were due to the cars staying out of trouble, having a decent pace and going for regular pit service.
The lead practically changed once the green came out, with the No. 113 JLM AJR and the No. 5 MC Tubarão AJR going up front, and unfortunately, trouble came up early too as the No. 155 SulRacing Ferrari spun and crashed, and although it returned to the track, a brief Safety Car period was called. The also debuting Ginetta G57 from Team Ginetta Brasil tumbled down the table but recovered ground quickly and stayed in third. Behind them the GT3 class was having a heated fight as the No. 19 Via Italia Ferrari was having trouble keeping the lead, dealing with both GTs and prototypes.
Things settled down before the first 30 minutes, though this was mostly due to the second yellow flag, caused by the No. 89 RealDrive Radical stopping on track. More cars stopped on track after that, with the No. 19 Via Italia Ferrari being touched by the No. 8 Scuderia 111 Mercedes while the No. 44 AUTORacing MRX simply stopped to not return, while others were eliminated as they were hitting trouble, as the case of the No. 75 SATTI MRX.
The No. 88 JLM AJR was one of the biggest movers of the front pack, passing the No. 65 NC Racing AJR, the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche and the No. 9 Scuderia 111 Mercedes for second place. Thanks to the Safety Car in the end of the first hour, the No. 113 JLM AJR gained almost a lap of lead over the No. 20 Ginetta, with the fight for positions being way behind them. This was a time where more cars had their problems on track, with the No. 72 MRX having the worst outcome, spinning and hitting the barrier.
Near the halfway point, the No. 20 Ginetta, major contender for a win, was knocked out of the lead battle due to a contact that brought a suspension problem, and the No. 75 SATTI MRX, leader of the P3 class at that point, also had a contact with the No. 18 Mottin Lamborghini, sending the prototype straight to the wall, which brought another Safety Car intervention.
The Safety Car at halfway point somehow messed with the order, so the No. 88 JLM AJR took the lead from the No. 113, while in the GT3 class the No. 9 Scuderia 111 Mercedes got the top spot from the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche. To make matters worse, the No. 113 had a left front puncture near the final quarter, which took them out for real of the lead battle.
The final hour had the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche lying unusually in first, with a lap ahead of the No. 9 Scuderia 111 Mercedes, though the team still had to make the final pit stop, so obviously the positions were inverted once the No. 55 got in. Vicente Orige in the No. 88 JLM AJR was way quicker than the No. 9, taking out several seconds per lap, which eventually turned into an overtake for the lead, and the pace of the No. 88 should’ve taken care of the result, though a late pace drop nearly threw everything to the window, but Vicente Orige held the No. 9 and won it by a mere 0.379 seconds.
Despite losing the overall honors, the No. 9 Scuderia 111 Mercedes won the GT3 class, while the No. 3 Scuderia 111 Mercedes won the GT4 class from an impressive seventh overall, while MC Tubarão won the GT3 Light class with the No. 63 Aston Martin, also with a top-10 finish, and the GT4 Light class with the No. 64 Audi TCR. Motorcar Racing had another display of reliability and won the P3 class with the No. 56 MRX, while the No. 34 MRX won the P4 class.
The Endurance Brasil will go for a stop of almost two months until the next event, the debut of the 4 Hours of Goiânia on May 25th.
PHOTO: Endurance Brasil
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