The 3 Hours of Santa Cruz do Sul was the first race of the 2019 Endurance Brasil season in the state that served as basis for the series, and as a mere coincidence the JLM Racing AJR gave an impressive display on home soil, locking the podium with a win for the No. 65 NC Racing with Nilson and José Roberto Ribeiro, crowned by an epic comeback drive in the final moments.
The race had some interesting additions to the grid, like the No. 80 KIA Power Imports AJR in its debut race, as well the No. 110 DTR prototype and the No. 146 Mottin AJR. Unlike the first two cars, the No. 146 already has racing mileage due to its participation at the 12 Hours of Tarumã last year.
The No. 65 NC Racing AJR was quick to jump to the lead and establish a gap to the rest of the field in a strong start. Mottin Racing had work to do in the first laps, with the No. 146 already presenting issues, and things just got worse with their No. 18 Lamborghini stopping on track, which triggered the first Safety Car period. The No. 146 returned to track, only to have an engine blow some minutes later, bringing another Safety Car period.
A series of contacts, spins and off-track excursions, which included the leading No. 65 NC Racing AJR, dictated the end of the first hour and slowed down the pace a bit. The No. 20 Ginetta became the new leader, and while the pace was similar to the JLM Racing AJRs behind it, the straight line speed was an advantage to the British prototype. Near the halfway mark the No. 20 lost the lead to the No. 88 JLM AJR and the second place to the No. 113 Império JLM AJR with backmarkers getting in the way right in the battle for positions.
The No. 20 was in the chase of the AJRs, but the progress was slowed down due to a contact and a spin with the No. 09 Scuderia 111 Mercedes, and with the lost time, the Ginetta G57-P2 was practically out of the fight.
The race was in the hands of the No. 88 JLM AJR, but a yellow flag to rescue stopped cars was the lifesaver for the No. 65 NC Racing AJR, being able to wave around and avoid being lapped in the final 30 minutes. The GT3 battle had the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche leading while the No. 09 and the No. 19 Via Italia Ferrari were trading paint for second.
In the final 15 minutes, José Roberto Ribeiro started clocking a series of fast laps and jumped to second place, eventually aiming for first. 6 minutes and some traffic were in favor of the No. 65, which passed the No. 88 with 8 minutes to go, and after this, Ribeiro found more pace to open a gap, which secured the win for NC Racing.
The No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche suffered a heartbreaking suspension break in the final minutes, which prompted the No. 19 Via Italia Ferrari to the GT3 class win, while in GT3 Light, the No. 155 SulRacing Ferrari overcame a dominant run of the No. 63 MC Tubarão Aston Martin.
The No. 75 SATTI MRX had a delightful day with the P3 class win, thanks to a problem in the fuel filter of the No. 89 RealDrive Radical. MC Tubarão still had something to celebrate with the P2 win of the No. 32 car, the first in the season and the first time than a P2 car completed a race in 2019.
The GT4 class was won by the No. 555 Stillux Ginetta where a clean run was key, given that some of the competition had contacts on the way, and despite an off, the No. 64 MC Tubarão Audi TCR won the GT4 Light class, with Henry Visconde having special participations of P1 drivers Tiel Andrade and Julio Martini, who were doing double duty at Santa Cruz do Sul.
The next Endurance Brasil round will be the 3 Hours of Velopark on July 27th, and by clashing with the 24 Hours of Spa, Daniel Serra will still be out of the No. 19 Via Italia Ferrari.
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