The very first visit of the Intercontinental GT Challenge to South Africa went better than expected, as the Kyalami 9 Hours was a definitive thriller where the No. 31 Frikadelli Racing Porsche 911 GT3R conquered victory with Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy, along with a crowned Dennis Olsen.
The No. 31 Frikadelli Porsche was able to keep its top position from the start, while the No. 20 from GPX and the No. 12 from Dinamic secured a full Porsche party in the front. The No. 999 GruppeM Mercedes eventually lost the battle against its issues and retired on Lap 1, leaving the title up for grabs.
Kevin Estre tried to put the No. 20 in the lead but settled for second place before the first 30 minutes, though without losing touch with the leading No. 31. Estre again found his way by pulling a trick, and in the first pit window the No. 20 was on top.
But the ones who outsmarted everybody were at Bentley M-SPORT, with the No. 107 car taking the lead in comfortable fashion, while the No. 44 Strakka Mercedes was holding position against the Porsche gang behind. The plan to double stint the first set of tires worked well for the No. 107 Bentley, though when the tire change came, their efforts weren’t enough to hold the lead of the race, wchi came back to the No. 20 GPX Porsche, while the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW was in an unexpected second place.
A series of Safety Car periods may have contributed for the closeness between the top three, but the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW was trying everything possible to keep up with the No. 20 GPX Porsche, all while preserving its place from the No. 31 Frikadelli Porsche. Closing into the halfway mark, Nick Tandy times the braking a bit too late, and the No. 31 collects the No. 20 as both Porsches spin in tremendous fashion, coming back with some good time lost, with the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW taking advantage of Porsche’s messy moment.
The No. 20 came back to its leading position, but not exactly having the other Porsches around as the No. 10 SPS Mercedes and the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW resisting in third place. Night came in quickly, and along with an almost total lack of track lighting, the predicted bad weather was approaching the circuit with more than two hours to go, which could be an indication of a wet end of race.
During the pit window at that time, the rain came with force and demanded emergency changes for the teams as the slicks were in place at that time, and what was initially a Safety Car period caused by an off from the No. 108 M-Sport Bentley turned into a test to see track conditions after the downpour.
The rain was pretty inconstant, which kept the Safety Car around as track condition was far from ideal, and with the yellow flag in force, the last pit window messed up the order a bit, giving the lead to the No. 42 Schnitzer BMW, though he had a drive through that gifted the No. 10 SPS Mercedes with the top spot.
After nearly two hours of Safety Car, the race resumed in a wet shootout to the finish, and Nick Tandy was piling on the pressure, which somehow opened the way through Yelmer Buurman, so it was another Porsche 1-2 with the No. 20 from GPX on top, which was quickly changed in favor of the No. 31 from Frikadelli. In the final minutes the No. 34 tried an advance, but it wasn`t enough to take victory away from the No. 31.
Kyalami 9 Hours - Final results
The race results gave the drivers title to Dennis Olsen by mere eleven points over Maximilian Götz (73-62), while Porsche had a tighter outcome in the manufacturers, with 133 points against 126 from Mercedes.
PHOTO - SRO/Dirk Bogaerts Photography
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