Mattheis Motorsport wins shortened 4 Hours of Goiânia

The rain was an unexpected guest at the 4 Hours of Goiânia, fourth round of the 2020 Império Endurance Brasil season, and the bad weather made the grid sure of its presence by soaking the circuit and make things harder, with the No. 9 Mattheis Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 winning at the last lap without even reaching the expected race length with Xandy and Xandinho Negrão and the special presence of Andreas Mattheis.

The traditional scorching days at the circuit were merely a thought as the rain fell when the starting procedure was in action, which made the Safety Car have a longer stay with almost 10 minutes of racing time being used. While it wasn’t heavy rain, it was persistent enough to keep the track reasonable wet and bring problems to the drivers.

In nearly 20 minutes a reasonable number of entries had spins, off track excursions and damage, including the No. 16 Stillux Ginetta GT4, the No. 444 Motorcar AJR and the No. 46 Mottin AJR. Nearly 40 minutes if neutralization were needed until the green flag was waved again, with the No. 11 JLM AJR leading the No. 113 JLM AJR.

After the first hour, the No. 11 had an extra stay in the pits to overcome lack of visibility, as Vitor Genz had to deal with it during his stint, so the first place was handed to the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche, while the No. 113 JLM AJR kept its second place from the first hour, and David Muffatto was patient to act and get the lead.

During the second hour the rain got heavier and forced the Safety Car to interfere as  various points had standing water in alarming levels, and with no improvement of the situation the race was red flagged, with the No. 113 JLM AJR kept the top spot while the No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes sneaked into second place and the GT3 lead during the pit window. After the 30 minute stop, the race resumed behind the Safety Car, and with the race finish being put in doubt, all teams opted to do the final pit window rather than depending of a race control decision.

The race had a complete turnaround after the final pit window, with the No. 113 JLM AJR being penalized as it left the pits 8 seconds earlier than the minimum time, being added a lap and 8 second to the finish line time, which handed the top spot to the No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes. After the penalty being handed it was decided to end the race around 3 hours and 15 minutes as the track condition wasn’t improving, with GT3 machinery getting the top two places as the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche was promoted to second place. Despite losing the overall win, the No. 113 JLM AJR was still the P1 class winner.

4 Hours of Goiânia - Race results

The No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes not only broke the 2020 winning streak of the JLM Racing AJR model, but also the streak of prototypes winning overall, with the latest overall win for a GT car dating back from the 6 Hours of Curitiba last year, courtesy of Via Italia Racing, absent from this Goiânia round.

Stability under the wet condition also dictated how higher the other class winners were, starting with the No. 22 AutLog McLaren in the GT4 class from fourth overall, the first one for the McLaren 570S GT4 in its debut year in Brazilian soil. Two places down the GT4 winner was the GT3 Light winner, the No. 63 Tech Force Aston Martin, which ran without threats from the No. 155 SulRacing Ferrari. The No. 57 Stillux Ginetta won the GT4 Light class from ninth overall, with the British sportscars having consistent runs in general.

Out of the top-10, the No. 7 Sette Car MRX won the P3 class with the opposition being disqualified, and out of a troubled run the No. 12 NAFTA Sigma was the P2 class winner.

Endurance Brasil - Full standings after the 4 Hours of Goiânia

Marcel Visconde and Ricardo Maurício lead the standings with 330 points against 285 from David Muffato and Pedro Queirolo, while Xandinho Negrão leads the outsider group with 270 points.

The final two Império Endurance Brasil rounds are already confirmed, with a return to Curitiba set for 28 November, being followed by the season finale at Santa Cruz do Sul on 19 December, with both races expected to last four hours and will highly likely have no spectators on site.

PHOTO: Endurance Brasil/MS2/Bruno Terena