Motorcar wins hard fought 4 Hours of Velo Citta

After a two month break, Império Endurance Brasil action was back at the Velo Citta in Mogi das Cruzes, and Motorcar Racing had their No. 444 JLM Racing AJR of Vicente Orige and Gustavo Kiryla, where reliability and good performance overall secured the win of the fourth round of the season, beating a fabulous performance from the No. 35 JLM Racing AJR.

The start was given but due to misaligned cars at the back of the grid it wasn’t valid, and to add insult to injury, a series of contacts demolished the No. 99 RSports AJR and damaged the rear wing of the No. 175 JLM AJR. Once the green flag was finally authorized, the No. 444 Motorcar AJR confirmed its leading position by outpacing the No. 117 BTZ Ligier.

With traffic showing up early, Gaetano di Mauro was quick to pass Gustavo Kiryla, and when the No. 117 was ready to open the gap, the first Safety Car entry came as the No. 5 MC Tubarão XI stopped due to a faulty RPM sensor. Not even a yellow flag was capable of holding the Ligier JS P320, and to make matters worse for the No. 444, the No. 35 JLM AJR was pressing during the whole first hour, effectively passing during the first pit window, though the order reverted when the No. 35 had a penalty for minimum pit time infringement.

While the No. 35 stood in its place, Vicente Orige pushed hard to beat Guilherme Bottura, putting the No. 444 back in the lead. With a broken suspension in the No. 02 FTR Sigma, the Safety Car was called again, and with the green flag being waved again, the No. 117 had a nosedive to fourth place, and to worsen the situation, a huge fluid leak left the Ligier limping to the garage, while the No. 444 was still leading, the No. 35 jumped to second and the No. 28 JLM AJR and the No. 1 JLM AJR became third and fourth overall.

The No. 35 found pace again in the third hour and passed the No. 444, but the P1 class was slowly crumbling down as more and more entries were staying behind, like the No. 1 JLM AJR that suffered a gearbox break and retired, with the GT3 class roaming outside the podium while they were having their own battles.

The final hour was supposedly consolidated for the No. 35, but Vicente Orige brought the No. 44 closer and closer, nullifying a 10 second gap to pass for the lead, just before another yellow flag due to the crashed No. 72 ADS AJR, which would leave less than 30 minutes to go.

Vicente Orige was expected to go away with the lead, but Pedro Queirolo was keeping the pace to challenge the No. 444, but Queirolo couldn’t beat Orige in pace, with the traffic helping even more the No. 444 Motorcar AJR, with 2 seconds being more than enough to secure victory.

4 Hours of Velo Citta - Race results

After playing cat and mouse during most of the race, the No. 9 AMattheis Mercedes beat the No. 17 Pole BMW for the GT3 class win, leaving the dominance only for a brief period during the second hour. Motorcar Racing also celebrated the P2 Light win with a flawless performance from the No. 34 MRX, while the No. 155 SulRacing Ferrari had the P2 class win, and the final class winner of the day was the No. 718 Stuttgart Porsche in a hard fought GT4 class.

Next stop for Império Endurance Brasil is Goiânia on 17 September.

PHOTO: Endurance Brasil/MS2