JLM wins shortened 3 Hours of Interlagos

JLM Racing had a Friday to celebrate in the opening of the final weekend of Império Endurance Brasil in 2022, with the No. 35 JLM Racing AJR of Pedro Queirolo and David Muffato leading the team’s 1-2 finish in a hotly contested 3 hour race at Interlagos.

The newly built No. 12 Chiarelli Sigma proved its pace over a lap by achieving pole position on its debut race, and it made clear it would be a contender by keeping the first position at the start while the No. 444 Motorcar AJR dropped to third as the No. 117 BTZ Ligier found room to go past during the first lap.

With Cesar Ramos pushing hard, the No. 28 JLM AJR started climbing the field and became a threat to the No. 12, effectively making the overtake as the backmarkers hindered the progress of the new Sigma P1. While the top two stood firm in front, the No. 117 dropped due to an unforeseen pit stop for precautionary checks, meaning that the No. 12 would be fighting alone the horde of JLM Racing AJRs.

As it happens in some competitions in Europe, tire blows became an issue during the second half of the first hour, with the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche and the GT3 class leading No. 17 Pole BMW suffering from delamination on the rear right tire, theoretically the one that receives the biggest load over a lap at Interlagos, thus the most propense corner to bring issues.

Just a few minutes before the start of the second hour, the third placed No. 444 Motorcar AJR had a rare moment of reliability issues as the car dropped to the runoff and went to a complete stop, restarting a while later to limp back to the pits to allow the team to discover the cause of the halt, which originated from a radiator issue.

The second hour showed the same leader but a totally different picture behind the No. 28 JLM AJR, as the No. 35 JLM AJR appeared in second and with Pedro Queirolo taking risks on the outside line to go to first place. Outside the top two, every P1 class car suffered their fair share of problems, which allowed the GT3 class leader, the No. 8 Team RC Mercedes, to join the overall podium.

Things look quite established for the final half of racing, but in the final hour the dark clouds approached rapidly the circuit, and with exactly 30 minutes to go some sparse rain fell over it, getting stronger and stronger as typical from the spring in Brazil. Rain in half of the circuit basically caused confusion in all teams on track, with most of them taking the safe bet of changing to wet tires as the bad weather started scattering across the other parts of the track. While most cars were kept running, the No. 20 Tech Force Ginetta crashed heavily at the S do Senna, with the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche passing straight at the same point as Ricardo Maurício passed just when the call to pit for wets was done, hitting the No. 20 and the barriers and making the Safety Car join in immediately.

With track clearance added to barrier repairs at the crash site, the work needed would exceed the 13 minutes left of racing, so the decision was to call it a day, confirming the already consolidated win of for the No. 35 JLM AJR while the sister No. 28 car finished in second and the No. 8 Team RC Mercedes won the GT3 class from third overall.

3 Hours of Interlagos - Race results

The P2 class counted only with the No. 18 FTR MCR while the P2 Light class was won by the No. 34 Motorcar MetalMoro, with the No. 31 AutLog Mercedes completing the list of winners in the GT4 class.

PHOTO: Endurance Brasil/MS2