BTZ Ligier wins 4 Hours of Goiânia

BTZ Motorsport can pretty call Goiânia home, as the second round of the 2023 Império Endurance Brasil season saw them play the same tactics that gave them the win in 2022, and while everybody followed suit due to the dry climate in the region, the No. 117 Ligier JS P320 of Guilherme Bottura, Gaetano di Mauro and Gustavo Kiryla had less things to worry about and saw the checkered flag first.
 
It was a race of returns and debuts as FTR finally got their Ligier JS P320 but limited time since the arrival of the car meant they had to hurry up about learning as much as possible about the car, which meant they didn’t race with a totally fine tuned setup. Also in the prototype class, Sigma Kraucher brought the No. 02 Sigma P1 G5, with it being a new tub as the original one was sold to Motorcar Racing, and Tech Force, with previous work running the Ebrahim Motors Ginetta G58, will take the run of the program for 2023.
 
BOATM3 also returned with their No. 3 Mercedes AMG GT3 MY16 after a long term injury ruled out Alexandre Auler from the track, and along with Guilherme Salas, he also brought Alceu Feldmann to complete the lineup.
 
Mottin Racing was locking the front row with its pair of JLM Racing AJRs, but Aldo Piedade was having none of it and found a tiny gap to put the No. 02 Kraucher Sigma in the lead from third place. A few laps later the No. 02 started to drop as the No. 46 Mottin AJR and the No. 117 BTZ Ligier found the way past while the No. 35 JLM AJR also passed keep track of the top-2 until it stopped on track due to a damaged fuel hose causing a leak.
 
Withe nearly 20 minutes of racing the No. 46 fell off the lead due to a mistake at Turn 1, allowing the No. 117 to be on top, leaving behind the No. 444 Motorcar Sigma and the No. 18 FTR Ligier, but the third placed car also fell victim of problems, stopping on track with 30 minutes of racing, which put the No. 80 Power Imports AJR in a surprising third place while facing pressure from the No. 02 Kraucher Sigma.
 
The No. 2 was opting to settle down, so the No. 11 Mottin AJR changed places to attack the No. 80, but once the cars behind started to control their pace, so did the leaders in order to diminish the toll that the dry weather takes on the equipment. With strategies being jumbled up by the Safety Car periods in the first hour, the No. 117 kept the lead but the No. 99 RSports AJR jumped to second while the No. 11 stood firm in third.
 
Guilherme Bottura saw himself with a target in his back as two AJRs were near, and the No. 99 quickly passed the No. 117, with the No. 11 following suit quickly, opening the gap while the No. 117 opted to be conservative. Differences in strategy meant that even the GT3 entries were on the run for overall honors, but the natural pace advantage of the P1 prototypes put things back to normal, with the No. 99 keeping control of things for more time than any other leader in the race.
 
While the No. 99 was commanding things in the P1 class, the No. 15 Pole BMW had the GT3 class under threat as the No. 16 Blau McLaren having the advantage in the corners but lacking the room to overtake, and Allam Khodair found the way to the class lead by needing some extra roughness.
 
Meanwhile, the No. 117 looked set for second, but a gearbox issue forced the No. 99 to go to the pits, and with pace enough to cover the No. 11, the No. 117 BTZ Ligier saw victory falling straight on their laps.
 
4 Hours of Goiânia - Race results
 
The No. 16 Blau McLaren suffered a 5 second penalty due to the touch that opened the way to pass the No. 15 Pole BMW, but Allam Khodair stretched the gap enough to nulify the penalty and secure victory. In the GT4 class, reliability did the trick for the No. 718 Stuttgart Porsche, which dominated with authority.
 
Interlagos will be host of the third round of the 2023 season, confirmed for 27 May.
 
PHOTO: BTZ Motorsport