Overboost MCR wins battle against Tech Force Sigma at Tarumã

Hard fight was the name of the game in the penultimate round of the Campeonato Gaúcho de Endurance held at Tarumã, with the No. 71 Overboost MCR of Ian Ely having to hold position in long and exhausting battles over the two hours of racing, including a strong run from the debuting No. 12 Tech Force Sigma P1 G5 of Jindra Kraucher.

The debuting car quickly attracted the attention as it performed an impressive pole position run for a car that had its shakedown on Thursday, clocking 1:00.854 against the 1:01.517 of the No. 71, and specially considering there was some fixing and polishing to do under the bodywork.
 
With the grid quite compressed at the start, the No. 777 Overboost Linea was pressed into the inside wall by the No. S2 Racing Spyder, coming then to a halt and bringing in the Safety Car. Between the start and the first restart, the No. 12 Tech Force Sigma fell off to fourth as Jindra Kraucher’s timing wasn’t exactly correct, and this allowed the No. 71 Overboost MCR to establish itself in the lead.
 
The No. 17 Spyder saw the race end before the 10 minute mark with a blown engine, which kept the field together under another yellow, and after 15 minutes, the green flag was back with the No. 71 on firm defense from the No. 15 MC Tubarão, while the No. 12 was stuck behind the third placed No. 46 Mottin MCR.

A mix of traffic influence and slight better pace allowed Ian Ely to open the gap to Tiel de Andrade, but once the first pit window was done, the No. 71 had the No. 12 rapidly approaching with pace to spare from Jindra Kraucher, as the pace was quickly crushed as Ely was dealing with the No. 63 Tech Force Mercedes,
 
With lap times just over a minute at Tarumã for the P2 class, Ely had two problems to worry, with the backmarkers in front to deal with while keeping Kraucher  out of his rear wing. Kraucher had the liberty to use the full length of the track to slingshot himself and find room to overtake, while Ely had the physical and mental strain on his body as he was doing the guesswork to position the No. 71 where it would shut the door into the No. 12.

In the final 30 minutes the times started to drop down closer to Qualifying pace, and once Ely decided to speed up, but progress was halted as the No. 1 Spyder stopped on the grass before the final corner, bringing the last yellow flag of the race. There was 10 minutes left when the race resumed, but since the No. 12 Tech Force Sigma wasn’t closing the gap, Kraucher decided to settle for second while Ely just brought the No. 71 Overboost MCR home with more gap than he ever had during the whole two hours.
 
Gaúcho de Endurance - Tarumã 2h race results

The No. 7 Sette Car MRX stood just outside the P2 class frontrunners to win the P3 class, while the No. 2 S2 Racing Spyder came right behind to win the P4 class. Between the Tarumã Supercup runners, the No. 777 Overboost Linea overcame the inisial damage to win it, with the No. 33 Lacombe Voyage won the TR class, the No. 22 Chevrolet Onix won the T2 class and the No. 55 VW Fox won the TL class.