Coming from the pit lane and working its way through the mixed conditions presented at the 4 Hours of Velopark, the No. 9 AMattheis Ligier JS P320 of Xandinho Negrão and Marcos Gomes imposed dominance in the final part of the penultimate round of the 2023 Império Enurance Brasil season as the track had more and more water over time.
Before the race, the second placed No. 11 Motorcar Sigma had a freak spin under the bridge, with Emilio Padron quickly going back to motion and realigning in the grid. The No. 28 JLM AJR stood with the lead once the green flag was waved, but the No. 99 BOX99 AJR took second position as Padron opted to be cautious. In only six minutes of racing, the No. 11 and the No. 28 were settling their differences with contact, though it initially just meant a position swap, which was reverted as the aero damage in the No. 11 was too extensive, losing performance immediately.
In between unorthodox pit strategies and a differential problem that took the No. 117 BTZ Ligier out of the race, the No. 75 FTR AJR was sustaining the lead since the first round of pit stops but had the No. 28 JLM AJR right behind them, and in between their battle for position, the No. 9 A. Mattheis Ligier scored big and passed them both for the lead with an hour and a half of racing, with the No. 444 Motorcar Sigma emerging from fourth place into the podium positions as it passed the No. 28.
The No. 75 led the third hour for roughly half an hour until its second stop, when the lead was given to the No. 99 while the No. 9 just needed to wait the cycle to go around, but the rain in the final hour forced the use of the third mandatory stop as the sudden shower was weak, but covered enough to make wet tires a necessity.
Eventually the rain got harder to the point it would generate a lot of spray out of the racing line, and with most cars going for survival in first place as grip and visibility were major issues, the No. 9 A. Mattheis Ligier had the prime position and a considerable gap when the Safety Car came out as the conditions were deemed to sketchy to keep the green flag. After 15 minutes behind the Safety Car and no improvement in the weather and the increase of standing water, the red flag was called for 10 minutes.
Some laps were done with tthe Safety Car until the cars were released with 30 minutes to go, and while the P1 class matters were looking settled as the No. 99 didn’t have the pace to counter attack, the GT3 was on fire behind it, with the No. 83 Team RC Mercedes forcing the issue in the sister No. 27 Mercedes and getting the class lead.
A fire in the No. 64 MC Tubarão BMW brought the Safety Car again, releasing the cars again with 10 minutes to go, but the current situation couldn’t be changed, so the No. 9 AMattheis Ligier just had to bring it home to score the win.
4 Hours of Velopark II - Race results
The No. 83 Team RC Mercedes kept the progress from the final hour and won the GT3 class while the No. 22 AutLog Ford had a dominant run in the GT4 class from pole position.
The 2023 season will be decided at the Velo Citta on 9 December.
PHOTO: Endurance Brasil/MS2/Bruno Terena
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