Despite being a recent project in the Sigma P1 Engenharia portfolio, the new P2 spec Sigma P1 was able to end the Campeonato Gaúcho de Endurance season with a hard fought win at Tarumã, as Jindra Kraucher had to hold the challenge of the title winning No. 71 Overboost MCR of Ian Ely to put the No. 12 Tech Force Sigma on the top of the podium despite a messy end of race.
Most teams opted to just do check runs before the race as rain fell over the circuit on Thursday and Friday, leaving only the Saturday morning to properly work on the cars, although the strong wind that lasted the whole day became another thing on their way. Qualifying times were around the same level as the last round at the circuit, with the No. 46 Motting MCR scoring the pole position with 1:00.9, with most of the P2 class competition staying around 1:01 times with not much running.
Ian Ely had no reservations to attack João Santana in the No. 46 Mottin MCR, but eventually the No. 71 Overboost MCR settled for second while Jindra Kraucher was bringing the No. 12 Tech Force Sigma to the fight, quickly conquering second place overall, which soon was converted into a pass to the top spot as the extra power made available for this race was complementing the cornering ability that the new Sigma has.
With the gaps between the fastest and slowest classes varying up to 20 seconds per lap, soon the traffic appeared, and what was a favorable situation for Kraucher was becoming even more comfortable as most of the other classes still had direct battles, which kept them tightly packed. When finding clean air ahead, Kraucher would be only a second off his Qualifying pace, allowing him to open 30 seconds to the No. 46 before the first pit window. Despite the two Safety Car periods before the first hour is done, the No. 12 was still in command with gap to spare.
With 40 minutes to go, the No. 56 Indy Pneus Onlx overreacted to slowing cars ahead due to yellow flags being shown and veered to the home straight wall, which brought the red flag to the race during the final pit window. After some minutes with the cars in the pit lane, the action resumed with the No. 71 in the lead, and somehow, Overboost Motorsport took advantage of the mandatory stop to undercut the No. 12, leaving the battle to the track.
With 12 minutes to go, Kraucher had the outside and Ely had traffic ahead, and with the conflicting situations that both prototypes were, the No. 12 suffered contact due to oversteer from the No. 71, being spun in the process. Both cars were damaged but the Sigma stood on track with basically shell damage while the No. 71 needed some checks in the front end, which cost a lap that decided the race favor of the No. 12 Tech Force Sigma.
The No. 25 Absoluta ABS01 had an isolated race for most of the time, and despite some late suspension problems, Ney Faustini and Mauro Kern were able to bring the car home to third place overall and in the P2 class.
Gaúcho de Endurance - Tarumã Finale results
Behind the P2 prototypes, the No. 5 MC Tubarão BMW had a dominant run in the GT1 class, and so did the No. 8 Scuderia Macchina MRX in the P3 class and the No. 2 S2 Racing Spyder in the P4 class. the No. 111 Overboost Audi took Supercup TS honors.
The No. 55 Onix took the Supercup TL class win with the No. 33 Lacombe Motorsport VW Voyage right behind as it won the Supercup TR class.
Ian Ely lifted the title for the second consecutive time, again in a season where he ran mostly by himself in the No. 71 Overboost MCR. At the moment there are no concrete plans for the 2024 season, but championship supremo and driver Aldoir Sette expects to start putting the plans into motion in the coming days.
In the GT class, the Corsa 76 was the winner of the race in the category and champion with driver Ricardo Barth.
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