Mottin takes it all in Gaúcho de Endurance finale at the Velopark

The JLM Racing AJR was the car of the Saturday (22) at the Velopark, but just having the advantage wasn’t enough as the consistency needed to be there, a factor that the No. 46 car from Mottin Racing had for the whole two hours with Adriano Baldo, Juliano Moro and Cole Loftsgard at the wheel, which helped Baldo and the team to lift the Gaúcho de Endurance title in 2025,
 
Initially the worries were about the weather, as some rain was expected according to the forecasts, with dark clouds accumulating in the final sector. Fortunately things didn’t go past light rain, which fell quickly before the starting procedure and actually contributed for the sky to open within the circuit, keeping the condition dry for the whole race.
 
Looking at the Qualifying, times were kind of close for Gaúcho de Endurance standards, but the JLM Racing AJRs stood out against the Sigma P1s, with the No. 80 Power Imports AJR getting pole with 52.233 against the 53.504 of the No. 46 Mottin AJR, while the best Sigma was the No. 12, clocking 54.253 at best.
 
While the races tend to differ from the Qualifying, the Velopark takes this to another scale, as traffic appears fast for the P1 class cars, and once you start lapping cars, you don’t get a single clean lap until the end of the race.
 

Things started well for the No. 80, but in six minutes it lost lead by going wide, and while the first move didn’t go right for the No. 46, the GT class traffic helped a lot in the second attempt, making it a definitive move, despite the retaliation moves from the No. 80. The pressure continued until the minute 12, when the No. 80 lost the rear at the final corner, spinning right after hitting the kerb, though the Safety Car saved its race as the No. 25 Absoluta ABS01 was pulled to the pits.
 
With contact in the front damaging the front right corner, the No. 80 spun and had to come to the pits for immediate fixes, with some checks in the engine area as the car was letting out some smoke after the spin. This basically left the race for the No. 46 while the Sigmas No. 12 and No. 121 from Tech Force were trying to chase the AJR.
 

Eventually, after the first pit window, the Sigmas swapped positions, with the No. 121 going to second, but the 30 seconds behind would make the chase pretty difficult. After the second window and a Safety Car period in between, the scenario changed favorably for the No. 121, with half of the gap being cut off, although no immediate gains appeared to close the gap even more. The gains would appear later, as the pit stop and traffic slowed down the No. 46 to allow the No. 121 to barely have the leader within visual distance, though there was still a barrier in the pace that wouldn’t favor improvements.
 

In the final 20 minutes, the gap was cut again, going down to three seconds, and to make matters more stressful for Mottin Racing, a late Safety Car intervention left the leader within striking distance of the No. 121 with less than 10 minutes to go. With 5 minutes left, the green flag was waved and 1.7 seconds separated first and second, but again the limit of the No. 121 Tech Force Sigma didn’t event allow an attack, let alone keeping up a similar pace, with the No. 46 Mottin AJR going away with the win by 6.043 seconds.
 
Despite looking pretty alright from the outside view, Cole Loftsgard explained that the car was quite tricky to maneuver, with an unusual amount of oversteer that was a challenge to catch, as the excessive turn in was making the car prone to spin.
 
Gaúcho de Endurance - 2h of Velopark results
 

Just outside the overall top 3, the No. 63 Tech Force Mercedes won the P2 with ease and consistency, while the No. 2 MRX was the P3 class winner despite spins and contacts, including a side swipe from the overall winner. The No. 155 Sul Racing Ferrari was the GT1 class winner, staying just outside the overall top 5, with the No. 88 Overboost Linea winning in the GT2 class.
 
The only class winners outside the overall top 10 were the No. 23 Aldee, which won the P4 class, and the No. 76 Hyundai, winner of the GT class out of consistency, as the No. 3 Xtreme Ka was taken out early in the race.
 
Due to the constant lineup changes in the No. 46 Mottin AJR, Adriano Baldo was the one carrying the title hopes all season, ending with 355 points against Jindra Kraucher’s 330, sealing the P1 and overall titles for Luciano Mottin’s side.
 

Sergio and Guilherme Ribas carried the No. 63 Tech Force Mercedes to the P2 class title, while Sandro Loff and Cassiano Trein were the P3 class champions. Rodrigo Santos and Roque Echel won a tough battle for the P4 class title, while Helisson Viana was the GT1 champion.
 

Gustavo Mandelli and Emerson Klering were the GT2 class champions aboard the No. 88 Overboost Linea, while Cadu Maciel and Ricard Barth were the GT class champions.