The third round of the 2024 Império Endurance Brasil at the Velo Cittá in Mogi das Cruzes was a pure display of the capabilities of the Ligier JS P320, overcoming strong opposition to survive and prevail at the end of the four hours of racing as the No. 31 car from KTF Sports, driven by Renan Guerra and Gustavo Kiryla led a podium filled with cars from the French constructor.
The No. 444 Motorcar AJR benefited from the pole position and opened a gap from the very first corner, while the No. 12 Kraucher Sigma fell over to the No. 31 KTF Ligier while staying in the radar of the No. 11 FTR Sigma. The Ligier JS P320 was agile through the twisty corners of the Velo Citta, which allowed an attack with eight minutes of racing and the change of position right after, taking the traffic from other classes as decoy.
The No. 30 Power imports AJR was the first casuality of the race, turning hard to the right at the home straight due to a mechanical failure, meaning that the next destination for the car was the wall, which prompted the first Safety Car call of the Racer. The restart was favorable for the No. 12, which jumped immediately to second.
Traffic was also responsible for the change in the lead as the No. 12 swiftly passed the No. 31, while the No. 444 succumbed to its issues and retired with fire in most of the rear end of the car, which was controlled soon by the rescue team. The rescue of the charred car and the cleaning process meant that the rest of the first hour was spent behind the Safety Car.
The No. 31 went back to the overall lead as the second hour started, and so did the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche in the GT3 class as Ricardo Maurício took it off the hands of Rafael Suzuki in the No. 27 Team RC Mercedes the rough way as they exchanged passes for almost a full lap.
Talking about exchanging blows, the fight for the lead was raging on for the second part of the second hour, with the No. 31 keeping the advantage due to better cornering and sturdy defense from Gustavo Kiryla. When the halfway mark came, the No. 12 eventually fell off in terms of pace and the No. 42 Foresti Sport Ligier took second place and the No. 35 TMG AJR took the third spot.
Rafael Suzuki made the difference in third hout as he recovered the GT3 class lead for the No. 27 and got away with it, lapping even the class podium contenders in the process, although Xandinho Negrão took the car for the final stint, the No. 8 Team RC Mercedes was right behind and Júlio Campos wanted to make a move for the class lead. With some extra pressure, Campos found the way past Negrão and build up pace as 20 minutes remained to finish the race.
Despite the best efforts from the No. 42 to crush the gap to the leader, the No. 31 KTF Ligier was in supreme form when traffic wasn’t around, doing more than enough to score the race win, and behind them, the No. 22 AutLog Ligier completed the podium filled with French cars. The No. 8 was also unchallenged in the GT3 class once the final hour came, and in the GT4 class, it was a commanding performance from the No. 21 Stuttgart Porsche, with no opposition being close to it.
Endurance Brasil - 4H of Velo Citta results
The next race of the calendar will be in two months, with the second 4 Hours of Goiânia being held on 10 August.
PHOTO: Renato Mafra, KTF Sports
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