JLM wins rainy race at Velo Cittá

Sparks were flying and the weather was part of the show at the seventh round of the 2024 Império Endurance Brasil season, held at the Velo Cittá, with the bad weather being the reason to end the activities earlier than planned, although neither Vicente Orige nor Sarin Carlesso have anything to complain as they had the No. 444 JLM Racing AJR at the top spot when things turned out to the worse when it comes to rain.

The No. 444 JLM AJR confirmed the lead while the No. 9 AMattheis Ligier came from a mile back to take second place, while the spinning No. 42 Foresti Sport Ligier triggered a chain reaction that involved the No. 117 BTZ Ligier, the No. 83 Team RC Mercedes and the No. 8 Team RC Mercedes. Despite the damage, all cars went back to action.

The No. 444 and the No. 9 were in a constant battle for the lead, and despite the Ligier JS P320 getting the top spot from the first round of pit stops, but the speed advantage of the JLM Racing AJR would prevail over time, giving the lead back to the No. 444, and this overtake came in time as the clouds were accumulating around the Velo Cittá, with rain eventually falling in the final sector.

The light rain offered some opportunity to play with a long run on slick tires, though the prototypes were tiptoeing their way through every lap at a drastically reduced pace, and when the No. 9 was making the Ligier’s handling advantage count, the Safety Car was called as the No. 8 Team RC Mercedes crashed hard at the home straight, and while the field was neutralized, any possibility of going with slicks in the final stint was cut off due to another downpour, with the track getting even wetter than when rain hit fell for the first time.

With the rain falling hard for a longer period, the track condition wasn’t improving, which meant the Safety Car remained on track for 40 minutes, and when it was deemed that there was no condition to give the green flag, the race control didn’t wait for the clock and called the race with 34 minutes, handing the win to the No. 444 JLM AJR. Just before the overall top 10, the No. 27 Team RC Mercedes won the GT3 class battle against the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche, while the GT4 class had the uncommon win for the No. 44 MC Tubarão Audi, given the fact that this is a TCR spec car competing against full fledged FIA GT4 spec machines.

The Endurance Brasil calendar continues at Goiânia, with the eighth round ending the 2024 season on 30 November.

PHOTO: Endurance Brasil/MS2