Late turnaround puts Trein Motorsport on top at Guaporé

The Campeonato Gaúcho de Endurance round at Guaporé was appearing to be a walk in the park for Mottin Racing, but a late gearbox problem in the No. 46 JLM Racing AJR threw the dominant run in the bin and handed the victory for the No. 75 Trein Motorsport JLM Racing AJR of Henrique Assunção and Cassiano Trein.
 
While the No. 46 Mottin AJR was the polesitter, the position was lost before the first corner as the No. 121 Tech Force Sigma ran away after a rocket start. A lap later, the No. 12 Tech Force Sigma stopped after the second corner, forcing Jindra Kraucher to retire due to suspension damage, and with the newly built No. 5 MC Tubarão MC50CA also stopped, the Safety Car was called.
 
With another Safety Car period, the field remained bunched up, apart of those who lost time stopped on track, and the No. 28 JLM AJR pushed hard to beat the No. 46 to attack the leader, but while timing the moment to make a move, the car lost balance at the final corner and damaged heavily both ends, being even unable to reach the pitlane.
 
With the No. 28 retired, no one was between the No. 121 and the No. 46 after the first pit cycle, and while Adriano Baldo was more conservative, Mustang Challenge USA champion Cole Loftsgard had the pedal on the metal from the first moments, dispatching João Campos without second thought and opening the gap immediately. When the final hour started, the No. 121 lost a lot of time, allowing the No. 75 Trein AJR to take the second place, and to make matters worse, terminal problems stopped the No. 121 at the Radiador corner, bringing the Safety Car again and neutralizing the 50 second lead that the No. 46 had.
 
Loftsgard still had some time to open a considerable gap before delivering the No. 46 to Igor Vacari, but to nullify the No. 46’s progress, another Safety Car period happened with 24 minutes to go. After nine minutes, the green was waved again, but there was traffic between the No. 46 and the No. 75.
 
Things looked set until the final seven minutes, when the No. 46 slowed down considerably, lost the whole gap and then the first position to the No. 75 Trein AJR, with Vacari unable to fight back. As the No. 97 Chevrolet crashed in the barriers with two minutes to go, instead of neutralizing the race until the countdown comes to zero, the checkered flag was waved right after the incident, confirming the win for the No. 75 Trein AJR.
 
Gaúcho de Endurance - 2h Guaporé results
 
With the opposition having their own problems, the No. 71 Overboost MCR raced to dominant P2 class win, while the No. 299 Lemke Lamborghini dominated the GT1 class and the No. 15 DC Racing FIAT took the GT2 class.
 
The No. 89 RSSports Chevrolet was the GT class winner, barely inside the overall top 10, while the No. 1 MetalMoro Vettore survived to a P4 class win. Despite the collection of problems during the race, the No. 35 Escuderia Pilotos Dinossauros Spyder was the only survivor in the P3 class.
 
The championship has only one round to go, as Tarumã hosts the final race of the season on 28 November, practically as preparation for the 12 Horas de Tarumã.
 
PHOTO: Campeonato Gaúcho de Endurance/Dudu Leal/Fabio Leal