This week’s GT3 league saw drivers take an exotic tour through the Lago Potrero de los Funes circuit in Argentina. The circuit has received very high praise from the drivers for its substantial undulations and numerous high speed corners and bends, which provide a great driving challenge.
Qualifying:
The field, despite being smaller than usual this week quickly found their pace and laps were tight. There wasn’t much time to practice but the drivers adapted quickly to this complex and unforgiving circuit.
Ross and Francarlo ran the quickest times, with Francarlo qualifying two thousandths within pole position. Pat, Allan and Shane all qualified within a second of each other while Tim, Nathan and Enda were close behind running very respectable times.
Race:
The race got off to a clean start with a tight first lap, even with the challenging fast corners racing was clean and drivers were able to hold their positions without incident. Ross and Francarlo began to pull away and this set the theme of the race.
Allan, Tim, Shane and Pat battled for position mid pack until Pat and Marks spun early in the 37 lap race. The drivers began pitting around the 10th lap and a pit lane incident between Shane and Tim sees Shane get a pit lane drive through penalty, effectively putting him a lap down.
Francarlo and Ross continue to battle for first without much resistance and slowly increase their gap. Nathan and Allen battle for position and as they both lose time as Shane begins to catch up, with Allen getting overtaken and spinning on a corner forcing him to pit for repairs.
Francarlo pits while in first position and Tim moves up to second running his tyres bald and pays for it by spinning out. Shane makes up significant time but ends up with a drive through penalty on his second pit for speeding and is overtaken by Allen. Each driver manages their second pit by the 20th lap.
Racing is clean and tight for the remainder of the race with Allen having some car trouble and falling behind, with some tight mid pack racing. Drivers pit for their third and final time except for Nathan who is going for a two stop race. This appears to be working until the very end where he is overtaken by Tim on the 2nd last lap, losing out on his podium finish. Ross takes first position with Francarlo close behind taking second.
By Eren Ercan
Race Results:
Finish | Start | Diff +/- | Driver | Car | Laps | Race time | Fastest lap | Qual. time |
1 | 1 | - | Ross Rizzo | McLaren MP4-12C | 37 | 89:48.444 | 2:18.365 | 2:18.730 |
2 | 2 | - | Francarlo Rizzo | McLaren MP4-12C | 37 | +0:06.147 | 2:18.781 | 2:18.732 |
3 | 6 | +3 | Tim Hamilton | Audi R8 LMS ULTRA | 37 | +1:36.554 | 2:19.295 | 2:21.846 |
4 | 7 | +3 | Nathan Tregarthan | McLaren MP4-12C | 37 | +1:41.807 | 2:22.403 | 2:23.868 |
5 | 5 | - | Shane Gilfeather | McLaren MP4-12C | 36 | +1 lap | 2:20.102 | 2:20.990 |
6 | 3 | -3 | Pat O'Reilly | BMW Z4 | 36 | +1 lap | 2:20.464 | 2:20.323 |
7 | 4 | -3 | Allan Marks | Ferrari F430 | 35 | +2 laps | 2:20.434 | 2:20.922 |
8 | 8 | - | Enda Murphy | McLaren MP4-12C | 15 | DNF | 2:34.243 | 2:35.345 |
Drivers Standings:
2014 GT3 League | ||||||||||||||||||
Drivers | State | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | Race 4 | Race 5 | Race 6 | Race 7 | Race 8 | Race 9 | Race 10 | Race 11 | Race 12 | Drop Points | Total Points | Current Place | ||
Ross Rizzo | QLD | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 52 | 140 | 1st | ||||
Jason Brooks | NSW | 17 | 13 | 17 | 10 | 17 | 17 | 20 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 23 | 118 | 2nd | ||||
Francarlo Rizzo | QLD | 15 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 7 | 20 | 17 | 17 | 37 | 118 | 3rd | ||||
Tim Hamilton | QLD | 7 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 17 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 31 | 101 | 4th | ||||
Allan Marks | NSW | 8 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 24 | 81 | 5th | ||||
Nathan Tregarthan | NSW | 3 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 13 | 21 | 78 | 6th | ||||
Shane Van Gilfeather | NSW | 0 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 78 | 7th | ||||
Pat O'Reilly | NSW | 9 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 7 | 67 | 8th | ||||
Chris Herringe | QLD | 12 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 9th | ||||
Nikolai Valge | NSW | 10 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 10th | ||||
Iain McIntosh | QLD | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 11th | ||||
Enda Murphy | QLD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 12th | ||||
Chris Paras | NSW | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 13th | ||||
David Lord | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 14th | ||||
Iain Salteri | QLD | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 15th | ||||
Matt Anderson | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 16th | ||||
Ryan Healy | QLD | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 17th | ||||
Stuart Vaughan | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 18th | ||||
Scott McDonald | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 19th | ||||
Tim Calvert | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 20th | ||||
Andy Lardner | QLD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 21st | ||||
Rob Cooper | QLD | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 22nd | ||||
Nicholas Fittock | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 23rd | ||||
Sam Owen | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 24th | ||||
Justin Wilson | NSW | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 25th | ||||
Luke Bannano | NSW | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 26th | ||||
Andrew Clarke | NSW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 27th | ||||
Evan Golbach | NSW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 28th | ||||
Todd Varacalli | QLD | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29th |
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