Victory for RYS Team Hohenberg, Terting and Viebahn win Competition102 GT4 European Series
Reiter Young Stars Mads Siljehaug and Maciej Dreszer won the first race of the Competition102 GT4 European Series at Zandvoort this morning, claiming their second victory of the season. The RYS Team Hohenberg KTM X-Bow GT4 took the lead on the penultimate lap, passing the Racing Team Holland by Ekris Motorsport Ekris M4 GT4 that had been in the lead for 22 laps. With an eighth place overall finish and sixth in GT4 PRO, PROsport Performance drivers Peter Terting and Jörg Viebahn secured the GT4 European Series title with one race still to go.
The Racing Team Holland by Ekris Motorsport M4 GT4s were fast off the line, beating the Brookspeed Porsche GT4 Clubsport MR that had started from pole position. Ekris drivers Ricardo van der Ende and Simon Knap were unable to pull away, however, as the safety car was deployed when Lennart Marioneck crashed the KTM X-Bow GT4. Marioneck was able to walk away unharmed from the crash and was cleared after a check-up at the circuit’s medical center.
On the restart, 13 minutes later, Van der Ende and Knap pulled away from Duncan Huisman, while Academy Motorsport’s Dennis Strandberg moved into fourth place. Knap was the first of the top four drivers to come in during the pit window, followed by Van der Ende, Huisman and Strandberg one lap later. While the pit window was open, Antoni Chodzen went off after contact with the #40 Brookspeed Porsche. This resulted in a second safety car period to recover the stranded Maserati.
After the pit window had closed Van Oranje was in the lead, ahead of Will Moore and Luc Braams, with Mads Siljehaug in fifth place. The RYS Team Hohenberg driver fought his way past Braams and Rob Severs, before overtaking Moore with three minutes left on the clock. There was contact between the two, but both cars continued and Siljehaug went after Van Oranje. On the penultimate lap Siljehaug attacked the Ekris M4 GT4 and passed the Dutch driver on the inside at turn 9. Van Oranje was unable to fight back and eventually finished 2.606s behind the race winning KTM.
PROsport Performance drivers Peter Terting and Jörg Viebahn finished the race sixth in class, which was enough for them to secure the Competition102 GT4 European Series PRO drivers’ title with one race to go. With 139.5 points the German pairing now has a 34.5-point lead over teammates Nicolaj Møller Madsen and Andreas Patzelt, who finished ninth in class. Mads Siljehaug and Maciej Dreszer’s victory means they are now third in the championship with 97.5 points.
In GT4 AM, Street Art Racing drivers Jérôme Demay and Damien Dupont scored their third win of the season, reducing the gap to points leader Jan Kasperlik to just 7.5 points. Should the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 take another victory this afternoon, Allied Racing driver Kasperlik will have to finish in second place to win the title. Romanian drivers Sergiu Nicolae and Eduard Anton took third place in the first race of the day.
The second race of the Competition102 GT4 European Series starts at 15:00 local time and will be shown live on gt4series.com/live.