Hunter Abbott has been a familiar sight in UK national GT racing in recent seasons but 2013 saw him choose a different path.
Belgian star Jeffrey van Hooydonk (36) took the season driver’s title (pro car class) in the all-new Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux 2013 – with Britain’s Hunter Abbott finishing a strong second to cap his own successful year. It has been a strong international programme in 2013 for Abbott (32), moving up from his 2012 BTCC-linked Ginetta G55 Supercup programme, the Maidenhead-based driver making his international Porsche 997 GT3 Cup debut. The Benelux GT3 Cup Challenge comprised six race weekends across Belgium and the Netherlands, each 3-race events, with individual races for each team driver plus a 2-driver race.
Hunter (sponsored by Onkyo, Q Acoustics, AlcoSense, my-io.com, Outback BBQ and Petronas) quickly came to grips with the Porsche, getting off to a strong start at Spa on the WEC weekend back in early May with a pair of 2nd places, and has been at or near the top of the driver standings all season alongside DVB Racing team mate, former F3000 star and F1 test driver Jeffrey van Hooydonk. Going into this past weekend’s season finale it was clear that one or the other of DVB’s stars would be crowned driver champion. To win the championship Hunter would need to win his race and Jeffrey would have to finish lower than 3rd position.
For this sixth and final event of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux the series returned for its second 2013 visit to Zandvoort, the historic seaside circuit in The Netherlands and former home to the Dutch F1 GP. Supporting the DTM (German Touring Car Championship) as well as German Carrera Cup, this weekend’s event pulled in almost 100,000 spectators – creating an electric atmosphere.
Qualifying went well for both Van Hooydonk and Abbott; each set fastest times in their respective qualifying sessions and would start first on the grid for their separate races – as well as for their joint race.
Race 1 was started by Jeffrey who led from lights to flag, stylishly taking the win he needed to seal the championship. Hunter Abbott commented:
“It’s a strange feeling when you end up fighting for the championship with the same driver you share the car with. We worked together so hard all year to maximise the performance from the car – and we have won a lot of the joint races together. I now know I’m vice-Champion and can just enjoy my race and the joint long race. If I’m going to get beaten by anyone at least it was someone who made it to F1!”.
Race 2 saw Hunter in pole position – but he got a little too much wheel spin off the line which allowed 2nd placed Max Van Splunteren to get through at the first corner. After a couple of laps Max had established a two second lead. Hunter’s tyres came up to temperature on lap two enabling Hunter to pull back the gap. He and Max then fought for the lead for the next fifteen minutes, continuing to pull out a lead over 3rd placed Carlos Rivas. At the finishing line Max came in with a slight lead of 0.2 seconds to win the race.
Race 3, Sunday’s endurance race, where Jeff and Hunter share the car and change drivers halfway through, was looking positive. Hunter started in pole position and led into the first corner from Christiaan Frankenhout, Xavier Maassen and Melroy Heemskirk. Halfway round the first lap Hunter made a slight mistake which enabled Frankenhout to slip through, followed by Xavier Maassen a couple of corners after. This left Hunter in 3rd position in front of Heemskirk. The front four cars pulled ahead of the field. After several laps Heemskirk had dropped back, with the front 3 cars of Frankenhout, Maassen and Hunter covered by less than 4 seconds. A slight miscalculation with tyre pressures meant that the tyres were running too hot and Hunter couldn’t quite catch and overtake Maassen, but could maintain the gap. When the pit window opened Hunter handed the car over to Jeffrey and the team lowered the tyre pressures to allow the tyres to run cooler.
Jeffrey Van Hooydonk came out in third place behind Xavier’s co-driver Carlos Rivas and leader Max Van Splunteren (Christian Frankenhout’s co-driver). Soon after this Rivas locked his wheels while braking for the famous Tarzan corner and flat spotted his tyres, allowing Van Hooydonk to take 2nd place. Jeffrey then caught and leader Max Van Splunteren. The battle was short lived as Max’s differential then broke, forcing him out of the race, enabling Jeffrey to take the lead.
The end result was Hunter and Jeffrey in 1st, with Xavier Maassen and Carlos Rivas 2nd from Melroy Heemskirk and Roger Hodenius in 3rd.
Porsche GT3 Carrera Cup Challenge Benelux – Drivers’ Championship
When the final points were added up and dropped scores included, at the close of the championship Hunter ended second in points just behind team mate Jeffrey Van Hooydonk. The final tally:
1 Jeffrey Van Hoydonk Bel 193
2 Hunter Abbott UK 181
3 Carlos Rivas Lux 157
4 Melroy Heemskirk Ned 151
5 Christian Frankenhout Bel 147
6 Bert Longin Bel 137
7 Frank Belien Bel 125
8 Max Van Splunteren Ned 124
9 Roger Hodenius Ned 107
10 Paul van Splunteren Ned 106
