Jeroen Bleekemolen and Hari Proczyk took a surprise victory in the sunshine at Brands Hatch in the #28 Grasser Racing Lamborghini, after a mid-race safety car shook up the order at the front. The winning margin was just 0.488 ahead of the hard-charging #84 HTP Mercedes of Maximilian Buhk and Götz.
The race initially looked to be plain sailing for the #1 WRT Audi, after Laurens Vanthoor led the race all the way until the pit window ahead of Bleekemolen and Markus Winkelhock in the #6 Phoenix Audi.
Max Götz tried for the lead round the outside of Vanthoor at Paddock Hill on the first lap, but the couldn’t make it stick as they banged doors going down the hill.
“I had a good start,” said Götz. “I gave Laurens enough room I think on the inside. I tried to be safe on the outside. Maybe he missed his braking point and he touched my rear. I had to go wide, and I lost two places. I need to talk to him about it.”
This gave Bleekemolen and Winkelhock a chance to move up to second and third place going through the Indy circuit, creating the trio that would battle for the lead for the laps to come.
“I just wanted to pull away from the rest of the field, but Markus [Winkelhock] was about to hang on with me. I tried not to fight too hard, we were a little quicker in some places but it’s so hard to overtake round here. I was just happy to be sitting second,” Bleekemolen admitted.
Of the early tussles up and down the field while the pack was still bunched up, Tomas Enge was the big mover in the #88 Reiter Lambo.
After starting 19th on the grid due to drivestahft issues which prevented the car from qualifying, Enge managed to move up to 10th place in just 11 laps. The car would eventually finish 9th with Stefan Rosina at the wheel after the stops.
There was also a scrap for 5th place between Valdeno Brito Filho in the #30 Brasil BMW and Rene Rast in the #2 WRT Audi. Rast tried on multiple occasions to get by in the opening laps but couldn’t get by. All his efforts came to nothing though for Rast, as he had to make an unscheduled stop on lap 11 for a front right puncture – forcing him to the back of the pack.
Meanwhile up front, the lead battle continued, with Vanthoor unable to shake Bleekemolen and Winkelhock off his tail. The trio spent most of the first half of the race within 1.2 seconds of each other. But it would all change as the pit window opened. The majority of the field came in during the first two laps of the window, but the top three stayed out.
Alex Zanardi, who was due to make his stop in the #33 ROAL BMW, had an off at Clark Curve, leaving him facing the wrong way. In an attempt to turn the Z4 round, the Italian beached it in the gravel on the outside of the pit straight, just as Winkelhock and Vanthoor came in for their stop.
The safety car had to be deployed, but a lap after the incident – and as Bleekemolen came in. This really helped the Grasser team as the pack shuffled to get behind the safety car. Hari Proczyk got in the Lambo and emerged in the lead, ahead of Niki Mayr-Melnof in the #6 Phoenix Audi and Max Buhk in the #84 HTP SLS.
Green flag racing begun again with 17 minutes left in the race and the pack split up into two groups. The top three broke away, and Buhk immediately went on the offensive, pulling off a mesmerising move round the outside of Mayr-Melnof at Paddock Hill Bend to claim second.
Behind, the rest of the field spent the remainder of the race swapping positions. The two Bhai Tech McLarens and the #34 ROAL BMW swapped places lap after lap for ninth place, Daniel Lloyd in particular showing flair by getting by his team-mate and the ROAL car at Graham Hill.
Mayr-Melnof couldn’t keep up with the lead pair as the race started to come to a close, and slipped into the hands of the two Brasil BMWs, which had made their way up to fourth and fifth. Sergio Jimenez in the #0 BMW put pressure on Melnof, who made an error at Graham Hill, going off the circuit, letting both Jimenez and the sister car of Matheus Dall’Agnol Stumpf by – giving Team Brasil their first podium of the season.
Up front, it was still close for the lead all the way until the flag, but Buhk couldn’t get by Proczyk who defended masterfully – sealing the win for the Austrian team.
“It was not as easy as it looked,” said Procyzk afterwards. “On the fast corners he [Buhk] was quicker than me but he had no chances to overtake.”
Phoenix Racing’s #5 Audi managed to win the Pro-Am class after a good run by Marc Basseng and Alessandro Latif to 13th overall. And the Silver Cup was won by the #34 ROAL BMW of David Fumanelli and Stefan Colombo.
Stephen Kilbey
