Race 1
After starting from pole position, Josh Rattican and Tom Emson took a confident win on Saturday in the first race of the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club’s final weekend of 2023 in Barcelona.
The #3 Team Speedcar Audi (Lariche/Consani) finished just behind the McLaren in second place to take the 2023 Silver Cup championship battle with the #2 BMW right down the wire. That will now be decided in Sunday’s very last race!
It was always going to be a tough ask for Michael Schrey and Gabriele Piana to achieve the ultimate goal in today’s race. Even though they started with a healthy 25-point advantage, coming from 17th on the grid to beat all nearest competitors proved too tall of a mountain to climb. The #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW still managed to finish within the top 10, which now makes it a two-horse race with just 14 points in it for Sunday’s Race 2!
On top of the #77 car’s overall win, Denning/Mitchell steered their #78 Artura GT4 to a brilliant P4, just shy of the bottom step of the podium. That third place overall was claimed by the #36 Code Racing Development Alpine of Leclerc/Bouvet, good for a Pro-Am Cup win in Race 1 and enough to secure the runner-up spot in the 2023 class standings behind the #42 Audi.
That Pro-Am win actually looked to have #83 Audi written all over it in the early stages, but after some spirited driving Jim Pla had to retire with mechanical issues around the 20 minute-marker. The same kind of heartbreak followed after the pit window for the #5 Mirage Racing Aston Martin. Having emerged out of the pit stops in second place, Ruben Del Sarte had to park his Vantage AMR GT4 with 18 minutes left on the clock.
A frantic surge in the latter stages allowed Robert Consani to move the #3 Audi into that all-important P2, and when a late incident caused a Safety Car procedure with just a handful of minutes to run, the finish order for Race 1 was fixed in place. Further down the field, in 15th place overall, that meant Am Cup honours for the #55 Autosport GP LS Group Performance Alpine of Hurgon/Ferté.
Race 2
After a confident Race 2 in the season’s last event at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Michael Schrey and Gabriele Piana took the win and the 2023 Silver Cup title. With that, the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club can now crown the champions in each of its three categories.
Given the results from Saturday’s Race 1 in Barcelona, the 2023 GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club Silver Cup title battle came down to a two-horse race. But it was always going to be a tough ask for Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani in the #3 Team Speedcar Audi to keep Michael Schrey and Gabriele Piana away from the ultimate goal. The championship leaders had placed their #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 on pole position for Race 2 – five spots ahead of the #3 Audi – and started with a healthy 16-point advantage.
When the #2 BMW charged off into the lead, the #3 Audi got swarmed by traffic and had to run wide in turn 1. Rejoining the track was not done the proper way and when race control inflicted a five-second time penalty, Lariche/Consani knew that any title hopes would require miracles. Miracles did not come, but further drama did when the time penalty was not served during the pit stop, and another 15-second penalty was added with 20 minutes left.
All Michael Schrey had to do was keep it together up front, and he did just that to take the chequered flag in the #2 BMW, ahead of the #78 McLaren of Denning/Mitchell and the #5 Mirage Racing Aston Martin of Day/Del Sarte, the latter recovering from their heartbreaking DNF on Saturday. Guilvert/Hamon won Pro-Am in the #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi and Varutti/Piguet took Am Cup honours in the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche, making Race 2 in Barcelona a true champions’ party!
That final chequered flag concluded this season’s racing action in the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club, which can now officially crown all three 2023 champions.
Am Cup:
Alban Varutti and Julien Piguet were simply invincible in the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS and secured the 2023 Am Cup title with a wide margin. After yet another win here in Barcelona, AVR-Avvatar can celebrate further, and even if Piguet missed out on two of this season’s meetings and has to leave the official drivers’ title to Varutti alone, he will certainly take part in a toast to their season!
Pro-Am Cup:
Grégory Guilvert and Christophe Hamon had looked solid all season and secured the Pro-Am Cup title in the season’s penultimate event at Hockenheim by executing a perfect “stay out of trouble and bring it home” strategy. The French duo proved utterly reliable in all rounds this year, and bagged a well-deserved title for Saintéloc Junior Team.
Silver Cup:
No class in the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club was as open as the Silver Cup. Even if on several occasions early on, Michael Schrey and Gabriele Piana seemed to dominate in their #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 GT4, the duo managed just two race wins before coming to Barcelona, and were actually struggling to find good pace in the penultimate round at Hockenheim.
That left the championship battle wide open until the very last race, but in the end Schrey/Piana did what they had set out to do: win for the third time this season in the final race, to finally secure that coveted Silver Cup championship in style!
Berkay Besler and Tom Edgar, in the “other” BMW, gave their M4 competitors a proper run for their money this season. They took a maiden win in Misano’s Race 2 in the #12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 and scored heavily on many occasions. But after taking home just four points from the final event in Barcelona, they end the season in third place on the Silver Cup board.
Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani gave it all they had, all season long, in the bright orange #3 Team Speedcar Audi R8 LMS GT4. Some truly spectacular overtakes brought spice to this year’s racing action, all the way to the final stages of Race 2 in Barcelona. They were rewarded with a runner-up position in Silver Cup.
