FFSA GT-C2: Ekris Motorsport doubles the stakes in Pau

After a victory at night on Saturday evening, BMW M4 Ekris GT4 from Ekris Motorsport, entrusted this weekend to the tandem Ricardo van der Ende and Max Koebolt, showed herself imperial on Sunday in the streets of Pau.

Ce sont pourtant les Ginetta G55 qui avaient pris les devants en début de course avec la n°26 – CMR de Soheil Ayari, auteur du meilleur départ dans une procédure marquée par un contact entre la Ginetta G55 n°65 – CMR de Didier Moureu et le Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°11 – Racing Technology de Jimmy Antunes.

The entry of the safety car to evacuate the British GT neutralized the race, before the restart which saw Ayari take off perfectly. Behind the leader, Gaël Castelli (Ginetta G55 n°444 – SpeedCar) made a mistake while braking at the Gare corner, and hit the wall of tires.

Jim Pla (Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°1) takes second place ahead of Sébastien Dumez (Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°66 – Saintéloc Racing) and Ricardo van der Ende, already moved up to fourth place after starting from the seventh position.

van der Ende dynamites the race

The event was neutralized again after a quarter of an hour, following the error of Sylvain Debs (Ginetta G55 n°999 – CMR) in the descent towards the pit straight, causing the establishment of a Full Course Yellow then the deployment of the safety car.

The race resumes 38′ from the end, and van der Ende very quickly passes Sébastien Dumez for third place. The leading trio Ayari – Pla – van der Ende no longer evolves until the driver changes, where Nicolas Tardif takes over from Soheil Ayari in the leading car.

The leader is now under threat from Max Koebolt, whose Ekris – Ekris Motorsport BMW M4 is definitely to his advantage in the long Pau straight, since the Dutchman easily passes Tardif 21′ from the finish. Koebolt will no longer be joined and achieves a second success in two races this weekend for the Dutch structure.

The ranking, however, will change significantly for the places on the podium since Nicolas Tardif makes a mistake when braking at the Gare bend, leaving Gilles Vannelet, associated with Mike Parisy on the No. 4 Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT30 – CD Sport, to emerge. in second position under the checkered flag ahead of Valentin Simonet, teammate of Sébastien Dumez in Saintéloc Racing.

Robert Consani and Benjamin Lariche (Ginetta G55 n°8 – SpeedCar) fell short of the podium despite Consani's superb comeback in the second half of the event. Niki Leutwiler and Ander Vilarino (Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°2 – TFT) took fifth place ahead of the Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°64 – Vic'Team of Olivier Jouffret and Eric Trémoulet.

Pierre Sancinéna and Jim Pla, who lost time during the driver change, finished seventh ahead of the No. 4 Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT31 – CD Sport of Christophe Stone – Morgan Moullin-Traffort. There McLaren 570S GT4 n°3 – Energy by ART of Bruno Hernandez – Simon Gachet and the Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°5 – Riviera Motorsport of Lonni Martins – Christophe Hamon complete the top 10.

Michael and Jean-Luc Blanchemain (Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 n°27 – IMSA Performance) win in the Am category.

Race 2 ranking

Discover the full report of the Pau event in FFSAGT, in issue 2115 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.