The GT World Challenge Europe (GTWCE) series visited the storied Monza circuit in Italy this past weekend for the second round of the Endurance Cup championship. It proved to be a chaotic and challenging race, but BMW teams were on the podium in the Pro Cup, Gold Cup and Bronze Cup classes.
There were 57 entries among the four classes of GT3 cars at Monza (Pro Cup, Gold Cup, Silver Cup, Bronze Cup), including eight BMW M4 GT3 EVOs. In qualifying, the fastest of the BMWs was the #32 ROWE Racing entry of Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts, which was in ninth overall but had an average time less than a half-second off the pole time of the #64 Ford Mustang GT3. Overall, the top 13 cars were within a second of each other.
The #32 avoided getting caught up in the accident at the start, but caused another accident later in the race.
Monza’s turn one is a tight right hander that is also one of the key passing zones on the track, so it has a history of incidents in both sportscar racing and Formula 1, but the carnage that took place at the start of the GTWCE race was a doozy. Mercedes-AMG driver Maxime Martin was given a penalty for causing the incident that led to several cars crashing heavily into each other on the approach to turn one. The incident took out the top five starters along with several other cars. Luckily all the drivers were unhurt, but there were millions of dollars in damage done before the field even got through the first turn.
The BMWs managed to get around the cars that were flying in every direction at the start, but some of them also issues and incidents during the race. The #32 car was well positioned through much of the race to have a good result, but that car caused more carnage when Kelvin van der Linde simply missed a braking point and ran hard into the back of the #9 Porsche, which ended up hitting other cars as it barrel-rolled off the track. “I misjudged the braking into turn one on the safety car restart and tried to avoid contact,” said van der Linde. “Unfortunately, there was another car on my left, which meant I made contact with the Porsche and caused it to spin. The outcome is very bad and something no one wants to see. I am truly sorry, and I am relieved that both drivers were okay when I saw them at the medical center.“
The #998 ROWE Racing car of Ugo de Wilde, Tim Tramnitz and Jens Klingmann finished third in Gold Cup.
The #98 ROWE Racing M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Jake Dennis and Raffaele Marciello (shown in top photo) ended up being the highest placed BMW in the field, finishing fifth overall and third place in the Pro Cup class. “It was a crazy race with far too many accidents,” said Marciello. “Considering our bad luck today, finishing fifth is a good result in the end. Even if it is not particularly meaningful, we compare quite well to the other Pro-class cars.” The #46 Pro Cup entry of Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi had to retire with a clutch failure. The overall win went to the #66 Audi, which was a Silver Cup entry.
The Oman Racing by Century Motorsport BMW of Ahmad al Harthy, Javier Sagrera and Calan Williams finished third in the Bronze Cup class.
BMWs were also on the podium in other classes. The #998 car of Ugo de Wilde, Tim Tramnitz and Jens Klingmann ended up third in the Gold Cup class. “Considering we started from 46th on the grid, it was a strong recovery,” said de Wilde. “It was a race with many incidents, lots of strategic decisions and, of course, you needed a bit of luck. In the end, we still picked up important points for the championship in the Gold Cup.” The #42 Oman Racing by Century Motorsport BMW of Ahmad al Harthy, Javier Sagrera and Calan Williams finished third in the Bronze Cup class.
The next race on the GTWCE calendar is the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium on June 24th-28th, which is the biggest event of the year for the series.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy Gruppe C Photography]
