Various Series

Planetlemans weekend roundup Oct 20th and 21st

© Mark Weber

Last weekend, three championships were decided for the 2007 season. The Belcar championship took place at Zolder, in the same weekend as the FIA GT Championship. The Speed World Challenge on its turn was supporting the program of the Montery Sportscar Championship at the legendary Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Italian GT Championship had its finale at Monza.

© SRO Belgium

Belcar Last at Race Zolder

The seventh and final race of the Belcar Championship was held during the FIA-GT event at the Belgian Zolder circuit. After the last race at Spa-Francorchamps, there were still three contenders for the championship, promising a lot of excitement for this final race. Right after the start all this excitement was hard to find, as the polesitter Gravity Racing International with their #24 Mosler MT900 heads off with full speed, without a car able to keep up.

Other championship contenders all had to cope with lots of trouble. GPR Racing got caught into a racing accident and had to start their race all over again and fight back to the top. PK Carsport had to end their title battle after some trouble with the front suspension of their Corvette Z06R GT3. In the final part of the race, GPR’s comeback was the championship decision maker. At first it seemed that they were held of the title by the Prospeed Porsche, but in the final laps it was Maxime Soulet who could overtake the Prospeed Porsche and claim the title for GPR Racing.

In the end it was the #24 Mosler of Vincent Radermecker and Stephane Lemeret who were victorious, but with GPR scoring to much points, the constructors championship slipped thru their fingers. In the drivers championship it was Bert Couwberghs to claim the first position as he had a wonderful season with team NGT Racing.

_{Results: 1 Gravity Racing International (Radermecker/Lemeret – Mosler MT900), 2 G&A Racing (Kenis/De Keersmaecker – Mosler MT900R), 3 AD Sport (Wauters/Wauters – Dodge Viper). Standings:}

© GT-Italia.net

Speed GT World Challenge Laguna Seca

In the finale of the Speed GT World Challenge at Laguna Seca, where also the ALMS took place, Andy Pilgrim took the win, but that could not hold back Randy Pobst from winning the Championship. regardless of where the other drivers would finish, Pobst at least had to become second. And that is exactlty the position he finished in.

At first, Pobst was in a fairly comfortable lead of two seconds. But Pobst seemed to have trouble fighting his Toyos and preventing understeer. After having lead the race for 20 laps, Pilgrim got in striking distance and evetually catched Pobst in lap 22. He set a fastest lap of 1:30.801 in the battle for first position. His lead at the finish line was just under two seconds. With this second position, Pobst won the championship with a 16 points advantage over Pilgrim, whilst Cadillac is still the holder of the Manufacturers title, their second one.

_{Results: 1 Andy Pilgrim (Cadillac CTS-V - XM/Mobil 1), 2 Randy Pobst (Porsche 911 GT-3 - K-PAX Racing LLC),
3 Michael Galati (Porsche 911 GT-3 - K-PAX Racing LLC). Standings: 1 Randy Pobst 303, 2 Andy Pilgrim 287, 3 Lawson Aschenbach 280}

Sara Italian GT Championship Monza

In the Italian GT Championship at Monza, Lorenzo Casè and Stefano Livio decided the 2007 Sara Italian GT Chamionship by becoming respectively fourth and second in the first and second race. That brought them the GT2 title.

_{Results: Race 1 - 1 Lietz-Roda (Porsche 997) 2 Piccini-Berton (Lamborghini Gallardo) 3 Alessi-Orts (Ferrari 360). Results: Race 2 - 1 Cressoni-Bontempelli (Ferrari F 430) 2 Casè-Livio (Ferrari F 430) 3 Lietz-Roda (Porsche 997). Standings: GT2: 1 Livio 116, 1 Casè 116, 3 Mugelli 113, 4 "Linos" 113, 5 Zampaloni 86, 6 La Mazza 83 GT3 A 1 Berton 144, 1 Piccini 144, 3 Smurra 123, 4 Stancheris 123, 5 Ragazzi 113, 6 Pavoni 96 GT3 B1 Coldani 138, 2 Earle 123, 3 G.Coggiola 102, 4 Capelli 60, 5 Di Bari 57 GT CUP 1 Proietti 144, 2 Merzario 123, 3 Gallina 103, 4 Bartocci 66, 5 Caprotti 63}