GT4 Championships

Dutch GT4 Championship: Race 3, another Porsche wins

© Planetlemans – Frank Feenstra

The feature race of the Dutch GT4 Championship, race three of the weekend, started some 30 minutes later than expected as poor visibility and mishaps in other races caused some delay in the schedule. But the 7,500 spectators would see an interesting race on the Zandvoort track.

The Certainty Racing Team by Day V Tec Corvettes did not take the start as both cars returned to the pit at the end of the warm-up lap. The team withdrew its cars in protest of a late change in qualifying regulations which meant they had to start from the rear of the grid. The Tachyon Motorsport Mustang did not make it to the grid as the damage from the first race of the day was irreparable.

At the start things went wrong for the KS Motorsport Ginetta of Sanders/Verheul and the car slammed into the wall just after the start. The other KS Motorsport Ginetta clipped the back of the Team Bleekemolen BMW M3 GT4. The safety car was immediately deployed as the #22 car came to a halt on the track just before the Tarzan corner.

Ten minutes into the race the safety car came in again and the green flag was shown. Christiaan Frankenhout did everything right and took off, but Van Splunteren rapidly closed the gap. Behind him Bernhard van Oranje was able to pass Duncan Huisman and within a lap the Mustang was already ahead of the Porsche.

Duncan Huisman’s BMW M3 GT4 suffered a problem when its exhaust came loose and sparks started to fly. As a result the two Rhesus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4s closed the gap to the BMW driver, but then Paul Vahstal in the #8 Aston was given a driver through penalty. Behind them Robert den Otter spun his Corvette C6, dropping him to last on the track.

Van Riet closed the gap on Huisman and in the Audi S the Aston driver passed the BMW. With the pit window opening Paul van Splunteren came in immediately for his stop. Vahstal came in for his drive through. One lap later most other drivers came in for their stop, while the deheeg.nl BMW Z4 GT4 went off at Scheivlak and ended up in the gravel trap.

Twenty-two minutes remained when race leader Christiaan Frankenhout came into the pit for the PS Autosport pit stop, handing over the car to Phil Bastiaans.

As all cars had made their pit stop the Aston of Vahstal was leading, ahead of the Mustang of Jan Lammers, Bastiaans in the Porsche and Ricardo van der Ende in the BMW. Menno Kuus in the Ginetta G50 was the quickest car out on the track and closed the gap to the leaders by about a second per lap.

Fifteen minutes before the end of the race the “meat ball” flag was shown to the Ekris Motorsport BMW of Ricardo van der Ende, the car making way too much noise after its incident earlier on in the race in which the exhaust was damaged.

Despite getting the meatball Van der Ende continued and at the end of the straight the BMW nearly passed Lammers. Coming into the Gerlach corner the Mustang and BMW touched sending the BMW into a spin and off the track. A couple of corners later Phil Bastiaans overtook Lammers and moved into second place. Van der Ende meanwhile returned to the pit lane.

Coming onto the straight after 19 laps Lammers’ Mustang lost power and the #10 came into the pit lane immediately. Vahstal was still leading the race with six minutes to go, but having served a drive through penalty already next to the mandatory pit stop things didn’t seem to be correct. Only a few minutes later the race directors handed Vahstal a 55-second stop & go penalty for not respecting the minimum pit stop time. Vahstal immediately came in to the pit.

After 23 laps Christiaan Frankenhout officially moved into the lead ahead of the Aston Martin of Pim van Riet, who was still closely followed by Menno Kuus in the Ginetta G50. One lap later Frankenhout crossed the line, taking the win for the PS Autosport team. Match Racing driver Kuus was unable to find a place to pass Van Riet and finished in third place behind the Aston driver.

Result Race 3 – PROVISIONAL RESULT:

1. #27 PS Autosport – Porsche 997 GT4
2. #7 Rhesus Racing – Aston Martin Vantage GT4
3. #14 Match Racing – Ginetta G50
4. #1 Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven – Porsche 997 GT4
5. #3 Madeno Racing – Aston Martin N24
6. #19 Team Bleekemolen – BMW M3 GT4
7. #12 Cosmo Hairstyling – Porsche 997 GT4
8. #88 KTG Racing – BMW M3 GT4
9. #20 Gravity Racing – Corvette C6
10. #9 Racing Team Holland – Mustang FR500C
11. #50 JAR Motorsport – BMW M3 GT4
12. #8 Rhesus Racing – Aston Martin Vantage GT4
13. #15 Match Racing – Ginetta G50
14. #21 KS Motorsport – Ginetta G50
15. #11 Speedlover – Aston Martin N24
16. #10 – Bernhard van Oranje – Racing Team Holland – Mustang FR500C
DNF #18 Ekris Motorsport – BMW M3 GT4
DNF #16 deheeg.nl – BMW Z4
DNF #22 KS Motorsport – Ginetta G50
DNF #63 Certainty Racing Team by Day V Tec – Corvette C6
DNF #64 Certainty Racing Team by Day V Tec – Corvette C6
DNS #2 Tachyon Motorsport – Mustang FR500C