GT1 World

Vitaphone Racing beats Matech at Portimao

© Planetlemans – Gerlach Delissen

On a hot Portimao circuit the Championship Race got underway at 15:30 local time. The air temperature was 27°C and the track temperature had gone up to 38°C as the race was about to get underway.

At the start Peter Dumbreck kept his head cool and rounded the first corner in first place. Behind him though Nicky Pastorelli spun his All-Inkl.com Lamborghini and was t-boned by the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 of Enrique Bernoldi. In the turmoil the Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R of Jamie Campbell-Walter was also hit and damage to the left front the Briton returned to the pit a lap later, where the team had no other option than to retire the car from the race.

Despite his clean start Dumbreck was unable to get rid of the Maserati MC12 of Andrea Bertolini and fifteen minutes into the race he was still only one second ahead of the Italian. Darren Turner in the Young Driver AMR was third at 2.266 seconds from the Nissan.

As the pit window opened Dumbreck and Bertolini came in to the pit, Darren Turner opted to stay out on the track. Unfortunately for Peter Dumbreck and Michael Krumm the Sumo Power GT pit stop did not go without problems and Krumm lost several positions. Michael Bartels was the first driver back out on the track, while Richard Westbrook also managed to get ahead of the Nissan.

Darren Turner came in after 30 minutes and handed over the Aston Martin DBR9 to Tomas Enge. The Czech driver returned on the track just a few seconds behind the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati of Bartels, who could now control the race as he was some three seconds ahead of Enge.

It would however be the race of Richard Westbrook in the number 5 Matech Competition Ford GT. The Briton was flying after taking over from Thomas Mutsch and soon he outbraked Margaritis at the hairpin – a perfect overtaking maneuver. Westbrook continued to push and a few laps later he was already on the rear bumper of the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9 of Tomas Enge.

With 20 minutes remaining Westbrook made another textbook overtaking move at the hairpin and passed Enge for second. For Enge it was the start of a freefall down the ranking. Three minutes later Margaritis passed him at the exit of the hairpin and then got away as the Aston Martin was unable to keep up with the Corvette climbing up the hill. Enge would eventually finish the race down in tenth place, just one place ahead of team mate Pedro Lamy.

Westbrook clawed back seven tenths of a second per lap and was seven seconds behind Bartels with just over thirteen minutes remaining. A quick calculation though learned that Westbrook needed the Maserati to hit traffic or trouble to get back before the chequered flag would come out.

That traffic came with eight minutes left as Xavier Maassen briefly held up the Maserati. Westbrook kept pushing and took back almost 1.2 seconds on that lap alone. As the laps went by the gap also shrunk but it wasn’t enough.
?Into the last lap Westbrook was still 2.5 seconds behind Bartels and despite gaining another 1.1 seconds in the last lap Michael Bartels took the chequered flag in first place after 34 laps. Richard Westbrook came home in second place 1.402 seconds behind the Maserati while Alex Margaritis completed the podium for Phoenix Racing.