Ricardo Baptista and Constantino Jr. win on a thrilling weekend at Goiânia; JP Mauro and Huerta achieve victories in Challenge class
The first visit from Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Brasil to Goiânia brought to the city one of the most thrilling, emotional, disputed and polemic rounds of the last ten years of the series’ history. In Cup class, Ricardo Baptista and Constantino Jr. clinched victories, while in Challenge class it was all about JP Mauro and Gonzalo Huerta wins.
The main division on the series, the Cup class had a very busy race. Baptista took the lead after inducing pole position Daniel Schneider to make a mistake, but never had the victory guaranteed: Miguel Paludo tried to steal his lead like a lion, but on the clash of the two-time champions, Baptista took the final advantage of only 0s143, with Ricardo Rosset completing the podium.
Even with a slightly weaker than expected performance, Schneider got the first place on the Cup Sport subdivision, with Gil Farah in second in his class and eight on the overall standings – that means Farah would start on pole on the second race. Maurizio Billi, on his side, started the Goiânia round the way he wanted: winning on Cup Master subdivision.
But it was the second Cup class race of the day that set the already hot Goiânia on fire. Even before the race start, the pole position Gil Farah touched his car with Constantino’s – his partner on the front row. That provoked a new formation lap and a second race start, where Schneider escaped in the front, followed closely by the red and black car of Lico Kaesemodel.
The Paraná-born driver took the lead right after the first lap, but never got rid of Schneider on his tail. Meanwhile, Constantino Jr. struggled to keep the third position with a damaged car, receiving an enormous pressure of Miguel Paludo and Pedro Queirolo.
The duo Lico-Schneider made a race of their own, got detached from the pack and received the checkered flag almost together. With his first victory in a very long time, Lico celebrated not only his first win on the series but also the first triumph from a Paraná state driver on the main division. With a wide smile on his face, Lico received the trophy from the hands of his father – but the party soon turned into frustration.
In a recorded revision of the start, comissioneers found that Lico made a false start, alongside with Schneider, Baptista and Marcio Basso. So they were given a 20 second penalty to their total time after the race. From winner, Lico fell to the 9th place; Schneider had an even bigger loss, falling from second to tenth and losing the Cup Sport subclass victory to Farah.
With that, the overall victory fell on the lap of Constantino Jr., followed by Paludo, Pedro Queirolo, Gil Farah and Rosset. Better for Constantino, launching himself into the championship lead with 164 points. Right behind him are Miguel Paludo with 151 and Ricardo Rosset with 145. Disaster for Baptista, who saw his points stagnate on 122 and his direct contenders get away on the standings. Maurizio Billi won again on Cup Master subclass and sailed away on the subclass’ standings lead.
If the Cup class races were busy, the Challenge class ones were not even a single Celsius degree colder. Actually, the Challenge races presented the crowd with the most thrilling moments of the weekend. Already on the first race, Elias Azevedo and the pole position Gonzalo Huerta divided a space meant for one single car and both gave way to a fast and furious JP Mauro, who drove on the limit without making mistakes and conquered a well-deserved first place. Cristiano Piquet, Fernando Fortes and Rodolfo Toni, the winner on Challenge Sport subdivision, finished on this order but not without a fight that endured for many laps – a thrilling dance at more than 200 km/h which only finished on the checkered flag.
The second Challenge race of the weekend saw an impecable driving from Chilean Gonzalo Huerta. Starting on the eighth position, he was eager to compensate his abandon on the first race, when he was the pole position. Overtaking one by one, he met JP Mauro on the fight for the first place. That was by far the most breathtaking dispute of the weekend. Lap after lap, the Chilean driver tried to overtake JP Mauro on the left, on the right, on the straight and on the outer side of the curves. After much pressure and some bumper touches, Huerta tried and succeeded at making JP Mauro miss a tangent. He took the lead and opened some seconds, leaving JP Mauro a pray for the hungry opponents who followed them. It was the first victory from Huerta on the main Challenge class and his second triumph on the Challenge Sport subdivision.
JP Mauro was overtaken by Cristiano Piquet, who repeated his second place of the morning race, while Fernando Fortes, Elias Azevedo and Fabio Alves finished fourth, fifth and sixth, on this order. The result made JP Mauro build an even wider gap on the overall championship standings with 145 points, against 129 from defending champion Alves.
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Brasil takes a month off and comes back to Goiânia for the next round in the 20th of September.
Complete results
CUP CLASS
Race 1
1. Ricardo Baptista, 19 laps
2. Miguel Paludo, 0s143
3. Ricardo Rosset, 3s737
4. Lico Kaesemodel, 5s350
5. Pedro Queirolo, 7s473
6. Daniel Schneider, 8s684
7. Constantino Jr., 10s822
8. Gil Farah, 11s363
9. Franco Giaffone, 11s759
10. Sylvio de Barros, 12s302
11. Marcel Visconde, 25s446
12. Maurizio Billi, 26s507
13. Marcio Basso, 26s970
14. Adalberto Baptista, 37s708
15. Marcelo Stallone, 37s994
16. Carlos Ambrósio, 38s587
17. Guilherme Figueirôa, 39s291
18. Sérgio Ribas, 39s717
19. Rodolfo Ometto, 8 laps
Race 2
1. Constantino Jr., 18 laps
2. Miguel Paludo, 0s980
3. Pedro Queirolo, 1s784
4. Gil Farah, 2s720
5. Ricardo Rosset, 3s177
6. Rodolfo Ometto, 3s537
7. Sylvio de Barros, 3s942
8. Franco Giaffone, 6s949
9. Lico Kaesemodel, 9s580
10. Daniel Schneider, 11s837
11. Marcel Visconde, 13s200
12. Maurizio Billi, 13s409
13. Guilherme Figueirôa, 20s580
14. Marcelo Stallone, 21s108
15. Sérgio Ribas, 21s753
16. Ricardo Baptista, 39s648
17. Marcio Basso, 42s218
18. Carlos Ambrósio, 13 voltas
19. Adalberto Baptista, 18 voltas
Championship standings:
1. Constantino Jr., 164 points
2. Miguel Paludo, 151
3. Ricardo Rosset, 145
4. Ricardo Baptista, 122
5. Daniel Schneider, 91
6. Pedro Queirolo, 86
7. Marcel Visconde, 85
8. Lico Kaesemodel, 84
9. Rodolfo Ometto, 77
10. Eduardo Azevedo, 69
11. Gil Farah, 61
12. Franco Giaffone, 60
13. Pedro Piquet, 49
14. Sylvio de Barros, 45
15. Maurizio Billi, 44
16. Carlos Ambrósio, 42
17. Gui Affonso, 18
18. Marcelo Stallone, 16
19. Sérgio Ribas, 11
20. Guilherme Figueirôa, 9
21. Roberto Posses, 7
Tom Valle, 7
23. Adalberto Baptista, 6
24. Marcio Basso, 5
25. Carlos Silveira, 1
CHALLENGE CLASS
Race 1
1. JP. Mauro 18 laps in 26:46.844
2. Cristiano Piquet, 2.149
3. Fernando Fortes, 2.867
4. Rodolfo Toni, 3.945
5. Rodrigo Mello, 5.091
6. Daniel Corrêa, 14.804
7. Fabio Alves, 27.914
8. Marcelo Sarcinella, 32.687
9. Alencar Jr., 33.337
10. Renato Benedetto, 35.432
11. Marcio Mauro, 40.873
12. Ramon Alcaraz, 1:00.653
13. Renato Braga, 1:12.077
14. Beto Leite, 1 lap
Race 2
1. Gustavo Huerta, 18 laps in 27:01.869
2. Cristiano Piquet, 2.653
3. JP. Mauro, 3.148
4. Fernando Fortes, 3.308
5. Elias Azevedo, 9.065
6. Fabio Alves, 9.087
7. Rodolfo Toni, 9.786
8. Tom Filho, 10.783
9. Daniel Corrêa, 14.235
10. Marcio Mauro, 14.811
11. Renato Braga, 21.299
12. Alencar Jr., 25.263
13. Marcelo Sarcinella, 34.285
14. Ramon Alcaraz, 1:17.012
15. Beto Leite, 1 lap
Championship standings:
1. JP Mauro, 145 points
2. Fabio Alves, 129
3. Elias Azevedo, 123
4. Cristiano Piquet, 112
5. Tom Filho, 80
6. Marcio Mauro, 76
7. Ramon Alcaraz, 63
8. Daniel Corrêa, 60
9. Gonzalo Huerta, 59
10. Daniel Paludo, 55
11. Rodrigo Mello, 51
12. Eduardo R., 44
13. Marcello Sarcinella, 41
14. Vitor Scheid, 34
15. Ronaldo Kastropil, 30
16. Fernando Fortes, 30
17. The Tonny, 29
18. Marcelo Franco, 22
19. Esteban Gini, 20
20. Kreis Jr., 14
21. Paulo Pomelli, 13
22. Alencar Jr., 11
23. Geraldo Piquet, 10
24. Renato Braga, 8
25. Renato Benedetto, 6
26. Beto Leite, 3
