The stage was set for a great start into the new Porsche Sprint Challenge Central Europe: The famous F1 racetrack in the Styrian Alps, the Red Bull Ring, greeted the teams and drivers with nice and sunny skies over the circuit situated in a very pleasant landscape, and everybody was happy to be able to gain experience on the track already on Thursday and Friday for two really productive test days.
The real hot action started on Saturday with two qualifyings for the two sprint races. And from the very beginning, French PSCCE newcomer Leo Messenger left no doubt about who would be the fastest man this weekend. He set pole position for both races, every time at least about one second faster than the rest of the competition.
For race one, the leading AM category driver, Lithuanian Eduardas Klepikas, qualified beside him for the front row. He races for one of three teams from Lithuania that the PSCCE could newly welcome this year, as the NEZ series, where they used to compete, was cancelled. Beat Ganz from Switzerland made it to P3. In the second qualifying, Zeljko Drmic from Austria and Maciej Walenda from Italy made it to P2 and P3 behind Messenger, while Czech driver Peter Brecka was fastest in the AM class.
Leo Messenger then turned his pole position into a dominant victory in the first sprint race. The Frenchman led from start to checquered flag and crossed the finish line more than 20 seconds ahead of Germans Herbert Geiss and Ulrich Ziegler. So even a 10-second time penalty for not being in the correct starting position could not stop him at all. Klepikas in P4 overall was the winner of the AM class.
In race two, Messenger and Drmic had a very close fight in the beginning. But even after losing the lead from pole position at the start, Messenger passed him again on lap five and then was able to continuously extend his lead. After 17 laps he won with 21.5 seconds ahead of Geiss. The German had overtaken Drmic after the Austrian had made a little mistake. The AM class victory again went to Klepikas, clearly the fastest of the AM divers this weekend, who finished in P6 overall. Peter Brecka and Peter Brunner also showed a strong performance in P2 and P3 in the AM class.
Due to engine problems Klepikas unfortunately could not take part in the endurance race, where Messenger and Lena Knötzl also did not start. 14 cars went into 100 Miles of Austria. Andrea Fontana in car nr. 64 had a strong first stint, but Maciej Walenda, second driver of the Italian team, could not keep the leading position in the second half of the race and dropped to P4. So, from P3 after the first half of the race, a very strong Herbert Geiss finally was able to climb to the top of the podium. The ProAM driver made it into the lead with seven minutes to go and finished ahead of Mantas Janavicius and Marius Bartkus from Lithuania and the German-Polish double Ulrich Ziegler/Franz Dziwok. The Czech pairing of Peter Brecka/Karel Neffe claimed victory in the AM class, where Kremer/Willert in spite of two penalties of 15 seconds in total still made it to the AM podium in P3. Drmic after an early spin in Turn 5 abandoned the race.
All in all, it was a great event together with the GT2 Clubsport weekend and PAG – a great way to bring these pretty cars back on the track. A lot of hot track action was enjoyed by the many guests and partners, including a delegation from the Porsche Museum and special guests Nicole Nagel and Jörg Bergmeister from Porsche.
