Intense battles in Termas de Río
For the second consecutive week, the Porsche Cup Brazil revved up at Termas de Río Hondo. After an exciting round of short races, where the main title contenders in all categories were determined and the first champion mathematically secured the trophy, drivers of the most produced competition cars on the planet returned to the northern Argentine track for the second meeting of the Endurance Challenge, the championship of long races.
The familiar regular grid drivers welcomed national and international names from the world of motorsport into their cars, including former Formula 1 drivers Rubens Barrichello, Ricardo Zonta, and Nelson Piquet Jr. In addition to significant names from the Brazilian Stock Car and other top categories on the national scene. The hosts also fielded a pair on the grid, formed by Franco Farina and Ianina Zanazzi.
In total, 34 cars and 68 drivers navigated the 4,806m of the Termas de Río Hondo Circuit, and balance proved to be a determining factor throughout the entire weekend.
With a new qualifying format, where a 50-minute countdown timer would run freely, and the cars would have to strategize to complete a maximum of 15 laps each, achieving the shortest average time between the two drivers. With this, the classification began even before cars hit the track.
Lucas Salles, champion of the Carrera Sport in the short races, showed that he understood Termas de Río Hondo well and once again stood up to the main names in the category. However, in the qualifying, the experience of the seven-time champion Miguel Paludo and his partner, Alan Hellmeister, prevailed. Guilherme Salas broke the track record previously held by Enzo Elias, and now the best time ever on the circuit is 01:41.243.
In the Challenge category, which uses the 991.2 generation, the advantage went to Marcelo Tomasoni and Gerson Campos.
With the race divided into two segments, with the first one awarding 40% of the total points and the last one the remaining 60%, the 300km race delivered sprints worthy of a sprint race.
The first segment was dominated by the Paludo/Hellmeister duo in the overall standings, while in the Carrera Sport, it was Salles/Suzuki, and in the Rookie category, Sanchez/Abreu took the lead. Among the Challenge competitors, victory in the initial segment went to Leite/Carbone also winning for Sport, and Bertuccelli/Rimbano in Rookie.
The second half of the race was action-packed, and at the end of the 300km, Muller/Elias came out on top overall, with Horta/Freire winning in the Sport category and Sanchez/Abreu in the Rookie category. Leite/Carbone won in the Challenge overall and in the Sport category, and the rookie triumph went to Santos/Robe.
The championship now heads to the final round at Interlagos with a 500km distance, with #544 of Muller/Elias leading the competition, and Leite/Carbone leading in the Challenge category. The last race of the season distributes more points than the previous two, keeping the title race alive until the very end.