Two Podiums for TFT Racing in open round of International GT Open
The opening weekend of the International GT Open 2020 finally got underway at the Hungaroring. Representing Porsche this year is the privateer team TFT Racing who are the only Porsche to be competing in this year's series.
Racing in the AM Class the French team piloted by Niki Leutwiler qualified strong and got off to a great start in race one slotting in to seventh place overall on the very first lap, by the end of the first lap the team found themselves losing out to the faster AM pro class teams dropping a place into eighth. The team continued to push through and soon found themselves leading the Am class and ninth overall. A fast pit stop by the team ensured that they retained the lead heading into the last thirty minutes of the race but the Mercedes of Getspeed performance was closing in fast and was on the rear bumper of the Porsche with only twenty minutes left to race, Leutwiler defended hard but was not able to fend them off and minutes later a full course caution was issued and the safety car was deployed. When they finally got back to racing there was only seven minutes left and Leutwiler was soon on the back of the Mercedes and looking for a way past but moments later a huge crash meant that the safety car was deployed for second time. The crash had damaged the safety barriers heavily and there was no time to fix them resulting in the race finishing under yellow and Leutwiler having to settle for second place.
In race two Leutwiler found himself fourth in class thirteen overall for the opening laps of the hour-long race. It was not up until the finally twenty minutes of the race that Leutwiler started to move up the order slotting into third in class. A few laps later Leutwiler made a brave move on the inside to slide past the Ferrari to take second place. The charge was now on to chase down the leader who was fifteen seconds in front but with only fifteen minutes left to race it was going to be a lot to ask from Leutwiler who had to settle for second place.