Grabowski gallops ahead at the Nurburgring
Kamil Grabowski negotiated a perilous opening round of the Apex Racing Academy Porsche Cup Championship (ARA Porsche Cup) at Long Beach to emerge as the early championship leader. In a testament to the popularity of Porsche’s 911 GT3 Cup machine, the ARA Porsche Cup received a wave of entries and the fifty grid slots were oversubscribed. Drivers in both the PRO and AM classes headed to the modern Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit for round two of the championship with much more room to roam than the tight confines of the streets of Long Beach.
During the ten-minute open qualifying session, drivers frantically lapped the lengthy Nürburgring GP layout to secure vital track position on the grid. On home turf, Pascal Costa nabbed pole position for the twenty-minute sprint race. Championship leader, Kamil Grabowski, missed out on pole by the agonisingly small margin of eleven thousandths of a second. Pole position in the AM class went to another local star, Leon Erger, in eighth overall.
Race 1
As the forty-six strong field poised on the grid, the drivers rattled their 4 litre engines on the rev limiter, ready to drop the clutch and dash to turn one. Kamil Grabowski timed his launch flawlessly and won the sprint to turn one. Polesitter, Pascal Costa, settled in behind.
Leon Erger’s start from eighth overall placed the German right in the eye of the PRO class storm. With five minutes to go, Erger had avoided most of the calamity around him until a controversial clash with Casper Lund soured proceedings. Heading onto the pit straight, Lund appeared to move across and clip the right-hand quarter panel, sending Erger into a spin. Both drivers careered into the pit wall and miraculously emerged in the correct direction. Lund’s move appeared to come straight from a stock car racing playbook and may grab the stewards’ attention. Despite being thrown into the clutches of Kev Copeland, Erger held on for fourteenth place overall and the AM class victory.
With two laps to go, the leading trio of Grabowski, Costa and Kevin Nielsen had deserted the rest of the field by nearly ten seconds. Highlighting their metronomic consistency, Grabowski, Costa and Nielsen, sped to the flag in this formation. Defending champion, Nick Madsen, was best of the rest in fourth. Following the Danish ace in fifth, was Porschesport’s gangly Yorkshire karter, Josh Camm.
Feature Race
Following a reverse grid shuffle, Tor A. Berven and Casper Lund started on the front row of the grid. Casper Lund wasted no time in his #199 Porsche and charged into a two second lead by the end of the opening lap. Race one winner, Kamil Grabowski, started thirteenth for the thirty-minute feature race but dropped down the order after a spin at the final corner on lap two. A luckless Leon Erger emerged with nowhere to go and ploughed into Grabowski’s stricken 911.
By the halfway mark, Lund developed a six second lead over Bob Humphrey and Roger Kristiansen. With clear air ahead, no one could lay a glove on the Danish ace. By the line, Lund had accumulated a lead of twelve seconds over the hard charging Dutchman, David Plasman. Roger Kristiansen rounded out the podium in third place.
Kairos Competition’s Dane Baird delivered a stunning drive to climb from just inside the top thirty to tenth overall. In doing so, claiming a thoroughly deserved AM class victory.
Post Race
Immediately after the race, several drivers joined the Apex Racing TV commentary crew to tell their story of the meeting:
Dane Baird: “I’ll be honest, I have no idea how I did that.”
Bob Humphrey: “My pace has been quite good considering this is a track I don’t really like.”
David Plasman: “I knew I was quicker, but my qualification was really bad. I had the pace in race two but I made a stupid mistake. But, I could secure second position.”
Kev Copeland: “I’m actually gutted because if I hadn’t made mistakes in the early laps of both races, I should have finished even better. However, it was so much fun doing two recovery drives from quite low down in the field.”
Bradley Hulse: “I had a really good start after starting nineteenth in race two. I’d got into ninth but got turned around at the chicane and it went downhill from there.”
Next week, the Apex Racing Academy Porsche Cup Championship toasts round three of the championship in California’s wine country at Sonoma Raceway. Tune in to Apex Racing TV at 8pm GMT to catch all the action.