It cannot be said that there were no moments of driver-team tension during the season, even before the “patatrac” of Vallelunga, the penultimate round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia which tremendously complicated the plans for confirming the 2023 title for Larry Ten Voorde and for the first Team title at Enrico Fulgenzi Racing.
Then everything came to a head in Monza last weekend in the final, in favor of Keagan Masters, first time champion in the Italian single-brand championship with Team Q8 Hi Perform (also thanks to the technical support of Ombra Racing), and of Target Competition, in turn for first time Team champion.
These are tensions that can exist at the highest levels of a championship and also considering the charisma of the protagonists to whom we are referring. Ten Voorde, certainly, a champion at the wheel of the 911 GT3 Cup capable of demonstrating competitiveness even in the endurance races held so far in GT; but also Enrico Fulgenzi, an indomitable driver on the track, once champion in the Carrera Cup Italia (2013), and increasingly immersed in the role of team principal of the young team he himself founded.
Perhaps giving “shine” to this new guise, the driver and entrepreneur from the Marche region spent important words at the end of the 2024 Carrera Cup Italia regarding Ten Voorde, who after the two pole positions obtained in Vallelunga and his rivals a little behind seemed to be heading towards the second title and instead he has always been penalized in the last 4 races of the season (also for errors and truly unexpected maneuvers).
Words that in Monza last weekend arrived both before (“I asked him for the last effort and now I’m crossing my fingers”) and in the middle (“I told him to put everything aside and think about tomorrow’s race”) and after two Monza races. And these are definitely the most profound, the ones with which Fulgenzi does not dump the Dutch driver, but rather defends him, also responding indirectly to the criticisms that have nevertheless found life in the paddock.
“We’re all still in a bit of shock – said Fulgenzi –I think that in this season finale normality emerged: Larry is a driver, the best in history with this Porsche, but he is nevertheless human. In Enrico Fulgenzi Racing we have to look at what happened from a different perspective than the one we are looking at now: in this last period Larry is experiencing a particular moment in which the results and episodes do not seem to live up to expectations, but we shouldn’t forget how much Larry gave us, when he was an infallible war machine most of the time, and be aware of the growth he helped us make as a team. As far as I’m concerned, the balance is positive and I congratulate Masters for the drivers’ title and Target for the team title.”
Lato Ten Voorde, looking beyond the end of the Italian season, in fact we should not forget the first title won for the Jesi team twelve months ago and it should be underlined that this year too they played two races less than their rivals for the crown, Masters and Klein, skipping the fourth meeting on 6-8 September in Imola.
The three-time Supercup champion, the last one this year with the title won in Monza a few weeks before the Italian final, now seems to have every intention of dedicating himself more to his driver academy, without thinking too much about his commitments on the track as a Pro driver.
Is a gap year in sight? Something more? In any case it would be a shame and perhaps it will just be a matter of recharging the batteries, even if first there is the final of the Carrera Cup Germany waiting for him, between two Sundays in Hockenheim: Ten Voorde starts with a discreet advantage and who knows if the eventuality of a fourth German title at the expense of a strong rival like Harry King cannot bring some serenity.
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