When even champions like Larry Ten Voorde make mistakes and youngsters like Francesco Braschi go and get their first victory, the one obtained by the 19-year-old standard-bearer of Dinamic Motorsport in race 1 of the fifth round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia in Vallelunga.
A Vallelunga that for the polemen of the Italian single-make series must retain a sort of curse, given that, exactly as happened to Matteo Malucelli last year, Ten Voorde after the qualifying record also made the Fulgenzi Racing car slide forward before the lights went out, with the Dutch ace shortly after penalised by 10 seconds for jump start.
In the meantime, however, that maneuver had already triggered the near disaster at the Curvone, with Janne Stiak, who with Target Competition started from the front row, flying into the lead and his teammate Marvin Klein instead ending up off the track, making a long excursion until he cut the curve and almost hit the onrushing Simone Iaquinta, who did very well to stop Prima Ghinzani’s 911 GT3 Cup in time before hitting the Frenchman head-on, who was forced to retire in any case (while the Calabrian was forced to come back from the back).
Klein’s excursion was triggered by a decisive closing by Ten Voorde, who in an attempt to make up for the jump start he committed tried to lose as few positions as possible, among other things finding himself fourth behind Stiak, Lirim Zendeli and Braschi and retaking the lead in just a couple of laps.
With one of his two title rivals out of the running (the contact with Klein is still under investigation), Ten Voorde soon after received a penalty for jumping the start and tried to increase the gap on his immediate pursuers as much as possible, so much so that he put together an impressive series of fastest laps (the best being the seventh in 1’34″980).
Behind him, in the meantime, the real battle for victory is heating up with the 10-second penalty in progress. Braschi first passes the 911 GT3 Cup of Ombra Racing driven by Zendeli at the limit at Roma, also taking the first place in the Rookie standings, and then on the fourth lap that of Stiak, with a nice maneuver on the outside, hoisting himself up behind Ten Voorde and effectively leading the race.
Among the podium positions, top-5 and top-10, where the other title contender Keagan Masters is sailing between seventh and eighth place with the 911 GT3 Cup of Team Q8 Hi Perform, the fight rages and there are several exchanges of positions. All this until the seventh lap, when the classification effectively settles with Ten Voorde penalized, Braschi, Stiak, Flynt Schuring (Fulgenzi Racing), Bayley Hall (BeDriver) and Zendeli in sequence.
On lap 10, the leader’s advantage over Hall increased to more than 10 seconds and Ten Voorde was virtually fourth, but the unexpected occurred on lap 13, when the race direction had to deploy the safety car to remove Cesare Brusa’s car, which had stalled inside the Roma following a spin that occurred during an attempted maneuver against Anthony Imperato in the center of the group.
He will restart 3 laps later to run only the last lap. At that point Ten Voorde’s advantage is zeroed and the reigning champion is classified only sixteenth and therefore out of the points zone exactly like Klien who retired.
Braschi instead goes on to conquer his first victory in the Italian single-make series, the first of the season also for Dinamic Motorsport and an Italian driver, preceding Stiak (at 17 years old on his first podium in the Carrera Cup Italia after his first victory in the German Carrera Cup) and Schuring (on his second consecutive podium after race 2 at Mugello, he was absent at Imola) in a trio all branded Scholarship Programme, to the delight of coach Andrea Boldrini, who is also awaiting the Australian Hall, who classified fourth.
A triumph for the young and very young, while Zendeli completes the top-5 ahead of a combative Diego Bertonelli (TDE) and Masters. The 24-year-old South African is seventh and on a bad day for the leaders he is the only one to score points, very important in this case with Ten Voorde and Klein at zero (the Dutchman actually one for the fastest lap).
The top 10 is therefore closed by Aldo Festante, eighth with the second 911 GT3 Cup by Dinamic, Oliver Gray (Ombra Racing) and Gianmarco Quaresmini, crowning the good comeback carried out by the former champion from Brescia of Tsunami RT.
Even if with very different consequences, the Michelin Cup pole does not bring luck. Francesco Fenici is overtaken at the start by Paolo Gnemmi and shortly after also by Alberto De Amicis. The trio that dominates the category standings also dominates race 1 at Vallelunga and Gnemmi himself with the first of the 911 GT3 Cups of Ebimotors ruins the home party of Fenici and De Amicis.
The Lombard driver also managed the safety car well and took his second win of the season in the Michelin Cup, while after the restart right at the end, at the Tornantino Fenici and Raptor Engineering took back at least a very important second place over De Amicis, thus managing to maintain the lead in the standings over the Ebimotors duo.
But even in the semi-professional category everything remains balanced after this “crazy” race 1. And now the attention shifts directly to race 2 tomorrow (Sunday).
The appointment, particularly crucial after today’s results, is at 11.30 with confirmed live and on-demand broadcast on Dazn (with subscription or even free of charge) and live streaming on www.carreracupitalia.it. Ten Voorde-Stiak once again in the front row to fight for the lead of the race. Jump start allowing…
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