The fourth and final round of the Iberian Supercars Endurance, next weekend (18th, 19th and 20th), at the Autódromo do Estoril, in Portugal, is set to be an exciting and competitive one, as the four championship titles (GT4 Pro, GT4 Bronze, GTC and TCR) will be decided and there are... a total of 16 drivers in contention to leave Estoril with the championship trophy.
The undecided titles until the last two races of the year reflect the successful formula provided by the Iberian Supercars regulations, which brings together cars from the GT4, GTC and TCR classes on the same grid, all with internationally defined BoP (Balance of Performance), to ensure that fairness on track is a reality. This explains why all competition decisions have been reserved for the last race of the year.
In the GT4 Pro class there are six drivers challenging for the top spot, with Manuel Gião and Elias Niskanen in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 of the Slovenian Lema Racing team starting 12 points ahead of Fernando Navarrete and Gonzalo de Andrés in the McLaren 570S GT4 of SMC Motorsport. In principle, the title will be decided between these two. However, mathematically, the duo of Guillermo Aso and Tomás Pintos, also in the McLaren 570S GT4, can still aspire to the final first place, as they have 37 points less than the leaders, but they do not depend only on themselves to achieve it...
In the GTC class, Álvaro Ramos and Fred Block, in the McLaren 570S GT4 of Araújo Competição, are the leaders, 25 points ahead of Bruno Pires and Álvaro Fontes, the winners at Portimão in the Porsche 911 Cup of Fabela Sport, and the expectation will surely be maintained until the chess flag is lowered in the second race at Estoril.
Six points clear in the GT4 Bronze class, Miguel Cristóvão and Francisco Carvalho in the Araújo Competição McLaren 570S GT4 are the favourites over Andrius Zemaitis in the ProGT team's Porsche Cayman GT4, but a bad day for the top two could leave the Lithuanian driver in the hunt for the title.
Also interesting will be the title debate in the TCR class, where there are three candidates to make the party. António Coimbra and Luís Silva, the Sports & You duo with the Hyundai Elantra N TCR, are in first place with six points ahead of Daniel Teixeira, the JT59 Racing Team CUPRA driver, whose performance, due to mechanical problems, has not always translated into results. In this round, only by "playing" on the attack will Teixeira be able to overcome his current disadvantage.
