British duo Edward Moore/Marmaduke Hall (Ginetta G55 GT4) of the Tockwith Motorsport team triumphed on Sunday in the second race of the third round of the SuperCars Endurance Series at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, beating Gustavo Moura and Luís Cidade, in the Hyundai Elantra N TCR of the P&B Racing team, by 7.749s.
Moore and Hall, with a very strong pace, ascended to the lead at the end of the first part of the 45 minutes race, just before the drivers' changeover, and then consolidated their advantage. The victory had a special flavour for the Britons, who were struggling with mechanical problems on Friday and only the extra work of the team, until late in the morning, recovered the Ginetta. And after a second place in Saturday's race, victory followed the next day. "It was fantastic to be able to win after the problems on Friday. I hadn't driven this car for two years, and the last time had been here, in Portimão, but I readapted well and still had an interesting fight with Nicolas Pino. This is a very happy day for us", declared Edward Moore.
In absolute terms, the Ginetta's biggest opposition came from the Portuguese duo and great dominator of the TCR category, Gustavo Moura/Luís Cidade, who left this weekend in the Algarve circuit with an absolute victory and a second place in the overall, besides two victories among the TCR. "It was a very positive day that even allowed us to move into first place in the team championship. The goal was always the overall, but if we achieved it yesterday [Saturday], today we couldn't do any more. Anyway, we won the category twice and we must congratulate the P&B team, who gave us a spectacular car. Now, we have to think in Jerez...", declared Moura and Cidade. Pedro Silva and Jorge Silva, in the Audi RS3 LMS from Veloso Motorsport, were another great animator of the race, never giving truce to the Hyundai Elantra drivers, and the fourth place and third of the TCR category seemed assured, but the break of a semi-axle put everything to waste, three laps from the end.
The podium (and second TCR) finished with Daniel Teixeira, with the CUPRA León, who did his best to get the maximum points in his category. "I tried to minimize the damage and finish second, in order to depend only on me to become champion. Gustavo and Luís were stronger. Now, in Jerez, I'll try to reverse the course of events, as I arrived in Algarve at the front of the championship and I'll leave here in second?" said the JT59 Racing Team driver.
José Carvalhosa and the young Chilean Nicolas Pino, in GJG's Porsche 981 Cayman, were again second in the Pro category (won by the overall winner of the race), something that made the former happy: "Nico is a very good driver, he made a great start and gave me the car, which was excellent, in a good position and I fulfilled my goal, which was to take it to the end". The SMC Motorsport McLaren 570s was more discrete and Gonzalo de Andrés was keen to explain: "From the beginning, we felt a steering problem and that forced us to adopt a more moderate pace in order to score points in the championship".
Lithuanian Andrius Zemaitis (Porsche 981 Cayman) secured, calmly, another victory in the Bronze category, against Frenchman Pierra Arraou (Audi R8), while among the GTC, a category where Francisco Gonçalves (Lotus Exige) was forced to retire early in the race, the duo Jemma Moore/Paulo Sousa (Ginetta G50) secured, smoothly, the first place.
RACE 2
1st, Edward Moore/Marmaduke Hall (Tockwith Motorsport, Ginetta G55 GT4/GT4 Pro), 23
laps
2nd, Gustavo Moura/Luís Cidade (P&B Racing, Hyundai Elantra N TCR), 7.449s
3rd, Daniel Teixeira (JT59 Racing Team, CUPRA León TCR), 24.152
4th, Nicolas Pino/José Carvalhosa (GJG, Porsche Cayman GT4/GT4 Pro), 52.821
5º, Andrius Zemaitis (ProGT, Porsche Cayman GT4/GT4 Bronze), 1.27.514
6th, Gonzalo de Andrés/Guillermo Aso (SMC Motorsport, McLaren 570s GT4/GT4 Pro), 1.43.249
7th, Pierre Arraou (Milan Compéticion, Audi R8 GT4/GT4 Bronze), 1 lap
8th, Jemma Moore/Paulo Sousa (Tockwith Motorsport, Ginetta G50/GTC), 1 lap
9th, Pedro Silva/Jorge Silva (Veloso Motorsport, Audi RS3 LMS TCR), 3 laps down
The next round (fourth and last) of the SuperCars Endurance Series is scheduled for the weekend of 5/7 November, at the Spanish circuit of Jerez de la Frontera.
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