SuperCars Endurance in Estoril with an handful of news
The debut in Portugal, next weekend (10/11 July), of the SuperCars Endurance, the new Iberian series that this season brings together in the same grid cars of the GT4 and TCR categories, brings together a set of ingredients that foretells two races of high competitive level at the Estoril Autodrome.
A little over a month ago, in Jarama, at the start of the season, the good adhesion of international and Portuguese teams was a reality that translated into interesting clashes, with emotion and uncertainty to the mix, for the two races of 45 minutes to end with shared triumphs, in terms of absolute classification. Now, with the overwhelming majority of the same protagonists, to which some newcomers are added, a quality show is promised.
One of the major absences will be the Ginetta G55 of the British team Tockwith Motorsport, due to the death of a relative of Marmaduke Hall, one of the starting drivers who, together with the young Chilean Nicolas Pino, won race 2 at the Madrid track. However, the presence of the latter, only 16 years old and who, coming from the British F.4, drove for the first time a GT and proved to be very fast, is ensured in Estoril through the Garage João Gomes, in a Porsche 981 Cayman and together with João Silva, who "jumps" from Formula Ford to debut in this category.
The McLaren 570S from SMC Motorsport, driven by Gonzalo De Andrés and Guillermo Aso, which had a modest performance in the Spanish round due to electrical problems, will be the headliner in the GT4 PRO class, where it will measure forces with the Mercedes AMG from Bullitt Racing, driven by Stephen Pattrick and Romain Monti. In Jarama, damage to the German car resulting from a crash in practice forced the duo from the British team based in Marbella to head home early. It is in this class that the mentioned duo Nicolas Pino/João Silva will line up, in the João Gomes Garage Porsche 981 Cayman, as the South American is a silver pilot, and his performance is eagerly awaited.
Being one of the most competed classes, it is in the GT4 Bronze class that the duo António Coimbra/Luís Silva, in the Sports & You Mercedes AMG, will defend its leadership in SuperCars Endurance, against Francisco Carvalho/Jorge Rodrigues (Lema Racing, Porsche 981 Cayman), with the Lithuanian Andrius Zemaitis (PROGT, Porsche 981 Cayman) and the duo José Correia/Gabriela Correia, in the JC Group Racing Team Mercedes AMG.
Jarama's triumphant duo, Jemma Moore and Aubrey Hall, in the Tockwith Motorsport Ginetta G50, arrive at Estoril aiming to confirm their favouritism in the GTC class, which besides Francisco Gonçalves, in the 888_ Motorsport Lotus Exige, will count with Pedro Marques. The Moby Motorsport driver debuts in this competition and his Porsche 991 GT3 Cup will receive a special BOP (balance of performance). "We will make the fire proof in Estoril, but I believe that a BOP internationally studied will allow Pedro's Porsche to have a performance similar to the other GTC", says Diogo Ferrão, from Race Ready.
The biggest number of new features appears in the TCR class, starting with the leader Gustavo Moura, winner of both races in Madrid against Daniel Teixeira (JT59 Racing Team, CUPRA TCR) and that in Estoril will share the driving of the Hyundai Elantra with Luís Cidade, the TT junior national champion and already this season participating in the Kia Ceed GT Cup.
There are three more "reinforcements" among the TCR, with the debut of Manuel Sousa, in the Moby Motorsport CUPRA TCR, and also the Audi RS 3 LMS duos: Pedro Silva/Daniela Marques, from Vettra Motorsport, and Jorge Silva/Pedro Silva, from Veloso Motorsport.
PROGRAM
Saturday (10th July)
12h15/12h45 - Free Practice 1 (20')
1445/15h05 - Free Practice 2 (20')
16h55/17h10 - Qualifying 1 (15')
17h15/17h30 - Qualifying 2 (15')
Sunday (11 July)
10h10/10h55 (45') - Race 1
3.05pm/5.50pm (45') - Race 2
FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact: PressGT4@RaceReady.pt +351 917 515 665 info@tcr-iberico.com +351 917 541 723
