Eike Angermayr and Reinhard Kofler came from the back of the grid to win Race 2 of round four in this year’s GT4 European Series Northern Cup. The RYS Team KTM drivers made steady progress through the field and took the lead in the closing stages of the race. Razvan Umbrarescu and Gabriele Piana claimed their second Pro-AM class win of the weekend, while Ivan Vlachkov won the AM class in the Sin R1 GT4.
Race 2 got underway under perfect weather conditions with the pole-sitting #111 RN Vision STS Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4 of Gabriele Piana successfully defending the lead into the first corner, after receiving help from teammate Pavel Lefterov.
The safety car was deployed on the opening lap, after the #94 RYS Team Schönramer / Racecom KTM X-Bow GT4 crashed heavily into the barrier. Achim Mörtl walked away from his car.
At the restart Piana was quick to respond and he immediately pulled away from the #9 Las Moras Racing McLaren 570S GT4 of Duncan Huisman and the #8 Ekris Motorsport Ekris M4 GT4 of Ricardo van der Ende. Behind the top three, Pavel Lefterov spun off into the gravel bed at turn 3, causing a yellow flag.
This meant Julien Darras and Matt Nicoll-Jones were now fighting for fourth, but before the pit stop window opened the two Aston Martin drivers made contact and spun. Scuderia Villorba Corse’s Romy Dall’Antonia (1st in AM) and RYS Team KTM’s Eike Angermayr benefited and moved into fourth and fifth place overall.
After all the teams had completed their mandatory stop, Razvan Umbrarescu was still leading the race in the #111 Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4. Ekris Motorsport and Las Moras Racing had swapped places, which meant Max Koebolt was second, just 0.8s behind the race leader.
Behind them Reinhard Kofler was able to overtake Luc Braams not much later, taking third overall. The Austrian reeled in Koebolt to take the Silver Cup lead and second overall within a matter of laps. His next target was overall and Pro-AM leader Razvan Umbrarescu.
The Romanian saw the KTM coming closer in his mirrors and he was unable to keep the KTM X-Bow GT4 behind. On lap 20 Kofler passed Umbrarescu to take the lead. As the #33 Bullitt Racing McLaren 570S GT4 went off into the gravel in a dangerous place, the safety car was deployed again and the race finished behind the safety car.
Eike Angermayr and Reinhard Kofler won the race with a 0.662s advantage of Pro-AM class winners Gabriele Piana and Razvan Umbrarescu. Third overall and second in Silver Cup were Max Koebolt and Ricardo van der Ende. Luc Braams and Duncan Huisman finished second in Pro-AM and fourth overall, ahead of the sister McLaren of Finlay Hutchison and Csaba Mór who took third in the Silver Cup. With a seventh-place finish, Peter Terting and Daniel Rymes completed the Pro-AM class podium.
In the AM class Romy Dall’Antonia and Giuseppe Fascicolo were the first to cross the finish line, but a post-race penalty meant the #77 Scuderia Villorba Corse Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4 dropped out of the top three. Sofia Car Motorsport driver Ivan Vlachkov, on his first outing with the Sin R1 GT4 this weekend, inherited the win.
Reinhard Kofler (#14 RYS Team KTM KTM X-Bow GT4): “I took over the car and just put in everything I had and we could go forward. The last ten minutes were really great. I saw the top runners get closer and closer and then I had some good moves. Our race was running fantastic and we’re very happy to win the first race this season. I think we deserved a podium a few races ago and this time we got it!”
Eike Angermayr (#14 RYS Team KTM KTM X-Bow GT4): “It was amazing. I had a good start, I got a lot of space through the first corner and I could make up a lot of places. After the safety car, I could overtake other cars and ended up in fifth place, before handing it over to Reinhard and we finished in first place.”
Razvan Umbrarescu (#111 RN Vision STS Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4): “This was the result we wanted, so I am really happy now. It was a quite a difficult fight in the end with the KTM. They had more pace than I had and I thought it was better to let him go, as I was still first in class. I kept it safe, had a good pace overall and I am very happy!”
Gabriele Piana (#111 RN Vision STS Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4): “We knew the others around us would be quicker off the line. My plan was to block the Ekris, as it was the fastest car and I needed help from Pavel to box him in. We executed our plan well, they had to stay behind, so I have to thank Pavel. Towards the end of the stint we were having some traffic so we made a strategy call to come in earlier. After that Razvan did a perfect job.”
