Emil Frey Racing: First season goal achieved 🎥
SILVER CUP CHAMPIONS At the last GT World Challenge Europe sprint event in Spain, Emil Frey Racing celebrated two championship titles. At the Nürburgring, Nico Müller and Patric Niederhauser just missed the podium. The double title win in the 2021 team and driver rankings was achieved by the Safenwil-based team "only" in the Silver Cup. This sub-category for drivers who compete in the [...]
The double title win in the 2021 team and driver rankings was achieved by the Safenwilers "only" in the Silver Cup. However, this sub-category for drivers who, unlike the top pros (platinum or gold status), are classified as silver on the basis of their previous successes or age, is just as fiercely contested as the Pro and Pro-Am categories.
Alex Fontana can become a triple champion
Alex Fontana was all the more delighted to win the Silver Cup title after the two sprint races at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo, both of which were not ideal. This was made possible above all by his partner Ricardo Feller, who outdid himself in several races and did valuable preparatory or follow-up work for class wins and podiums.
Because the duo had to be separated at the first sprint race in Magny-Cours, the man from Ticino with Greek roots has remained alone at the top of the standings since the opening success in France, which he also occupies in the Silver Cup of all ten races of the season.
The Aargauer himself has to settle for fifth place in the Sprint Cup. However, he still has the chance to win the Endurance Silver Cup with Rolf Ineichen and Fontana. And Feller is also still well in the title race in the ADAC GT Masters with a German Audi team.
Three podium places for the Safenwil team in Valencia
In Valencia, Feller/Fontana were in third overall position in the first sprint towards the end. But due to a collision with a McLaren, the eventual champion had to serve a drive-through penalty, which set him far back.
The second silver duo from Emil Frey Racing Lappalainen/Rougier thus moved up to second in class and ninth overall, while the professionals Norbert Siedler/Albert Costa finished sixth. The Austrian and the Spaniard then gave the Lamborghini partner team from Safenwil another sense of achievement in the second race by bringing their Huracán GT3 Evo home in third place.
Rougier's car, on the other hand, was "shot down" by a Bentley early on, while the silver championship team finished third in class overall despite a time-consuming pit stop.
The highlights of Race 1 show at 5:50 minutes how the collision between Fontana and the McLaren occurred.
The final decisions in the overall standings of the GT World Challenge Europe and in the Endurance Cup, in which the Swiss team is also still well positioned, will be made on October 10 at the finale in Barcelona.
4th place for the Audi works drivers from Berne
Swiss drivers also enjoyed a sense of achievement at two other endurance races in Europe. At the Nürburgring, Nico Müller and Patric Niederhauser finished the penultimate four-hour race of the endurance series (formerly VLN) with customer driver Patrick Kolb in fourth place overall in an Audi R8 LMS GT3.
At the midpoint of the race, the team of the two Audi factory drivers was in the lead. In the end, they were 34.2 seconds off the first joint podium. Victory went to Aston Martin Martin for the first time with a Vantage GT3 driven by the Dane Nicki Thiim and the Belgian Maxime Martin.
The short summary from the Nürburgring shows great overtaking maneuvers by Nico Müller at 280 mph.
Victory for Simona, bad luck for Jasmin
One victory went to Simona de Silvestro and Marco Timbal with Porsche contract driver Jaxon Evans in a Cayman GT4 in the alternative drive class and Team Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport with a BMW M240i Racing Cup in the class reserved for these vehicles.
Series winner Frédéric Yerly's VW Golf GTI TCR, on the other hand, retired after an accident. His teammate Jasmin Preisig had to settle for 4th place in SP3T after technical problems.
Third place overall for Giorgio Maggi
An early technical defect also seemed to rob Giorgio Maggi of the hoped-for success at the 24 Hours of Zolder. However, after repairing the leaking oil line around the Honda engine, the man from Nidwald and his Belgian team staged an impressive recovery.
Despite being slowed by other minor problems, the Swiss-backed winning team of 2019 still brought the Norma sportscar up to third overall. The overall win this time went to the second Norma-Honda of PK Carsport of Belgian Anthony Kumpen.
