Friday - 28th May
Brno hosts fifth round of 2004 FIA GT Championship traditionally the last weekend in May. Original entry list consisted of 27 cars but a factory Lister was withdrawn a long time before the meeting, allegedly because the car was not repaired after fire damage in previous race at Hockenheim but apparently the problem with factory Listers, that are still without any points in the championship, lies somewhere else. Lack of finances after concetrating on very expensive LMP effort is apparently the real reason that Lister is struggling this season. Hopefully Lister pay more attention to more perspective GT programme soon because it is well possible, and we hope so, that prototypes at Le Mans will be handicaped, so that big GT cars like Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Aston Martin or Saleen could fight for overall wins. With almost no interest in new LMP ACO spec. prototypes, at least among real manufacturers, we don't think ACO would like to have winners among builders like Lola, Courage, Nasamax or Lucchini easily beating factory efforts in GTS, so any change would be reasonable. We personally do not like new type of LMP prototypes at all and do not wish to support them and consequently have cancelled planned trip to Nürburgring 1000 kilometres race later this year.
Another car that was dropped from the entry list before the meeting started was Wieth Ferrari Maranello. The car is probably still not prepared. Apart from all other usual entrants we have here three cars that make their very first appearence this year in the championship. All are welcome additions to the worse supported N-GT class. While the JVG Racing Porsche may return in further races, two Porsches of Slovakian team Machanek Racing would hardly appear again in the series. These cars are regularly run in Czech National Championship. One of them had been destroyed in heavy accident after the start a month ago but to our surprise, fitted with new bodywork the car is ready to take on FIA GT race. We've tried to find any news about the driver who was very seriously injured during that accident but apart from 'it is not good but probably very bad' we discovered nothing new.
Practice sessions
The first session held under rather good conditions saw once again Vitaphone Racing Saleen on top surprisingly followed by the only Lister present at Brno, the privately entered car but driven by last year's factory driver Jamie Campbell-Walter. All other top 10 positions except eighth RML Saleen belonged to various Ferraris. Another surprise was that the quickest of them was Care Racing entry driven by Livio/Calderari/Bryner. Behind them were campionships leader Cappellari/Gollin in Ferrari number 2. Times in the session were rather good and we got top eleven cars under two minute while last year only two cars made it under 2 munites in the first Friday session. Ferrari 360 Modena of GPC made it very well too when duo Pescatori/de Simone set 2:02.293 which is the best N-GT time ever set at Brno by far. Maassen and Luhr in the best Freisinger Porsche were just a fraction of second behind beating former class record too. An interesting information was also maximal street on main straight at the finish line. A little surprisingly all Saleens but one topped the positions with yellow Konrad's car and one of RML cars fatest of all with 332.0 kph.
Second session in the afternoon started after some showers on wet but the track dried soon. However achieved times weren't as good as in the morning. Fastest were Bobbi/Gardel in BMS Ferrari number 1 ahead two RML Saleens and a Lister that was sandwiched by them in the third position. Brno track always suited well to Listers and it's real shame here is only one private car. Vitaphone Racing car run by Konrad's team was now trying setup and with only 9 laps covered (compared to 36 laps of the quickest BMS car) was classified 5th, which is not bad. With no weight handicap for this race, this Saleen is clear favourite for Sunday's race especially if we take into account that all three Care/BMS Ferraris carry ballast. In N-GT this time it was Ortelli/Collard that set the fastest time, ahead of GPS Ferrari and other two Freisinger entries. Rieds' Porsche was as usually the best of the rest but separated by a large margin. Second Konrad Saleen, yellow car number 4, was only twelfth in both sessions. The problem was not technical but with drivers. Lechner junior is out and Harald Becker who replaced him for this meeting isn't simply as quick as should be.
Saturday - 29th May
First qualifying session
Sunny and warm, these were almost ideal conditions for the first qualifying practice. The first half the session was led by usual pole sitters Bartels/Alzen in Vitaphone Racing Team Saleen that run consistently at 1:56s. However none of their times was better than last year's pole set by Gounon in the same car. Gounon's 1:56.695 was still track record for GT cars but it was finally beaten by one of BMS Ferrari 550 Maranellos. In their 6th lap Bobbi/Gardel managed to set 1:56.654 and despite Vitaphone Saleen drivers did another four laps under 1:58, they only improved their time by 0.002 seconds and remained second. It's a shame that leading Ferrari carries a weight ballast. It would be a lot of more interesting to see these cars in the battle under regular conditions, not with one car 80 kg or 100 kg (no.2) havier because of the results in previous races that probably most tomorrow's visitor do not care about and that were achieved more by unreliability of Saleen rather then anything else. Third quickest was second BMS entry, championship leaders Cappellari/Gollin ahead of a surprise Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen with Kumpen at the wheel. Other three places belonged to Erdos/Newton in RML Saleen ahead of remaining 550 Maranello (Calderari/Bryner/Livio) and second RML entry. So no 575 GTC, no Lister among top 6 or 7.
In N-GT the Ferrari 360 Modena improved by another second and set provisional pole with fantastic 2:01.185. It is improvement by more than 2 seconds since last year. Next three Freisinger entered Porsches GT3-RSRs were by one and half second slower but still more than 5 seconds ahead of the rest of the N-GT field that was now lead by newcomer JVG Porsche driven by Felbermayrs. Since yesterday the silver car appeared with some typical blue Felbermayr stickers and mechanics were busy after the session to add some more blue paints on the car. Remaining four N-GT Porsches were within 3 seconds range, so the battle among the rest of the N-GT field could be as interesting as could be among Ferrari & Freisinger Porsche semi factory efforts.
It is worth to note that of the four quickest cars at the finish line (230.8 kph), two of them were outsiders: yellow Konrad's Saleen (13th in the session) and even more surprisingly one of Vipers (14th in the session). Remaining two cars topping the speed sheets were nothing else than BMS Ferrari number 1 and Vitaphone Saleen. Second session starts after a while and it is still sunny and pleasant weather. Last year second qualifying session was a lot slower than the first one, let us see how it develops today. We at least hope for some improvement of Lister and JMB & GPC 575 GTSs.
Second qualifying session
There were no improvements in this session at all so all provisional positions achieved in morning session remains for tomorrow grid. This time only 24 cars appeared on track. The mising one was third JMB Ferrari (no.19). BMS Scuderia Italia Ferraris were now out of pace with best of them (Bobbi/Gardel) only seventh and one of them (no.3 Care Racing entered) stayed on track and had to be towed back to the pits. Bartels and Alzen in the Vitaphone Saleen were now quickest ahead of Lister but their time were about 2 seconds slower than in the morning session. Third and fourth were best 575 GTC Ferraris of JMB Racing (no.17) and G.P.C. (no.11) just ahead of Zwaan's Viper. It was the best results for Viper during the meeting but time over two minutes didn't promise too much for tomorrow race. Class N-GT was once again about Ferrari Modena on the top followed by three Freisinger Porsches, then a big gap... and the rest of the field. Saleens except the Vitaphone car did a bit disappointing apearence in the afternoon especially Graham Nash car after excellent fourth in the morning was now 17th (!) behind two N-GT cars.
Sunday - 30th May
Warm Up
Sunny warm up session saw once more Saleens on top spots with only G.P.C. Ferrari separating them on top five positions as Peter/Babini managed to set second quickest time overall. Vitaphone car was fastest and the only one ran under 1:58. Graham Nash car was once more very quick and was placed third ahead of two RML Saleens. After missing yesterday's afternoon session JMB Ferrari number 19 was once again on the track but its engine had to be changed and the car will start from the back of the grid.
The Race
All twenty five car started in front of big crowd the three hour race that was officially held over 500 kilometres but even if drivers kept their pace as in qualifying, the full distance couldn't be covered within 3-hour limit, so we really do not understand that FIA logic. But that's nothing new, jut worth to mention so that people at FIA could reconsider this odd rule. Just after the start Uwe Alzen took the Vitaphone Saleen to the lead ahead of pole man Matteo Bobbi and immediately began to build a gap between him and the rest of the field. Bobbi settled second in front of teammates, Stefano Livio in Care Racing entered car and Fabrizio Gollin, the championship leader. Behind this formation there was a big battle among Philipp Peter (GPC Ferrari), Karl Wendlinger (JMB Ferrari), Thomas Erdos and Chris Goodwin (RML Saleens), Emanuele Naspetti (second GPC Ferrari) and Jamie Campbell-Walter in lonely Lister. Paolo Ruberti in Graham Nash Saleen that started surprisingly from the second row went off the track while trying to overtake one of GPC Ferraris and returned only on 19th position in the first lap. While the first four cars, Vitaphone Saleen and three Prodrive built Ferraris circulated relatively peaceful, only gaps increased, the main drama during first stages of the race was behind them. Campbell-Watler in blue Lister overtook Naspetti in lap sixth. By that time troubles of RML Saleen began. Firstly, number 8 car went to the pits in lap 6 and returned last behind whole field. The sister car number 7 slowed down not much later and lost many places. By lap 12 it was even overtaken by recovering Graham Nash car and remaining Chrysler Viper. The other Viper driven by Robert van der Zwaan retired very early after a spin.
During lap 12 Naspetti (JMB no.17) overtook Peter (GPC no.11) and lead the group that began to decay after RML Saleens troubles. A few laps later Gollin and Livio in BMS/Care Ferraris were in direct battle that culminated in lap 16 when Gollin overtook Livio and moved to third. By lap twenty we had folowing positons: 5, 1, 2, 3, 17, 11, 27, 13, 4, 28, 18, 10, 7 and 62, the N-GT leading Ferrari Modena driven by Christian Pescatori. Five laps later well running Campbell-Walter in Lister no.27 overtook Philipp Peter in Ferrari no.11 but it was already time for the first series of pitstops. During this series several cars appeared at the lead for a while including Ferrari no.1, Ferrari number 2 and even Toni Seiler in yellow Saleen no.4 that led almost one lap because pitted very late but he was actually never a leader at the finish line.
After the first series of pitstops the only remarkable change was that Lister returned behind the two GPC Ferraris and moreover Derbyshire ran much slower than Campbell-Walter. Generally after drivers changes it was quite clear that many teams do not have well balanced pairs in their cars and many of so called hobby drivers spoilt any chances for a good position in the finish. It is probably the problem of whole championship. Despite we can get 12-15 cars within a few seconds range in qualifying, in the race itself more than half of them are outpaced by their second or third drivers. With regard to that fact we can hardly expect overall winner in any race outside the group of Ferraris 1.2,11.17 and Saleen 5. Other cars like 28, 4, 7, 8, 18, 27, 9, 10 can ran very high with a good driver too but we cannot expect them as real competitors for top spots. It's however general problem of sportscar racing, unfortunately.
In lap 41 we lost another car when G.P.C. Ferrari number 13 driven by Mike Hezemans went to the pits and retired. It was only second retirement so far after the Viper at the beginning. Five laps later Care Racing Ferrari had unexpected pitstop but returned as good as eighth. Just before this pitstop Fabio Babini in GPC Ferrari no.11 managed to overtake both BMS/Care Ferraris (no.2 and no.3) in one relatively short straight and moved to fourth behind safely leading Michael Bartels in Saleen, Gabriele Garder in BMS car no.1 and best of 575 GTC Ferraris driven by Jaime Melo (no.17). However after the second series of pitstops Babini's teammate Philipp Peter returned to the track again behind both BMS/Care Ferraris. Peter could overtook Care Ferrari no.3 but never could catch up Ferrari number 2 until the end of the race.
Peaceful progress of the race became very dramatical by lap 75 when clearly leading Saleen of duo Alzen/Bartels lost front wheel and lost several tens of seconds to get to pits for a new one. Bobbi/Gardel took the lead by about 15 seconds and with some 24 minutes to go, and Saleen running a second quicker than the Ferrari, it looked very dramatically. But Alzen demonstrated an excellent chasing drive and ran by 3 or 4 seconds per lap quicker than the first Ferrari and in lap 80 took the lead very easily back. Another drama became five laps later when the Ferrari no.1 that was now running second ran out of fuel and had to stop by the pit entrance. Bobbi was very unhappy because they lost another points to championship leaders Cappellari/Gollin. So Alzen had his way to win even more open and nobody would doubt that he and Bartels really deserve this another victory for Saleen. After the problems of Bobbi/Gardel, who were still classified 14th, other podium finishes belonged to Wendlinger/Mello (Ferrari 575 JMB) and Gollin/Cappellari (Ferrari 550 BMS). Peter/Babini in GPS no.11 finish fourth despite last lap pitstop to add some fuel just for their final lap. Ferraris had probably higher fuel consumption than it was expected. From the problems of Ferrari number 1, Lister took advantage and Konrad's own Saleen that move up to positions 5th and 6th in the very last minute. Disappointing finish recorded both RML cars (only 15th and 16th) but after various problems when sometimes being even unlapped by rather slow Vonka Racing Porsche N-GT it was success at least that they both finished.
Class N-GT battle was all about G.P.C Ferrari 360 Modena driven by Pescatori/de Simone that led all time quite easily except a short brakes during both pitstops. Behind them it was a battle between Massen/Lühr and Ortelli/Collard followed by Russians in the third Freisinger Porsche. After that there was a big, very big gap filled up by very poorly driven JMB Ferrari 575 no.19 behind which the rest of N-GT field followed. Rieds were once again best of the rest and finished fifth two laps ahead of local matador Jan Vonka in his own Porsche. He has still hope to continue the championship but without any sponsorship it is becoming hard for this driver from Brno. There were still to more Porsches behind Vonka: JVG entered Felbermayr sponsored car, that ran very good at the start but was delayed by early unscheduled pitstop in lap nine, and one of Machanek's GT3 Porsche. The other Machanek car was the third and the only other retirement in the race (if we do not count Bobbi's car that almost crossed the line and was easily classified).
The race itself was interesting enough despite not as much as two years ago but with Lamborghini and Maserati arrival later in the season, the FIA GT Championship really proves that it is the best sportscar series in the world these days and we hope it won't be stopped by rule changes planned by 2006 to unify them with ACO rules that have some advantages and also some odd articles, such as limited width of rear wings based on width of the cockpit. Hopefully we could see an arrival of new Porsche GT car then.