It has been a few years ago since the Brno automotodrom hosted a proper international sports cars race. FIA GT with their GT1 a GT3 raced here three years ago after being part of the Brno programme for more than a decade. Last year the European Le Mans Series was scheduled here. It was taken very seriously by the Brno circuit but we know that last year's ELMS season was a failure and real disappointment for the local organisers who had hoped to host hear a really big race. This year they took an opportunity to bring to Brno relatively new Italian-based international Superstars World series for big-engined touring cars. One of its support races is GTSprint International Series race, which was a good reason for us to take part here.
Brno was the second race of the season following Monza held in April. In Monza there were only disappointing 14 cars and compared to that the Brno entry looked much more promising. Early press releases made us hope for over 20 cars here but the final published entry list was down to 18 cars. The reality was even a bit worse. Three of the cars were no-shows but additional two (lone GTS2 Ferrari of Talkanista father and son) and a Corvette GT3 which was brought here by one of the Superstars teams filled the gap. All cars went well through two free practice sessions and also qualifying, which was split into two 15-minutes parts. Because of the GTSprint event consists of two separate races, the grids of both of them are based on separate qualifying sessions.
Both qualifying sessions were taken and won by the Talkanista Ferrari; however it was not by a huge margin, just 0.5 and 0.1 seconds respectively. It is known that the difference between GT2 and GT3 cars is not really big and in some ACO races with invited GT3 cars they must have slowed them in order to ensure GT2 would take a GT pole.
Sunday programme was started soon after 9:00 with the first GTS race. There were no warm up sessions as we are used to at the really big motorsport events. Brno organisers tried to promote it to be an adequate replacement of the Le Mans Series but it really was not. Common fans might have been happy with a participation of three former Formula 1 stars in the touring car races but from a sports car fan having a race with only one car in the top class GTS2 supported by a GT3 field which is easily outnumbered by many of the national series suggests a lot. Even the Superstars race was not a big success. The race longing 25 minutes was neutralised by a Safety Car after a crash in the first row right after the start and before it was restarted again, there were less than a dozen of available cars and less than 15 minutes of the race. Moreover, the F1 stars were mainly involved in the accidents and other issues. Still a decent race with some battle in the middle of the field.
Let us get back to the first GTSprint race. All 17 cars present in Brno took part in it. It was fine to see all of them but one in the finish too. Junior Talkanista took the lead at the beginning and throughout the first part of the race he only increased his lead ahead of a group of GT3 Ferraris mixed with the Corvette and a lone Porsche GT3. The single Audi had also a decent race until the middle of the race when it spun, hit the tyres and before really recovered it was one lap down. Spectators on the track could have been surprised when in the middle of the race, after the mandatory pit stops, the Talkanista Ferrari lost the clear lead. Well, the organisers are probably well aware of weakness of the entry list and thus created a rule that the leading cars (based on previous race meeting) would have to pit some 15 seconds longer to avoid Talkanitsas winning race after race with ease. Pretty disappointing decision of the race, which was heavily influenced by Monza race results, almost none of the spectators was really much concerned with. Father Talkanista drove the second part of the race but he was not able to close the gap they had been given so he finished second behind the better of the two Team Ukraine Ferraris GT3, driven by Andii Kruglyk and Raffaele Giammaria. By the way Talkanitsas were running under the AF Corse banner while wheeling the same car as they did two years ago in the International GT Open series under the AT Racing Team banner. Apart of this Ferrari we were able to get only very few identities (chassis numbers) of the cars. Many of them were hard to find (Ferrari GT3, Alpine, Corvette) and when we spoke to the teams, they usually did not know – partly because of the personnel was working for someone else, not the owner, or the plate was hidden behind the windscreen, etc. So we simply gave up on complete records we are use to from world level races.
The final spot on the podium went to lesser known AR Cars Racing, which was in fact a local entry driven by Czech duo Dennis Waszek and David Palmi, which was a really success for the them. They were sixth and seventh in the qualifying so the made a real progress during the first race. The Corvette was fourth, Porsche GT3 seventh and a Maserati GT3 was tenth. All other dozen top spots were taken by various Ferraris. GTS Open class was won by BMW Alpina B6 but there was no opposition at all while the GTS Cup class was taken by five years old Porsche Cup ahead of nice but slow Maserati Trofeo. The Audi after recovering from the spin could not manage better then 13th position at the finish.
The weather has been great so far and final races are still ahead of us. We will bring reports and later photos during the week.
Afternoon races started with a second race of Ferrari Challenge which was along with a VW Cup part of the weekend. VW were from Poland and there was no chance to see them on Sunday as they already left the paddock after they had finished their programme on Saturday meeting. The second race of Superstars Touring cars was considered very dramatic by local commentators. Well, our point of view is a bit different basing on the following facts: The top 8 positions of the grid were reversed. But what is the point that a driver who finished the first race in 8th position would start from pole while a driver who finished one position down, would start from 9th grid spot? Any rational reason to give such advantage just the driver 8th, and not for example 10th, or the last one? Of course that such artificial and illogical arrangements would force the cars to battles but what is the price? Inequitable rules and thus also racing. One of the quicker cars (BMW) from the grid row 3 or 4 managed to take the lead early in the race while row 1 and 2 cars running behind it behind slowed the other favourites before they could overtake them. The race would have been decided pretty soon unless they were several crashes, which ended again with a Safety Car procedure. Casual spectators and the commentator were happy, as the cars were together again. But the real result was only seven cars circulating on the track. As they went by, 2 minutes of silence followed, and that over and over again for a few laps before it was flagged. Fortunately there are big TV screens at the track, so during the silence all followers could follow the race there and this is what brought the real excitement. So our feeling was, it is a show, really created for TV masses. On TV you get all the action and thus do not mind if there are very little number of cars after half of the field get crashed, or not.
The second GTSprint race was much more exciting than the first one. If we look at the rules giving various teams different pit stop length, apparently from 1 minute 14 to 1 minute 31 seconds as a handicap race (though not really based on car performance), then the race was pretty close, especially the finish when Talkanitsa Ferrari was closing the gap to leading Autorlando Porsche about a second per lap and they met in the final lap. It was expected that Talkanitsa Junior can make it but in the end he could not overtake Glauco Solieri and in the finish they were separated by only 0.026 seconds. So from this point of view a great race. Unfortunately most of the journalists were already away by that time, obviously being here for the touring car race, not GTs.
This race was lead from the start by the Corvette but the car was under investigation due to leaving the rolling start way ahead of the rest of the field. In the end it was penalised by drive-through penalty. By that time in the lead there was already the winner of race one, Ferrari number 38 of Team Ukraine but also this car was found not to start the race quite properly and got the same penalty. Thus in lap 22 out of 28, which were covered during the one hour distance, the winning Porsche appeared in the lead, which it maintained until the end in a thrilling battle. The Team Ukraine car managed to finish on the podium while two Czech local team lead by Vorba and Palmi finished fourth and fifth.
The Corvette was classified only tenth (after finishing 11th and disqualification of a Ferrari finishing 9th) and the only other none-Ferrari car in the top 10 was the Audi MTM team car, which finished seventh. 16 car started and also finished the race, so generally very good ration in both GT race and in real contrast with more than twice shorter touring car races. Unfortunately, the lone BMW Alpina could not finish even the formation lap. A while before the departure to the formation lap spectators had been just informed it the last race for the team in this championship. The reason was that there are mandatory Hankook tyres in the series while they usually run Michelins, or what, and now they are off 4 seconds per lap which is hard to accept for the team.
Our final feeling is that it was a decent race meeting worth a visit and spectators money, on the other hand, it should be marketed as such, and organisers in Brno should try to get back the Le Mans Series, maybe Blancpain Endurance Series or race of a similar format and fame to provide really a quality race they were aiming for.
