Epilog Brno 6 Hour race

5th October 2013

Event report

Last weekend we made our final trip of the 2013 sports car racing season. This time it was the traditional Brno Epilog 6 Hour GT and Touring car race. Not a long time ago this 6 hour enduro was a domain of older DTM cars, which used to be much quicker than anything else on the track. For a couple of years those semi-prototypes with a touring body were banned from the Czech National Championship and at the same time disappeared from this non-championship event, which then became a dominant of modern GT3 cars, though older GT1 are also not completely out of the game. This year Pagani Zonda, possibly the most regular participant, is more or less based on former GT1 rules and was not missing either. While in a qualifying practice it was not fastest and started from the second row, in the race itself at again took the lead after a few laps behind a quick Lamborghini and kept it surprisingly long. This car is known for lack of any kind of reliability. But this year it was different.

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While we said the 6-hour is a non-championship event, several last few seasons are a bit more complicated and we should correct it by saying that the first two hours are actually counted towards the National Endurance Championship. It may attract a few cars but a bad side of that is that every year a few cars stops racing after two hours. This year it was for the first time we remember that green nice looking Pagani crossed the line after two hours. By that time it was already after a driver change, delayed and driven slowly, so finished behind three Ferrari GT3 cars but it was a great success. Unfortunately, two laps later it retired and we believe intentionally, to save it for other races. In fact, it was crashed already in practice after winning the first of three qualifying sessions. The damage was still visible on the car.

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The Lamborghini Gallardo, entered by Austrian GRT Graser Racing Team, was second quickest car behind the Pagani. It was driven by local well known GT3 driver Martin Matzke. He led it for the first four laps despite starting from the third row. Later it lost some time in pits, not two long but enough to lost contact with the other GT3 Ferraris and the Pagani. After the Pagani was withdrawn the Lambo ran fourth behind three Ferraris. In fact there were no other cars with a chance of winning - unless all these four would retire.

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There were more GT entries, including two GT3 Mercedes-Benzes from Austria (G-Private Racing). But one of them was eliminated in a first turn accident and neither of them was quick enough either. They were gridded in the third and fourth respectively. Unfortunately that first lap accident involved the cars from the row 4 and 5. Four cars came out of the track. The Mercedes-Benz with damage right front went to garage and never returned. BMW M3 entered by Robert Šenkýř was fastest of all BMWs but spent several laps in the pits while being repaired. While one of the cars involved in the collision returned without much delay of damage, one more car suffered problems. It was Polish Porsche 997 Cup, the only Porsche in the field. The car was much longer in the pits so it was still unclassified after two hours for the national points. And they, despite not a Czech entry, were among 13 out of 19 starting cars entered for the Czech National Championship, and just like Pagani stopped racing after two hours. The last car terminating its race soon after 2-hour mark was a fourth Ferrari in the field. It was entered as 458 GT3 but had no sign of rear wing and was generally slower than the three Ferraris at the top.

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During the third hour we had three Ferraris at the top but when car no.46 (Czech team AR Cars Racing) appeared in the lead after a pit stop, it left the track and hit the barriers. The damage was not big, you can also see a photo of it, but the race was over for them. Then the remaining two Ferraris (no.44 RPD Racing and no.139 Dino & Co Racing Team - both from Slovakia) had then a great battle for several hours. After four hours there were less than 4 seconds between them.

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The Lamborghini with occasional problems and pit stops was running third a few laps behind the Ferraris. The gap increase from 1 lap after two hour, to 2 laps next hour and was full 5 laps by hour four. By that time the Lambo was really in a danger of being caught but the remaining Mercedes GT3, which was generally running its own race alone. The team was nowhere the speed of the top cars and its potential competitor were eliminated or delayed in the first lap accident and it was running some 5 laps ahead of bunch of BMW M3s which were having a battle with two remaining slower GT cars - Ginetta G50 running in the same class as BMWs - under 3500 cc, and a Lotus Exige, which was by far the quickest car in the 2-litre class. In fact it was the only proper sports car in the class, otherwise formed by the likes of Clio or Leon.

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The Lotus was a big surprise of the race. While it was around 10th place early in the race, now it was running sixth but we would still hear about the car. In the fifth hour it was Ferrari no.44 in the lead almost a lap ahead of no.139, which was however running quickly cutting 100 second handicap each lap. By this time the Mercedes-Benz was already third as the Lambo had just stopped five minutes ago. And it became soon apparent that it would never return back.

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Thus the BMW of Šenkýř, which was delayed by the first lap crash, and that well-running Lotus of the 2000 cc class approached a chance of podium finish as by that time they were fighting for fourth. The Ginetta and other three BMW M3s were one lap of more behind.

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Unexpected and unpleasant surprise then decided the race at the end of the first third of the final hour. The leading Ferrari no.44 retired and now we had the surviving Maranello car in a huge lead ahead of Mercedes-Benz which was 10 laps behind and Lotus another six laps further back but running well enough to answer attacks of all 3.5-litre class cars and prevail them. The Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz were the only finishers in the 3500 cc, but the retired Ferraris no.44 was still classified third in class and seventh overall. Lotus won the two-litres full 38(!) laps ahead of the best Clio. The middle class was won by the Šenkýř team ahead of the Ginetta and other three BMWs.

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While we concentrated on the traditional six-hour event, this year the meeting was headed by European Touring Car Championship and Auto GP formula championship. The first formula race held before the six hour race invited 17 identical Lola chassis. The standing start saw car number 26 (Van Buuren) starting much earlier than anybody else but to our surprise there was no penalisation. The race was then dominated by ex-Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan. We were happy to see a talented driver Robert Visoiu from Romania in a nice colourful car with rare number 13 running second but unfortunately, the mandatory pit stop moved him the third behind Karthikeyan's teammate Vittorio Ghirelli, who was the Pole position holder. Nevertheless it was a great success for the young Romanian driver.

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As for ETCC we only saw one of the qualifying practices as we left for Sunday's program (the Endurance race was held on Saturday into the night) and thus we can provide only some photos of them. It was generally disappointing how few sedans were in the race. Most of the field remained some Clio Cup or even a mix of lesser one make series. Good news for the local motorsport fans was a fact that the Czech driver Petr Fulín who arrived to Brno as a championship leader managed to defend his title here. It was a nice end of the season.