At round two of the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, Loek Hartog (Team GP Elite) climbed to the top of the podium for the first time. The Dutchman scored his first one-make cup victory on Saturday at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium). “Winning has been my big goal since my first Carrera Cup race two years ago. Now I finally did it. I was under a lot of pressure on the last lap so that makes me all the more pleased with this win,” said Hartog. His compatriot and teammate Larry ten Voorde secured second place in a nail-biting championship race held as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC support programme. The trophy for third place went to Morris Schuring (Netherlands) from the Fach Auto Tech team.
When drizzle set in shortly before the race, all teams on the grid opted for rain tyres on their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. Hartog made perfect use of his Cup-911’s 510 hp at the start and promptly catapulted from second on the grid past polesitter ten Voorde at La Source corner. Over many laps, Hartog held a comfortable lead, however, tension mounted in the final moments: a safety car phase bunched the 31-strong field together for the last lap. Spectators in the grandstands were treated to a spectacular finale – which ultimately saw Hartog sprinting across the finish line first ahead of his teammate ten Voorde.
“This is a great result for GP Elite. Loek Hartog got off the line better than me at the start and that was critical. Things turned hectic again on the last lap, so my experience certainly helped me there,” said ten Voorde. After enthralling wheel-to-wheel duels with Harry King (UK/Allied-Racing), 18-year-old Schuring took the flag in third place. “That was an intense fight for third place. When Harry King made a mistake I made the most of it and could even attack through the safety car phase. Unfortunately, we only had one lap to go after the restart,” shared Schuring. Friday’s race winner King concluded round two in fourth place.
Porsche-Junior Bastian Buus rounded off the top five on the 7.004-kilometre Formula 1 circuit. Driving for Allied-Racing, the Dane put in a blistering start and made up four places from ninth on the grid. “It was hectic in the early phase because a lot of the drivers were trying out different racing lines on the wet track. Those were challenging conditions. Still, I managed to gain several places right off the bat,” said Buus. Theo Oeverhaus (CarTech Motorsport Bonk) from Germany was the best rookie and Talent Pool driver with position six.
In the ProAm category, Georgi Donchev celebrated a double victory. After winning his class on Friday, the Bulgarian followed up with another victory for his ProfilDoors by Huber Racing team ahead of Ahmad Alshehab (Kuwait/CarTech Motorsport Bonk) and Sören Spreng (Germany/GP Elite).
“Kicking off the season with a capacity grid on such a famous racetrack has a special charm,” said Alexander Pollich, CEO of Porsche Deutschland GmbH, who presented the trophies this weekend. “The opening round provided some great entertainment and impressively showed why the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland has enjoyed such popularity for more than 30 years.”
After the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland doubleheader event, Hartog ranks first in the championship. With 41 points, the 20-year-old leads the series ahead of ten Voorde (40 points) and King (38 points). Fans can watch the highlights of both races on the channel of the new TV partner ProSieben. The first edition of the magazine “ran racing – Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland” will be aired on German TV on 28 May at 12:55 pm, just before the start of the DTM season opener in Oschersleben.
The second race weekend of the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland season is a very special event: On 10 and 11 June, the “Festival of Dreams” celebrates the 75th anniversary of Porsche sports cars. Two championship rounds of the Porsche one-make cup will be contested at this unique event. The Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux, the Porsche Sprint Challenge Classic Deutschland and the ADAC GT Masters will also feature on the thrilling motor racing programme at this festival.
Result race 2, Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland
1. Loek Hartog (Netherlands/Team GP Elite)
2. Larry ten Voorde (Netherlands/Team GP Elite)
3. Morris Schuring (Netherlands/Fach Auto Tech)
4. Harry King (United Kingdom/Allied-Racing)
5. Bastian Buus (Denmark/Allied-Racing)
6. Theo Oeverhaus (Germany/CarTech Motorsport Bonk)
7. Harri Jones (Australia/Scherer Sport PHX)
8. Luca Rettenbacher (Austria/Huber Racing)
9. Alexander Tauscher (Germany/Huber Racing)
10. Ariel Levi (Israel/Team Huber Racing)
Source. Porsche
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