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 Nordauto
Alfa 156 GTA driver Nicola Larini and BMW's Jorg Muller claim a win apiece
in two closely fought races at the classic Spa track. Two points in race
1 and transmission failure in race two see Fabrizio Giovanardi's championship
lead cut to 10 points. With Larini retiring early on in the second race,
Italian honour was left to Paolo Ruberti who claimed fifth place in the
Bigazzi Alfa 156 GTA. |
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 Putting
the disaster of Oschersleben behind them the Nordauto Alfa pairing of Nicola
Larini and Fabrizio Giovanardi claimed the front row of the grid for rounds
13 and 14 at Spa in Belgium. Larini dominated the timesheets all session,
Giovanardi meanwhile put in a flying lap right at the end of qualifying
to line up next to his team mate. |
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| The British Touring Cars headed to a hot and sunny Snetterton for rounds 13 and 14 of the series. In the production class Gavin Pyper hit the ground running, claiming a double pole for both the sprint and feature races. In the sprint race he quickly slipped back to 6th place, but was able to take advantage of two restarts to eventually win the class by almost six seconds. Race two saw a frantic shuffling of positions with Gavin Pyper eventually winding up second, following series leader James Kaye over the line. Team mate Graham Saunders had one of his best races of the season, in the thick of the action and running as high as second place, before being outmanoevered and taking the chequered flag in fourth place. |
| This year the Alfa Romeo importer in Germany is running an eight round race series for Alfa 147 1.9JTD versions, known as the Alfa 147 Cup. Unusually for a race car the JTD common-rail diesel unit is being used. After four races at Oschersleben, Hockenheim, Nurburgring and the new Eurospeedway, Markus Lungstrasse leads closest rival Martin Tshornia by a four point margin. | |||
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 Round
four of the Pearle Alfa 147 Challenge saw the cars return to the Assen
TT circuit, scene of the fraught opening round of the series back in April.
Reigning champion, Boy Zentveldt, finally got of the mark this year, winning
by 2 1/2 seconds from series leader Allard Kalff's team mate, Sebastiaan
Bleekemolen.
With Allard Kalff only able to finish in sixth, third place for Sandor van Es has allowed him to move into the championship lead by three points. A first maximum points score of the year for Boy Zentveldt has pushed him right up into contention, only six points adrift of the new leader. |
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 The
change by the FIA in the series technical regulations handed the advantage
to BMW who dominated at Oschersleben, Dirk Muller leading home Jorg Muller
in both races. Race one saw Fabrizio Giovanardi salvage fourth place, but
the second race got worse for the Nordauto team, with only Larini scraping
home in 6th place to claim a solitary point. |
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| The British Touring Cars
moved on to the small Croft circuit in Yorkshire for rounds 11 & 12
of the series. Gavin Pyper lined up his GA Motorsport Alfa 156 second on
the grid for the sprint race and snatched pole for the feature race, 2/10ths
ahead of series leader James Kaye. GA team mates Graham Saunders and Alan
Blencowe lined up sixth and seventh for the first race, reversing themselves
to start fifth and six in race two.
Gavin Pyper suffered an overheating engine in the sprint race, while leading the production class, unfortunately the problem was unable to be cured for race 2 and his afternoon ended there. Alan Blencowe made some amends snatching the final podium place in race 1 with Graham Saunders finishing right behind him in fourth. While in the main race, with Pyper not starting and Saunders and Blencowe retiring, the GA Motorsport team's afternoon ended early. |
 Home
territory advantage and major rule changes for the second half of the season
saw the BMW's dominate qualifying. Led by Dutchman Tom Coronel, the BMW's
occupied the first two rows of the grid. Frederik Ekblom joined Coronel
on the front row with the Dirk and Jorg Muller sitting on row two. Fabrizio
Giovanardi and Nicola Larini could manage no better than 7th & 8th
slots, while Tom Ferrier was best of the privateers in 11th. |
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 Nicola
Larini took a lights-to-flag win in the opening race with team mate Giovanardi
following him home in second to make it nine wins out of nine for the Nordauto
pair. However race 2 saw Jorg Muller record BMW's first win as he snatch
the lead from Rickard Rydell ( Volvo ) with three corners remaining. Struggling
with a poor set-up, Giovanardi snatched fourth place on the final corner
from Nicola Larini, who in turn had had to charge up the field dropping
down the orders while keeping away from a first lap tangle. Tom Ferrier
in the DART-run Alfa 156 picked up his first point of the season with a
sixth place in race 2. |
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 Nicola
Larini broke team mate Fabrizio Giovanardi's clean sweep of pole positions
as the European Touring Cars headed for a cold and overcast Anderstorp
in Sweden. Giovanardi spun off early in the session and after being dragged
from the mud by a circuit tractor, he was unable to get the car competitive
enough for a shot at pole, lining up eventually behind Rickard Rydell who
joined Larini on the front row, and Tom Ferrier who put in a flying time
in his DART-run Alfa 156GTA, to squeeze Giovanardi down to fourth. |
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| The British Touring Car
series moved across the water to Mondello Park in Ireland for the latest
round. After a dreadful practice session in which engine problems stopped
him from leaving the pits for either practice session, Gavin Pyper, returning
to his GA Motorsport Alfa 156 seat after serving his one race ban, stormed
through the Production Class runners to win the class in the Sprint race,
and in doing so, gain his first podium finish of the year. Pyper and production
class points leader James Kaye ( Honda Accord ) had battled mightly towards
the end of the opening race, the scrap being resolved when Kaye's gearbox
packed up as they approached the finish line.
In race two Pyper, again starting from the back of the grid, sliced through the field, taking the class lead when James Kaye spun out of the race, but with his battery playing up Pyper quickly followed him out of the race. Team mate Alan Blencowe came home best Alfa runner in 6th place, following up from his 5th place in the opening race while Graham Saunders in the third GA car was unlucky, retiring from both races. qualifying:
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announced on Thursday as late stand in for Gavin Pyper in the GA Motorsport
Production Class Alfa 156 who is serving a one race ban after his Thruxton
incident with Production Class rival James Kaye, former single seater rising
star, Kelvin Burt set Production Pole time for both the Sprint and Feature
races, culminating in a class win in the Feature race.
At a swelteringly hot Silverstone, Kelvin Burt quickly got to grips with the Alfa 156, lining up the car in a Production class fastest time ( 17th overall ) of 1:32.674. Championship pace setter James Kaye ( Honda Civic ) lined up behind him less than a 1/10 of a second back. Team mates Alan Blencoe and Graham Saunders followed up 6th and 10th in class. For the Feature race Burt once again out paced James Kaye, Blencoe slotting in behind them and Saunders four places further back. Race one saw a titanic battle between Burt, Kaye and the Renault Clio of Robert Collard, which eventually saw Burt snatch the final class podium position behind Kaye and Collard, team mates Alan Blencowe and Graham Saunders finishing the afternoon 9th and 10th in class. Race two however saw Burt fend off the attentions of James Kaye who spun off while challenging for the lead and despite late pressure from the Honda driver he hung on to win. Blencowe and Saunders rounded off the GA Racing team's weekend by coming in 4th and 7th. |
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