Win puts spdoRacing back on top in IGTC

Round two of IGTC Season 2009 saw spdoRacing take their first endurance victory of the year, and the championship lead, in a tight finish with F1RST Racing, as My3id Gaming took the final podium position in the four-hour Kyoto race.

Following the team's third-place finish at Blackwood - a race in which they were forced to start at the back of the 29 car field - spdoRacing were expectant of another podium placing at Kyoto National.

And when spdo's Marc Gassner set the pace in the early part of qualifying, eventually placing third in what proved to be an extremely tight session, the team was already better placed than they had been at Blackwood four weeks earlier.

Things got even better for the IGTC title-holders as Finnish driver Heikki Jaakkola, who again started the race for spdoRacing, was able to pass My3id's Karolis Kliaudaitis for second position just moments after the green flag was dropped.

A mistake from Team Inferno's Marius Golombeck a little under two laps later allowed Jaakkola to move past the German driver into first position.

And the Finn spent the remainder of his stint building a healthy advantage over the rest of the field, with the gap to second-placed My3id standing at 16 seconds as Jaakkola handed the car over to team-mate Teemu Hirvonen.

After a drive-through penalty for My3id's Kliaudaitis for speeding in the pit-lane, things were beginning to look comfortable at the front for spdoRacing.

And while Team Inferno - who appeared to be attempting to save a pit-stop in their XR GTR - looked for a time as though they would threaten spdo's lead, the time lost at the end of a long stint on badly-worn tyres seemed to nullify any threat posed by the Hungarian team.

80 minutes into the race, as spdoRacing seemed well-placed for victory, it became apparent that there were technical issues as numerous drivers were unable to join the IGTC server.

And before long the event organisers were left with no other option than to red-flag the race, before restarting under safety-car conditions with the most recent race positions maintained.

As there had been a little over two hours remaining in the session at the time of the red flag, the race would restart with two hours on the clock.

The red flag meant that spdoRacing's 24 second lead over the now second-placed CoRe Racing was all but eradicated, though with track order being kept as it was before the restart there were several back-markers seperating spdo from their North American rivals.

The restart also allowed rivals F1RST Racing, who had been almost 40 seconds behind spdo, and Team Inferno, who had dropped a minute from the lead, back into contention.

And it was F1RST Racing's Rudy van Buren who made the most of the restart, passing a number of cars to leave himself second at the end of the first lap, closely stalking spdoRacing's Gassner who had taken over from Hirvonen at the restart.

The remainder of the stint saw Gassner open up a 12 second advantage over the Dutch driver, with ConeDodgers' Jon Hopwood at one point putting van Buren under genuine pressure for second position.

As the final planned pit-stops of the race took place, F1RST inevitably gained on spdoRacing as their XR GTR required less fuel to complete the race. This left the gap between the spdo car, now piloted by Hirvonen, and F1RST's van Buren at just five seconds.

And with Hirvonen struggling to make his way through traffic efficiently in the early stages of his stint, and with his rear tyres overheating, the Finn's lead over van Buren dropped to as low as two seconds.

But for the final 30 minutes of the race spdoRacing's experienced Finn comfortably maintained a five second gap to van Buren to bring home the team's third IGTC victory in a year.

Behind the second-placed F1RST Racing, My3id's Jack Basford put on a late charge to steal the final podium spot from ConeDodgers' Hopwood, eventually crossing the line 25 seconds back from the spdoRacing car.

Saturday, 29 March 2009 will see spdoRacing competing for podiums in both classes at the final round of the Masters of Endurance 2008-2009 Season - the 6 hours of Kyoto National.

And four weeks later the focus will be back on IGTC as the team will attempt to extend their championship lead at the four hour Aston North event.

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