spdoRacing claim maiden MoE GT1 victory

The final round of the MoE 2008-2009 Season saw spdoRacing claim its first ever MoE GT1 victory, while misfortune denied the team's extremely competitive GT2 car any chance of a podium.

The first GT1 qualifying session for the Kyoto National event saw Marc Gassner post an extremely competitive time of 1 minute 34.07 seconds for spdoRacing, 0.07s ahead of Mercury's Raymond Mooney. Remarkably though, the German only took fourth place in what proved to be an incredibly tight session, with My3id's David Williams posting the fastest time ahead of Andre Roque for F1RST and #low-racing's Johannes Scheuerle.

In the opening GT2 session, Czech Martin Silhanek was able to match Piotr Goik's fastest time of the session, but with the another five days before the second qualifying session the GT2 times were likely to be improved upon.

Several days before the second qualifying session it became clear that SK Gaming would be unable to compete in the final round of the season. And when spdoRacing's Teemu Hirvonen declared himself unavailable for the race spdo were more than happy to accept SK driver Marcel Krause's offer to take the Finn's place.

And Krause himself would drive the second GT1 qualifying session for spdo, though the German was unable to improve upon the mark set by Gassner in the opening session. Mooney however was able to better his Q1 time, leaving spdoRacing in fifth position once again following qualifying.

Silhanek fared better in the final GT2 session, the Czech putting his FZR third on the grid behind F1RST's Mark Bunby and AutoMotoTrke.net's Lado Gluscevic, in what proved to be another extremely close GT2 qualifying session.

With qualifying out of the way, all eyes were on the race. Surprisingly, Hirvonen made himself available at the last minute, but with Krause having already driven for spdoRacing during the Kyoto event the German was unable to drive for any other team. The team decided therefore that Hirvonen would race in the GT2 car.

The GT1 line-up was completed by team veteran Heikki Jaakkola, while Christoph Hofbauer and Carsten Hoerenbaum returned to the GT2 car alongside Silhanek and Hirvonen.

Gassner started the race for the GT1 car, as he generally has done this season, while Hofbauer took the start in the GT2 car.

But Gassner wasn't able to reproduce one of the excellent starts that have seen him become first choice in opening spdo's races this season. The 18-year-old was characteristically fast to react to the green flag, but unfortunately scraped the pit wall moments later losing valuable momentum. The German still seemed likely to pass Williams for fourth position into turn one, but minor contact with Mooney meant that the spdoRacing driver remained fifth after the start.

Hofbauer enjoyed a more successful start as F1RST Racing's Hendrik Piiriste, who's start seemed erratic to say the least, made contact with the German in turn one, spinning as a result and thus promoting the spdo car to second position, closely behind AMT's Darko Nikolin.

After catching Nikolin at the end of the opening lap, Hofbauer unsuccessfully attempted to pass the Serbian into turn one on the following lap. Meanwhile, CoRe Racing's Phil Diaz took the opportunity to close up to Hofbauer's rear bumper.

But when Diaz made his first attempt at passing the spdo driver, into the penultimate corner of the second lap, Hofbauer was able to defend his position. The CoRe driver remained in Hofbauer's slipstream though and again attempted a pass into the first corner of lap three. But as the American drew alongside the spdo driver, minor contact sent Hofbauer spinning into the wall, inflicting major damage on the suspension of his FZR.

And after the careless Goik ploughed into the side of the recovering Hofbauer, the German had no other option than to pit for repairs – though the damage did already seem to warrant a pitstop – ultimately ending any chance of a GT2 victory for spdoRacing just six minutes into the race. Following the pitstop, spdo had lost over 75 seconds to their rivals.

Meanwhile, #low-racing's Scheuerle lead a train of five cars that included Jesse Nieminen of F1RST, Mercury's Mooney, My3id's Williams and Gassner, for spdo. It was already apparent, as it had been throughout qualifying, that these five teams would be fighting for the podium positions in GT1.

12 minutes into the race, Mooney – arguably the season's outstanding performer in MoE – passed Nieminen for second position, with the Finn offering the Scot little resistance.

With Gassner lurking just half a second back from Williams in fourth, the German made his first attempt at passing the Englishman in turn one, 25 minutes into the race. Williams was up the to challenge however, defending his position astutely to deny the spdo driver.

But when Williams came across F1RST GT2's Piiriste at the end of the same lap, Gassner took advantage of the situation to take fourth, comfortably defending the position through turn one.

There was little action in the remainder of the opening hour for spdo's two cars, other than a fastest lap by Gassner, which would only be matched by one other driver during the remainder of the race – the German's team mate and compatriot, Marcel Krause.

One of the defining moments of the Kyoto event, and the season itself, arrived just 54 minutes into the race as #low's Johannes Scheuerle timed-out from the lead of the race, essentially handing the GT1 title to F1RST Racing – barring any misfortunes for the Dutch team.

This promoted Mercury's Mooney into the lead of the race, Nieminen to second for F1RST Racing, while Gassner rose to third position.

Eight minutes later, Krause took over from Gassner in the cockpit of spdo's GT1 car, while Hofbauer – who had shown exceptional pace following his early pit stop – was able to continue until 68 minutes into the race before handing over the team's GT2 car to Silhanek.

But Krause was unable to perform to the level he's capable of in the early part of his stint, losing several seconds to Nieminen in second and Williams in fourth in the space of 15 minutes.

And as spdo's GT2 car seemed to be recovering towards a possible podium finish, Silhanek suffered a time-out from the server. When Hoerenbaum took almost three-and-a-half minutes to connect to the server in order to continue spdo's race in the GT2 class, the team's race became a damage-limitation exercise.

It soon became apparent that spdoRacing GT2 had lost so much time in the incident that a class victory for Infinity Skills would likely demote spdo GT2 from second place in the season standings, and with Norbi Kiss expected to take the wheel for the Hungarian team later in the race this was a definite possibility.

Half way through his stint, Krause moved up a gear – gradually reducing the gap to Nieminen in second from ten seconds to seven-and-a-half.

And though Mooney had opened up a ten second lead over Nieminen in first place, the Mercury car was expected to drop back later in the race as the team's remaining drivers appeared unlikely to be at the standard necessary to compete for an MoE podium.

With Krause able to stay out one lap longer than the F1RST car, the gap was reduced to just six seconds. But it was apparent that My3id were planning a short final stint, as Williams again stayed out longest – eventually pitting ten minutes after Krause's stop.

Krause again struggled in the early phase of his stint – falling a further three seconds back from Rudy van Buren, who now piloted F1RST's GT1 car – though the gap to Mercury's Scott Andrews in first position remained fairly consistent.

With spdoRacing's GT2 car out of sync in terms of pit stops following their earlier disconnection, Hirvonen took over from Hofbauer two-and-a-half hours into the race. And with Silhanek's internet connection proving unstable the Czech's complement of laps for the remainder of the race would have to be taken by Hofbauer and Hirvonen.

When F1RST's van Buren caught up to Andrews, Krause immediately started to close the gap. And by the time van Buren managed to find a way past the Australian Krause had closed the gap to the F1RST car to 6.5 seconds, with the gap to Andrews at just 5.5 seconds.

Three hours into the race Norbi Kiss lost connection to the server for Infinity Skills, all but sealing spdoRacing's second place championship position in the GT2 class despite a torrid race for the two-time race winners.

And when Kiss again lost connection minutes later, any chance of a victory for Infinity GT2 – the only result that would give the Hungarian team any opportunity to overhaul spdo in the standings – was over.

Two minutes past the three-hour mark Krause was on the rear bumper of Mercury's Andrews. And the German immediately moved past the Australian into second position, with the gap to the leading F1RST Racing sitting at just under five seconds.

F1RST again pitted one lap before spdo, reducing the gap by a further half second as the spdo car completed an extra lap on low fuel. Gassner was now back in the car for spdoRacing, while van Buren remained in the cockpit for F1RST Racing.

A little over three-and-a-half hours into the race an unfortunate but all-too-familiar disconnection for fourth-placed My3id Gaming – this time caused by a computer and not a network issue – ended the team's chances of victory.

And when F1RST Racing made their fourth stop 25 minutes later, spdoRacing looked in real contention to pick up their maiden MoE GT1 victory. Gassner had closed the gap to van Buren ahead to just three seconds, while Andrews had fallen 20 seconds behind the German in third.

While Roque was beginning his stint with a fat fuel-tank, Gassner was able to drive an additional three laps with a light tank. And when Jaakkola took over for the last two hours he was able to exit the pit lane immediately ahead of the Portuguese.

Two laps later, as Jaakkola attempted to lap CoRe's GT2 car, Roque made his first attempt to pass the Finn. But following contact between the two GT1 cars the F1RST driver remained in second position.

And when Roque had another go at passing Jaakkola ten minutes later, there was contact between the two cars again. This time though, Roque was able to take the lead.

But with spdoRacing again expected to pit several laps later at the final round of pit-stops, all was not lost for spdo.

And minutes later when Josh Di Fabio requested that the event organisers review Roque's pass on Jaakkola, another unknown was introduced into the equation.

When Roque made his, and F1RST Racing GT1's final stop of the race, Jaakkola was just three seconds behind in second, with Mercury now over a lap down in third. And following three quick laps from Jaakkola between Roque's pit stop and his own, the Finn was able to exit the pits with a 2.5 second lead over the F1RST car, and with around 47 minutes remaining in the race.

But with Jaakkola struggling for consistency in the early part of his stint – as had been characteristic for all the spdo GT1 drivers during the race – Roque was able to close onto the back of Jaakkola's car and pass the Finn with a little under 35 minutes remaining in the race.

The joy was to be short-lived for F1RST Racing, however, as a drive-through penalty – imposed for the incident between Roque and Jaakkola 80 minutes earlier – denied them a chance of celebrating their impending title triumph with a season-ending victory.

With Roque now 25 seconds behind the spdo car following his drive-through penalty, a mistake-free drive from Jaakkola until the chequered flag was certain to be enough for the team's first victory in the GT1 class of the Masters of Endurance.

And when the six-hour mark was reached Jaakkola crossed the line 30 seconds ahead of Roque to seal spdoRacing's maiden MoE GT1 victory, while #low staged an extremely impressive comeback to finish third having lost close to a lap early on.

In an extremely unfortunate race for the team's GT2 car, seventh place was all they could manage, despite the exceptional pace of Hirvonen and Hofbauer. However, with Infinity suffering a similar fate during the race, spdo's points from the event were enough to claim second place, behind champions F1RST Racing, in the GT2 standings. And it was CoRe Racing who took the GT2 victory at Kyoto – the North American team's first podium finish in either class this season – ahead of Sonicrealms Racing.

Despite the GT1 team's 11th place finish in the double-points 24 hour race in January, where they suffered a number of internet-related issues, they were able to claim fourth in the overall standings behind F1RST Racing, #low-racing and Mercury Racing Team, with the often-unlucky My3id Gaming back in fifth position.

After an extremely successful season for spdoRacing in the Masters of Endurance, with the team claiming three victories and six podium finishes in all, there will be a six month break before action resumes in Live for Speed's most prestigious and competitive league. Until then, the team will be competing for victories against F1RST Racing, My3id Gaming and Mercury Racing Team, among others, in the International GT Championship.

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