It was the weekend of the Toms! Tom Lebbon and Tom Emson had another fantastic day at Misano, repeating yesterday’s win in Race 2 and adding the pole position today. The dominant duo in the Elite Motorsport Ferrari 296 leaves Italy solidly at the helm of the overall standings, where they now have a 16-point gap over Christian Mansell-Maxi Götz (Motopark Mercedes), who suffered a wheel problem today and scored no points.
“It’s too early in the championship, we’ll take things event by event, but clearly we are very happy. Our pace here was fantastic, it’s a pity we can’t stay and have a Race 3!”, said the two Brits. Like yesterday, they prevailed over the Greystone GT McLaren of Zac Meakin and Dean Macdonald (this time with Emson and Macdonald fighting in the final stint) and the ZRS Motorsport Porsche of Pietro Armanni and Alex Fontana.
Alexander Fach and Lucas Wolf, in the Fach Auto Tech Porsche, also repeated yesterday’s success in the Pro-Am class, this time ahead of Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz (Olimp Racing Ferrari) and Libor Milota-Filip Salaquarda (ISR Racing Audi).
Polish party in the Am class, as Piotr Wira and Tomasz Magdziarz took their maiden win in the GoodSpeed Aston Martin, ahead of Huilin Han (Target Racing Ferrari) and country fellows Andrzej and Adrian Lewandowski (Baron Motorsport Ferrari).
THE RACE – Tom Lebbon took pole, the second of the weekend for the Elite Motorsport Ferrari, ahead of the AF red car of Mosca. The two battle at first corner, but it is the Brit keeping the advantage, with Mettler in third, ahead of Baumann, Fach, Ferrari, Götz, Meakin, and Testa. The first two laps, though, proved dire for Götz, who dropped down the order with a wheel issue after contact and then stops, and Ferrari, sent into a spin by Fach (who will get a 10-second penalty), also dropped down the order.
Lebbon keeps everything in control, building a 1.8 gap on Mosca, with Mettler, Baumann, Meakin, and Fach not far away, then Dybionka, Testa, Fagg, and Korzeniowski, first in Am. In the meantime, De Meeus hit the wall early in the race, and Monegro spun but recovered.
After all pit stops and driver changes, Durán leads with 6 seconds over Ramirez, Emson, and Macdonald. Moncini is fifth, 11 seconds behind the lead, ahead of Fontana, Fumanelli, and Darmetko, who gets the Pro-Am lead stolen by Wolf on lap 27. In Am, it’s three Poles leading, with Mazur, Jedlinski, and Wira.
At the top, Emson manages to pass both Ramirez and Durán to take the lead on lap 30, but he is closely challenged by Macdonald, while Durán also has to leave third position to Fontana, who has had close fighting with Moncini and Ramirez.
Bartone (who is driving alone as Schiller fell ill) stops in the pits with some kind of problem, while Pla’s car is stopped along the track and Letlaka spins.
Despite the close gaps, the order won’t change with Emson securing the win ahead of Macdonald, Fontana, Durán, Moncini, and Ramirez.
