Tom Emson and Tom Lebbon took their first win of the season today in a thrilling race at Misano, visited for the first time by the International GT Open. By the same token, the young British pair of Elite Motorsport gave the Ferrari 296 GT3 its first success of the year on the Prancing Horse’s home soil, and take the provisional lead in the overall standings, one point ahead of Mansell-Götz (Motopark Mercedes), today only ninth.
It was a closely-fought race up to the very end, as the Ferrari won the final duel with the pole-setting Greystone GT McLaren of Zac Meakin-Dean Macdonald in the last lap. Exactly the same happened for the third position, with the GetSpeed Mercedes of Fabian Shiller-Anthony Bartone beating the Fach Auto Tech Porsche of Alexander Fach-Lucas Wolf, who nonetheless took a well-deserved win in Pro-Am, the third for the young Swiss. There was more satisfaction for the Helvetic outfit with a second success in the Am class for Joel Monegro.
The rest of the honours in the classes rewarded for Central European pairs: Libor Milota-Filip Salaquarda (ISR Racing udi) and Hubert Darmetko-Fabian Dybionka (PTT Racing) completed the Pro-Am podium, and the Lewandowskis father and son (Baron Motorsport Ferrari) and Piotr Wira-Tomasz Magdziarz (GoodSpeed Aston Martin) did the same in Am.
THE RACE - At the start, Macdonald keeps the advantage over Basz, while Emson has a poorer start and is passed by Moncini and Mansell. Pla is sixth ahead of Abril, Fontana, Fumanelli, Milota and Wolff. The initial laps see Macdonald pulling away only marginally, with Basz second, only 2 seconds behind, and Moncini in third, five seconds behind. The Lambo is holding a group including Mansell, Emson, Abril and Fumanelli.
Action is intense, with Pla dropping many positions after a contact and then stopping, Lewandowski Sr spinning, Letlaka and Mazur colliding, Vaselaho and Müller also having hard contact, and Han blowing a tyre. Still, the most serious incident is the one involving Moncini and Mansell, as the Australian tries to force past the Italian and touches the Lambo, which spins and has to pit to change a tyre.
The driver change window opens in lap 19, when Macdonald’s lead over Basz has reached 5 seconds, and Mansell is third, leading the compact group formed with Abril, Emson, Fontana and Fumanelli, while Reyes leads in Am.
After all stops, Meakin leads with 9 seconds on Jedlinski, 11 on De Meeus, 12 on Lebbon and 14 on Armanni, then Fach, Al Zubair, Goetz, Salaquarda and Schiller, while Monegro is first in Am. Still, action is interrupted by a 2-lap safety car period as Mazur stops in turn 8, and the car has to be removed. Soon after the restart, there is a contact between Osman and Hernandez.
In the lead, Meakin is ahead of Lebbon and Armanni, with Fach taking the lead in Pro-Am from Jedlinski. Schiller, Al Zubair and Götz are fighting for fifth, while there is a contact between Mosca and Baumann, with the Mercedes having to retire.
However, the attention is all on the two great final duels in the top four. Schiller closes on Fach, but the Swiss defends beautifully up to the final lap when he exits a little bit wide in one of the corners, and the Mercedes takes third overall.
It is a similar situation in the lead, as Lebbon closes the gap on Meakin and puts high pressure on him. A small mistake in the last lap will allow the Ferrari to pass and win.
