Masters of Endurance sprung into action for the first time in 2011 with January 8th's 6 Hours of Westhill International. The race saw a number of lineup changes, as two GT0 teams dropped out of the class—E-Team retired from the series as a whole, while Team Inferno moved their car to the GT1 class. Qualifying times were tight at the top of GT1 and GT2, promising close battles throughout the race.
In GT0, spdoRacing took advantage of a timeout by ineX Racing's Mark Bunby to take the win by just 31 seconds. ineX came home second, taking the race's fastest lap with a 1:26.99 set by Bunby. The victory and pole position bonus points boosted spdo's championship effort, narrowing their gap to ineX to just 8.5 points with four races to go. nFinity eSports took the final step on the GT0 podium, gaining some ground on Team ev0». The German squad took a bit of insult on top of the injury of their 4th place, 8-laps-down result, receiving a 5-point penalty for not having a representative present in IRC. After this race, the future of the GT0 class is in doubt, with at least one other team requesting permission to switch to GT1, while others are vocal in their admiration for the new car. Stay tuned for updates as we move closer to Round 3.
Team Sirius returned to victory lane in GT1, taking the fastest class lap with Norbi Kiss's 1:30.67 and dominating the entire race. They left the foursome of CoRe Racing, Team Inferno, Concept Racing, and spdoRacing two laps behind, in a tight battle for the two remaining podium spots. Despite hanging back in the field for much of the early part of the race, CoRe would climb to 2nd by the finish, with Corey Green edging the Inferno car driven by guest driver Kenneth O'Keefe by just one second. Concept Racing trailed Inferno by 12 seconds, barely missing out on their first MoE podium. Despite a strong early run that saw them spending time in 2nd place, the Romanian team of GTS Motorsport ended the race a disappointing 6th after a number of difficulties and a 2-lap penalty for unsafe track re-entry. The race win gave Sirius a small lead in the standings, 4.5 points up on spdoRacing, who lead CoRe Racing by a further 9 points.
The race in GT2 followed a similar pattern to GT1, with RAPTOR-GAMING claiming their first MoE win by two laps. At the start, Sonicrealms Racing lost massive ground with a turn-1 crash, while front-running ineX Racing severely damaged their engine and lost a lap in fixing it. After challenging for the lead early, CoRe Racing were involved in an incident with the GT1 car of GTS Motorsports just after the 2-hour mark, which dropped them to 7th. Meanwhile, Team Inferno's XRR worked on chasing RAPTOR for the lead, but ultimately lacked the pace to make any kind of dent. In the last hour of the race, positions 2 through 7 shuffled quickly, with every team except for Sonicrealms Racing changing position by the finish. CoRe would ultimately climb back to 2nd thanks to some interesting strategy that saw their fastest driver run .04% over the 45% limit while securing them enough gap to remain in the runner-up spot. Sonicrealms cruised to 3rd, besting Inferno, Team ev0», ineX, and Conquest Racing, all of whom finished two laps down. Newcomers TNT Racing and Team Vires struggled in their first race, finishing 11th and 12th respectively. RAPTOR leads the GT2 standings by just 0.5 points over Team Inferno, with Sonicrealms also in striking distance, rounding out the top 3.
Next month the series heads to its biggest race, the 24 Hours of Aston Grand Prix. Join us at 15:50 on February the 12th, as we broadcast the entire race live on MultiBC.de (Stream III)!
In GT0, spdoRacing took advantage of a timeout by ineX Racing's Mark Bunby to take the win by just 31 seconds. ineX came home second, taking the race's fastest lap with a 1:26.99 set by Bunby. The victory and pole position bonus points boosted spdo's championship effort, narrowing their gap to ineX to just 8.5 points with four races to go. nFinity eSports took the final step on the GT0 podium, gaining some ground on Team ev0». The German squad took a bit of insult on top of the injury of their 4th place, 8-laps-down result, receiving a 5-point penalty for not having a representative present in IRC. After this race, the future of the GT0 class is in doubt, with at least one other team requesting permission to switch to GT1, while others are vocal in their admiration for the new car. Stay tuned for updates as we move closer to Round 3.
Team Sirius returned to victory lane in GT1, taking the fastest class lap with Norbi Kiss's 1:30.67 and dominating the entire race. They left the foursome of CoRe Racing, Team Inferno, Concept Racing, and spdoRacing two laps behind, in a tight battle for the two remaining podium spots. Despite hanging back in the field for much of the early part of the race, CoRe would climb to 2nd by the finish, with Corey Green edging the Inferno car driven by guest driver Kenneth O'Keefe by just one second. Concept Racing trailed Inferno by 12 seconds, barely missing out on their first MoE podium. Despite a strong early run that saw them spending time in 2nd place, the Romanian team of GTS Motorsport ended the race a disappointing 6th after a number of difficulties and a 2-lap penalty for unsafe track re-entry. The race win gave Sirius a small lead in the standings, 4.5 points up on spdoRacing, who lead CoRe Racing by a further 9 points.
The race in GT2 followed a similar pattern to GT1, with RAPTOR-GAMING claiming their first MoE win by two laps. At the start, Sonicrealms Racing lost massive ground with a turn-1 crash, while front-running ineX Racing severely damaged their engine and lost a lap in fixing it. After challenging for the lead early, CoRe Racing were involved in an incident with the GT1 car of GTS Motorsports just after the 2-hour mark, which dropped them to 7th. Meanwhile, Team Inferno's XRR worked on chasing RAPTOR for the lead, but ultimately lacked the pace to make any kind of dent. In the last hour of the race, positions 2 through 7 shuffled quickly, with every team except for Sonicrealms Racing changing position by the finish. CoRe would ultimately climb back to 2nd thanks to some interesting strategy that saw their fastest driver run .04% over the 45% limit while securing them enough gap to remain in the runner-up spot. Sonicrealms cruised to 3rd, besting Inferno, Team ev0», ineX, and Conquest Racing, all of whom finished two laps down. Newcomers TNT Racing and Team Vires struggled in their first race, finishing 11th and 12th respectively. RAPTOR leads the GT2 standings by just 0.5 points over Team Inferno, with Sonicrealms also in striking distance, rounding out the top 3.
Next month the series heads to its biggest race, the 24 Hours of Aston Grand Prix. Join us at 15:50 on February the 12th, as we broadcast the entire race live on MultiBC.de (Stream III)!