The recent Spa 24 Hour featured a close fight for victory right into the final hour, but that’s still nowhere near being the closest GT endurance race in 2017. The previous two 24 hour races for GT sportscars (at the Nurburgring and Le Mans) featured incredible last lap battles for victory. That’s amazing! Not only that, but the GTLM class at the Daytona 24 back in January also produced a very close finish, so there has been an amazing trend of nail-biting GT enduros this year.
Laurens Vanthoor had a spectacular weekend in Macau winning the 2016 FIA GT World cup after flipping onto his roof. Vanthoor’s frightening high speed accident brought out the red flags and, since the race as not restarted, the result was taken from the previous lap. Vanthoor was declared the winner which created an unusual situation that guaranteed him plenty of attention.
If you win, you get media attention. If you do a big crash you get media attention. If you do both…. : Twitter explosion.
In case you missed it, here’s Vanthoor’s lucky escape. He travelled an awful long distance on his roof.
Stefano Comini also had an eventful time in Macau. It was the final round of the 2016 TCR International Series and Comini had an outside chance of winning the championship if something went horribly wrong for his main rival, James Nash. Incredibly, that’s exactly what happened. Nash was caught up in a collision with another driver which took him out of the first race and forced him to start the second near the back. Comini (whose hipster beard is now so long it sticks out of his balaclava) took full advantage and scored enough points to claim a surprise championship victory.
Comini had earlier put on a show during practice and qualifying by taking an unusual line through the tight Melco hairpin.
Stefano’s slide into Melco wasn’t a one off in the wet. He tried the same tactic in the dry as well.
Comini certainly isn’t the first to take the Melco hairpin with a handbrake, and perhaps he took some inspiration from Sebastien Loeb’s efforts a few years back.
Some claim Melco is the tightest corner international motorsport so whilst it lends itself to handbrake turns it’s also a great place to stick a 360 degree spherical camera. Here’s a rather unusual interactive view from right on the apex.
Macau is a brilliant circuit and although this last video isn’t from 2016 it’s a great illustration of how crazy the place can be. Enjoy a lap onboard with Peter Hickman’s 999cc BMW.
Motorsport Snippets 