Back to back wins for Yelmer in FIA GT1 World Championship
07-11-2011
Big names and famous racing cars in the FIA GT1, such as Lamborghini’s Murcielago, Aston Martins DB9, Ford’s GT, Nissan’s GT-R and Corvettes Z06. The latter hadn’t even won one single race this season but both Yelmer and Francesco turned the dices in Argentina. Francesco Pastorelli had taken all GT1 insiders by surprise clocking second fastest time in qualifying, putting the Corvette Z06 on the front row next to the champions to be Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr.
Yelmer took the start and made immediately clear why he had made the trip all the way to South America: A win. He passed the Nissan GT-R of Michael Krumm and subsequently made big steps to create a buffer. By the time he came in to hand the car over to Pastorelli his lead had increased to almost 5 seconds. And the Italo-Dutchman made no mistakes either and cruised the finish-line first, with the hard charging Luhr on his heels. The difference was a mere 0.3 of a second. This win raised quite a few eyebrows as it has never happened before that two GT1-rookies had won a race. And at the same time it was the first Corvette win of the season.
But there was more to come from the Dutchies. This time Francesco took the start and from pole-position he made no mistakes. Right behind him the race turned into a mess with several cars colliding and bouncing into the concrete walls. It took a long safety-car period to clean up the debris but at the re-start Pastorelli kept his head cool again and the others at bay. Being in the lead he came in for his stop but then all went wrong with one of the central wheel nuts rolling over the pit floor. It took a few seconds to grab another one and by the time Yelmer hit the track again he had dropped to fourth. With his well-known aggressive racing style he passed two frontrunners, although it was not easy, he told. “The Aston Martin of Stef Dusseldorp was faster on the straight and I had no chance to out-brake him in the first corner. So I crept almost under his tail in another corner and barely lost the car. Even these sports-cars are very sensible to downforce and I ended up almost square on the track. But I kept it under control and this gave me just the momentum to out-brake Stef in the next corner. But man, my front tyres were gone by that time, causing massive understeer”, Yelmer told afterwards. It looked like a sure win for Peter Drumbeck and his Nissan GT-R but then he was given a ‘drive-through’ penalty because his partner Richard Westbrook had overtaken several cars while the safety-car was out. So it was Yelmer who cruised the line in first place, with a jubilant Selleslagh Racing Team crew on the pit-wall. It was the last race of the team as Peter Selleslagh had already announced that he would stop at the end of the season. It was a fantastic result with two rookies at the wheel of the Exim Bank Corvette. “I found the car very reliable and easy to drive. I think that stepping over from a 750HP Superleague Formula-car into this 650HP sports-car is much easier than the opposite way. At least I found it easy even when my front tyres were almost gone. That drift was really serious but I kept it under control”, the winner from Ubbergen explained. When questioned about a possible future in sports-car racing he was adamant: “I’m still young and I am still focused on single seater racing. I can always switch to sports car racing in due time. No worries about that at all”.
Results race 1
1. Buurman/Pastorelli (Corvette Z06) 1 hr 00.31.011; 2. Krumm/Luhr (Nissan GT-R) at 0.316; 3. Schwager/Pastorelli (Lamborghini Murcielago) at 17.054; 4. Bernoldi/Catsburg (Nissan GT-R) at 17.406
Results race 2
1. Buurman/Pastorelli 1 hr 2.00.695; 2. Lauck/Haasse (Lamborghini Murcielago) at 4.043; 3. Piccione/Dusseldorp (Aston Martin DB9) at 13.224; 4. Bernoldi/Catsburg at 21.189
