“Bull’s Eye” for Gerstl and his Toro Rosso F1!
Assen, Netherlands, Sunday, August 2nd, 9:00 am in the morning… Almost 90.000!! spectators were already lining the grandstands at the TT Circuit awaiting another annual GAMMA Racing day in the northern part of the Drenthe province. This one of a kind event spectacle formed a perfect framework for the 5th race of the BOSS GP Championship 2015. Due to the numerous incidents in the Saturday race, the starting grid unveiled several surprises.
Despite Ingo Gerstl, who superiourly won Race 1 in the OPEN class, the FORMULA Class contenders Henk de Boer as well as Armando Mangini were lining up their GP2`s in the front rows right behind the Polish Championship leader Jakub Smiechowski. His closest follower, the Austrian Johann Ledermaier was forced to the end of the starting grid after a complete failure in Saturday`s race. There could be no better precondition for an exciting, dramatic and spectacular Race 2 in front of a crowd, which can`t even be beaten by a current regular Formula 1 Sunday race.
Gerstl caught a good start and piloted his Toro Rosso STR1 smoothly and fast through the demanding layout of the TT circuit. Even if his direct opponent Klaas Zwart announced to chase him in this race in front of his home crowd, the Dutch F1 Jaguar pilot had to park the car again in the pits after a safety car stage in the middle of the race. He couldn`t manage to get his overheating problems under control. So the way was clear for the Austrian routinier who showed his high-level driving skills to finally celebrate with his team a superb „Bull`s Eye“ with 50 points out of only his 2nd race in this car, followed by another great performance of BOSS GP returnee Peter Milavec in his Judd-powered ChampCar and Philippe Haezebrouck, who was racing this weekend with an perfectly- prepared AUTO GP car from Austrian Zele-Racing team.
The precondition in the FORMULA Class was obviously perfect for the current leader Jakub Smiechowski. His follower Johann Ledermair started far from behind and everybody expected another win from the Polish driver. Surprisingly Ledermaier caught a perfect start and overtook already several cars in the first corner and started a phenomenal chase for the pole. Finally he could manage to overtake Smiechowksi and he achieved a victory by showing his best performance this season so far.
After the accident on Saturday, Florian Schnitzenbaumer showed the big crowd a very stable and concentrated performance and he finally earned his second podium spot this season. His teammate Wolfgang Jaksch also caught a good start and placed his car out of corner 1 right behind Henk de Boer. Lap by lap he shortened the gap and was preparing to attack the Dutch driver. An unexpected safety car stage caused by an accident stopped the chase and for 4 laps the entire field formated itself in a row. The restart 3 minutes before the end of the race ended up in another incident where the Italian Armando Mangini, Dutch driver Henk de Boer and German Wolfgang Jaksch were involved. While de Boer could slightly overtake Mangini in corner 1, Jaksch and Mangini crashed in corner 3 and spun out widely in the grass. Nevertheless both had luck, Mangini came in on P10 while Jaksch could get his engine running and reached P6, only passed by TINTIN in the last lap. Jens Renstrup finished on P7, followed by Christian Eicke and Veronika Cicha. Mangini finished on P10.
The MASTERS class series was overshadowed by a serious accident from the German Karl-Heinz Becker. Fighting for his position he got in contact with the tire of his closest rival for the Championship Hans Laub and his car immediately flipped over and smashed into the gravel upside down. Luckily Becker could leave the heavily demolished car without any injuries and he fort the luck of all fans, driver`s and the stuff he raised his hand right after the crash. Hans Laub therefore brought home safely another MASTERS class victory and he further increased his gap in the championship ranking. P2 went to Walter Steding followed by Peter Göllner who had to change the car (and the class) for the 2nd race.
The BOSS GP series develops itself more and more into a very competitive and furthermore spectacular and exciting international racing series. Over two days 112.000 fans were truly overwhelmed by the sound, the speed and the infights of this second to none variety of the fastest ever built formula cars.
Next hotspot of the series will be the legendary race track in BRNO/CZ on September 5th and 6th. Without any doubt many eyes will have the focus there on Czech female driver Veronika Cicha who was also born in the near of Brno. It will be the first time ever she will compete with her Dallara GP2 in front of her home crowd.
Keep on racing and see you in South Moravia on the first weekend of September!
BOSS GP – FEEL THE POWER!