The second race of the 2017 World GT Series season was held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos on April 13th, 2017. The mod used for this season was updated after the first race. Not only were there changes to the physics and various bug fixes, Simtek Mods also added a new car with the Porsche 991 GT3-R. Because of this, the league made it possible to switch cars for the rest of the season. Nico Barclay did some test runs and we decided to switch to the Porsche for the remainder of the season. For this race, we had no livery ready which is why we ran an all white car. However, a livery has been submitted for the next round.

Unfortunately, turnout for the race in Brazil was very low with only 13 drivers starting the race. Nico had a Back of the Grid penalty from the first race and thus started from last position. His teammate Thomas Hinss qualified in sixth position. Both drivers had a good start to the race: Nico was in P9 after the Senna-S and gained two more places by lap 3. Thomas also gained a position in the first lap. After David Jundt and Chris Shepherd crashed due to lag, the STAX Racing drivers were in third and fourth position, closing the gap on Philip Morby ahead of them.

However, the race went downhill from there. Nico had major tyrewear issues and had to pit early on lap 15. He rejoined the race in sixth position. Two laps later, Thomas suffered a disconnect while running in third position. He would eventually rejoin the server but was now in tenth position. After Philip Morby and David Jundt made their pitstops, Nico was in third position, however he still suffered from a high tyre wear rate and found it difficult to keep the Porsche on track. He later told the team that it was like driving on ice for most of the race. Morby was able to overtake him on lap 37 and Nico lost another position to Osvaldo Angelone after spinning on lap 37. In the end, he finished the race in fifth position. Thomas was able to gain another spot after David Jundt retired and was three laps down when he finished in ninth place.

All in all it was a disappointing race. In Thomas’ case it was a technical issue that prevented a higher finish while Nico struggled with tyre wear for most of the race. Still, both drivers were committed to see the end of the race and were awarded valuable points in the championship for that. Nico Barclay currently is third in the Drivers Standings while Thomas Hinss is twelfth. In the Constructors’ Championship Table, STAX Racing is in fourth position at the moment. The next round of the series will be held in Imola on the 27th April, 2017.

Below, you can find the results of both the qualifying and the race of the Brazilian round.

QualifyingRace

Pos	Driver	Nat	Team	Time/Gap	S1	S2	S3	Laps
1	Risto Kappet		EVAL	01:30.885	22.155	47.369	21.361	3
2	Argo Teder		EVAL	+ 0.352	22.177	47.619	21.440	9
3	Chris Shepherd		Epic Racing	+ 1.497	22.505	48.240	21.636	9
4	Mark Fuller		ST Racing	+ 1.852	22.740	48.349	21.648	9
5	Philip Morby		Draig	+ 1.988	22.882	48.217	21.774	9
6	David Jundt		Cosmo	+ 2.258	22.827	48.185	22.131	7
7	Thomas Hinss		STAX	+ 2.479	22.835	48.474	22.055	6
8	Daniel Cziranku		Nitor Velox	+ 2.712	22.876	48.690	22.032	6
9	Rauno Muru		TTF	+ 3.092	23.115	48.832	22.029	9
10	Mark Henebury			+ 4.562	23.489	49.456	22.502	8

Pos	Driver	Nat	Team	Laps	Time/Gap	Pits	Grid	Diff	Points
1	Risto Kappet		EVAL	39	01:00:57.834	1	1	+0	25
2	Chris Shepherd		Epic Racing	39	+ 58.371	0	2	+0	20
3	Philip Morby		Draig	39	+ 91.827	1	4	+1	16
4	Osvaldo Angelone		Cosmo	38	+1 laps	2	12	+8	13
5	Nico Barclay		STAX	38	+1 laps	1	13	+8	11
6	Daniel Cziranku		Nitor Velox	38	+1 laps	1	7	+1	10
7	Bret Metcalf		TTF	38	+1 laps	1	10	+3	9
8	Mark Henebury			37	+2 laps	1	9	+1	8
9	Thomas Hinss		STAX	36	+3 laps	1	6	-3	7
10	David Jundt		Cosmo	33	DNF	1	5	-5	0
11	Argo Teder		EVAL	11	DNF	2	11	+0	0
12	Rauno Muru		TTF	2	DNF	0	8	-4	0
13	Mark Fuller		ST Racing	0	DNF	0	3	-10	0

Italics indicate Fastest Laps