Porsche has won the manufacturers’ title in the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) for the second time in a row. At the final race of the season on the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa, Matt Campbell from Australia and the two Frenchmen Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet finished in third place with GPX Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R.
With this result, the driver trio earned crucial points towards reclaiming the championship title, but narrowly missed out on the drivers’ crown. Ultimately, they were just five points off first place.
In heavy rain, the 911 GT3 R fielded by Dinamic Motorsport scored seventh place at Kyalami. The 500+hp vehicle campaigned by Lechner Racing scored tenth and won the Pro-Am class.
The nine-hour race on the famous venue close to the metropolis of Johannesburg started in sunny and humid conditions. On a dry track, the two GT3 vehicles from Weissach contesting the Pro category stayed within striking distance of the leaders, however at the midway mark, a puncture threw the No. 12 car of GPX Racing down the field.
While Campbell, Jaminet and Pilet were able to work their way back up the order, their brand teammates Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium, Kévin Estre from France and New Zealander Earl Bamber were robbed of all chances of a victory. Repairs to a broken front splitter cost the crew two laps.
“We’re devastated, of course,” commented Estre. “We had a car that was capable of running at the front. We had everything we needed to clinch the drivers’ crown. When the front splitter came loose, it was all over. That’s a great pity! At the end of the race, the conditions became extremely challenging. Rain, lightning and darkness made it impossible to see anything, even driving very slowly under full course yellow. I couldn’t even drive the allowed 80 km/h. That was scary.”
With around 80 minutes left on the clock, heavy rain added to the tension. The field bunched together behind the safety car, and suddenly the No. 12 vehicle was back in the fight for victory. The weather, however, thwarted the team’s plans.
After setting a new track record with his fastest lap in the early afternoon, Matt Campbell’s chance to put in a final push for victory vanished: with vehicles at risk of serious aquaplaning, the race concluded behind the safety car. The two South Africans Saul Hack and Andre Bezuidenhout as well as Dylan Pereira from Luxembourg put in a flawless drive at the wheel of their Porsche 911 GT3 R, and were rewarded after nine hours of racing with tenth place overall and victory in the Pro-Am class.
Positions three and seven in the Pro category yielded Porsche another 21 points in the championship. With a total of 100 points, the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart successfully defended the manufacturers’ crown after 2019.
1/ Farfus/Catsburg/van der Linde (BR/NL/ZA), BMW M6 GT3, 277 laps
2/ Bortolotti/Weerts/Vervisch (I/B/B), Audi R8 LMS GT3, 277 laps
3/ Campbell/Pilet/Jaminet (AUS/F/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R #12, 277 laps
7/ Bamber/Vanthoor/Estre (NZ/B/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R #54, 276 laps
10/ Hack/Bezuidenhout/Pereira (ZA/ZA/L), Porsche 911 GT3 R #9, 271 laps
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