Holzer and Tandy secure double GT Open triumph in Portugal

Marco Holzer and Nick Tandy took a superb double win for the Manthey Racing squad aboard their new Porsche 911 RSR to kick-off the International GT Open campaign in style at Portimao.

Saturday’s opening race was made a hectic affair by the intervention of the elements, wet weather rubber the order of the day for the start but slicks required by mid-distance.

Beginning behind the safety car, the contest was initially headed by poleman Toni Vilander (AF Corse-Ferrari), but the Manthey machine made good progress in the early stages and then shuffled to the front during the stops. When Tandy took over from Henzler for the second half of the race his lead was an incredible 42 seconds.

This was deceptive, with the Manthey car penalised for changing both its driver and tyres during the same stop. Tandy took his drive-through and retained the lead, though it was cut significantly to seven seconds.

Not that this gave anyone else a sniff at the win as Tandy controlled the race from P1. At the flag Philipp Peter and Michal Broniszewski (Kessel Ferrari) were second with the AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3 of Stefano Bizzarri and Niki Cadei completing the rostrum.

After Porsche's race one victory better was to come for the Stuttgart concern in the second run as their cars locked out the podium, Manthey taking another comfortable win.

Unpredictable weather conditions again played a key role with slick rubber on a damp-but-drying surface the correct call at the start.

This strategy paid off for victors Manthey, just as it did for the sister Porsche outfit of French squad IMSA. Patrick Pilet drove a strong opening stint before handing the car to Raymond Narac, who emerged from the pits in second and held the spot to the flag, crossing the line 13s in arrears of the Manthey machine. Archie Hamilton and Marco Mapelli (Autorlando Sport Porsche GT3) completed the overall rostrum while also taking victory in the GTS class.

The series next event takes place at German venue the Nurburgring on May 27.


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James Weeks