Vince Peeters held off a late charge from Francesco La Manna at the end of 700 kilometers at Interlagos to take a first win and double podium for Asetek Simsports Visceral. For the second race in a row, Team Heusinkveld played the Safety Cars in the closing stages perfectly to take a win in TCR, while a late spin from Hugh Jass saw them drop from the lead to 10th late on.
An early lap from Christoph Maliszewski secured the TCR pole for Maniti Racing, while Impulse Racing took pole in Sport, despite being the sole Mercedes in the top 5. There would be a shock however, as championship leaders Impulse Racing held a provisional pole that looked safe going into the final minutes. But it would be Clement Beuzelin with the shock of the season so far, as he produced the fastest lap with only seconds remaining.
Unfortunately, this would spark the beginning of a very difficult day for Impulse Racing. Their GT4 Mercedes held a good lead throughout the first 90 minutes, but Timo Heyden would make a mistake as he was distracted by a slower Porsche Cup car in front, causing him to brake on the grass at Turn 9’s exit, and the car to head straight into the wall. They would DNF, as would the Cup entry which did so anonymously 40 laps later.
At the very start of the race, chaos reigned as Sim City Racing went far before the green flag waved, giving them the lead before Turn 1 despite starting back in 8th. Sport saw four cars in the wall out of Turn 2 in a pair of separate incidents, while TCR’s Ingersoll Rand and Fiercely Forward were sent hard into the wall on the Reta Oposta straight. Three of those cars failed to go further than lap 1.
Apart from the occasional crazy moment in traffic, the first half of the race stayed relatively calm and, in Cup, developed into a vicious battle for points at the halfway stage. Teams like Asetek Simsports Visceral and Maniti Racing split the first 82 laps into three stints, despite the cars being able to manage about 34 laps on a tank of fuel.
Impulse Racing tried to push this out to 35 laps at the end of the second stint, which meant sticking to the usual strategy of a 4 stop race, but they ran out of fuel on the in lap and lost themselves buckets of time, eventually retiring later on. Asetek Simsports Visceral’s strategy would work, taking the full 50 points, but it would be Treq Esports 2nd, showing the benefits of sticking to a more conventional strategy and not worrying so much about everyone else.
In Sport, Fiercely Forward were leading with only a few laps to go before halfway. However, an incredible double overtake from Sven Deml took full points for Hugh Jass, with Alpinestars Geodesic Racing following them through for 2nd, as Fiercely Forward dropped to 3rd on the last lap.
This fast pace would maintain until a second half of the race that would be littered with cautions, starting with 54 laps to go as Big One Club came to a stop before the final turn. It would be one of three cautions on the day.
In Cup, this Safety Car almost reset everything, with most cars pitting in knowing that they would only have one more stop to make in the race, while four cars all stayed out as they knew that they would get track position by doing so, and they also only had one stop remaining. This meant that Maniti Racing, who were now leading, had to build a big lead to compensate for a slightly longer stop later in the day.
Unfortunately for them, another Safety Car would follow only 5 laps later as Torque Freak Racing, after only recently getting back into Sport contention themselves, sustained terminal damage to their Mercedes GT4. Somewhat surprisingly, Pedro Burger made a pitstop for Maniti Racing, giving them the shortest final stop of any team.
This did put them in traffic, but Burger made his way through it all to lead 25 laps later. Unfortunately for Maniti Racing, the Safety Car would come out at just the wrong moment, as it did for Hugh Jass in Sport who were nursing an 8 second lead on old tyres.
Maniti Racing were forced to stop, putting them at the back with only 10 laps to go, while Hugh Jass saw their lead slashed. The only leaders who were indifferent to the final Safety Car were TCR leaders Team Heusinkveld as they had similar pressure on their lead both before and after the final yellow flag.
All of the madness gave Asetek Simsports Visceral 1st and 2nd overall on the restart, which they held for a while. Hugh Jass barely held onto their lead for a lap, as a mixture of TCR traffic and those old tyres contributed to a late spin at Turn 10 and heartbreak for the team.
The big early challenge came in TCR, as a double Impulse Racing attack possibly surprised Fabien Siegmann a touch, but he held tough in the lead of the category. He came under attack numerous times from Miguel Freitas, but would survive for the win.
Jon Boetefuer managed to carve out a 1 second lead throughout those last 10 laps as Deutsche Payment Esports and 5Star Motorsport both fought it out for 2nd, giving Alpinestars Geodesic Racing a second win of the season. Up front, Vince Peeters led but Francesco La Manna was able to fight past the #97 for 2nd with 2 laps to go, but on the final lap with the best overtaking chance of the lap in front of him, La Manna couldn’t quite get close enough.
Asetek Simsports Visceral would get their double podium with a win for the #96, vaulting them into 2nd and 3rd in the championship behind Maniti Racing, who finished 7th. Two wins in two for Alpinestars Geodesic Racing and Team Heusinkveld has given those two teams the lead in Sport and TCR respectively.
All three of those championship leads will hold into 2023, as the HyperX Clubsport Series takes a break before Round 3 at Imola.