April 15, 2015

 

Team rises like a phoenix from the ashes in the land of the rising sun as the newly signed Peruvian drivers Luis Felipe "Capa" Capamadjian and Nico Barclay storm to a 1-3 finish.
As the curtain rose for the first World GT event after a year of absence in Fuji, now on rFactor 2, there were justified hopes of a good result in the Basilea garage. The team, that had fallen from Supercup to Formula Challenge due to a lack of results, saw a chance for success when applying for a slot in World GT.

David Jundt, team owner and "endurance expert" himself, claimed that they went looking for competition away from single seaters.

"That doesn't mean we'll no longer be running single seaters though, we're still competing in FC. But being a GT- and Endurance-Fan myself, I thought we should grab the chance and enter WGT. Not to mention this isn't even our only GT outfit, we're running a Corvette C7.R in a WEC-like championship somewhere else, so we're clearly looking for more outings in GT racing."

Coincidence or brand loyality, that the team bought two Corvette C6 after they had been accepted?

"The input came from our to-be drivers, who asked for the C6. We followed their advice as they had already spent some time with the new platform and the mod itself and knew best what they wanted. We got into contact thanks to Jari Bruppacher and Menno Klont, and soon agreed on a deal. A deal that included the mysterious colour "Racing Pink". If you see our cars, you'll understand."

The team thus arrived in Fuji with two C6 and two new drivers. While they were holding themselves back in practice(P9 for "Capa" and P17 for Barclay), things got serious in qualifying, where Capamadjian stormed to pole by nearly half a second. Barclay also his claims for a Top 5 spot as he qualified in 4th position.

In the meantime, their team boss was watching them from the Racing Aces PB Racing garage as he had agreed on a last minute deal to complete their line-up, but issues kept him back from joining the competition until warm-up.

"Impressive pace by Luis there, and Nico just 12 thousands behind P3. But I guess there's more to come."

This proved to be right as "Capa" finished 1st by over 20 seconds, with Barclay in P3, just 0.13s behind P2. It is noteworthy that this happened without a single pitstop by either one of them! Also, Barclay could have finished the race in second place if it wasn't for an incident on the first lap, which dropped him back to P13. But a faultless drive saw him get one better than his gridslot, finishing on the last step of the podium.

David Jundt, who finished in P16 after losing his front bumper, had this to say about the result: "I knew they were working well as a pair, but even I didn't think that they could pull a non-stopper, astonishing! Luis did a great job by conserving his tyres, saving his fuel & posting consistent lap times. Nico was very impressive aswell, doing the same but overtaking other cars in the meantime. I couldn't be happier with this result, it shows that our decision to enter WGT was correct."

While the result is pending, Luis Felipe "Capa" Capamadjian leads the driver standings while Scuderia Basilea leads the team standings:

1. Luis Felip Capamadjian - 25 pts
2. Matt Richards - 20 pts
3. Nico Barclay - 16 pts
4. Thomas Jacobs - 13 pts
5. Lewis McGlade - 11 pts
6. Pedro Gomes - 10 pts

1. Scuderia Basilea - 41 pts
2. Smile Power Racing - 20 pts
3. Downforce iZone Racing - 18 pts
4. ST Racing - 14 pts
5. Aurora Motorsports - 11 pts
6. Torrent Motorsports - 11 pts

The next race will be on the 30th April at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Interlagos, Brazil. Basilea will be looking for another good result as it's the closest to home for their two drivers from Peru.