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September 20, 2016
Published on tags: International Touring Cup

 

GPVWC broke new ground on Monday with the first ever race meet at the Poznan circuit in Poland, which hosted the third round of the 2016 GPVWC International Touring Car series. Lee Davidson wraps up a frantic night's action!
Following on from the exploits of the previous round at Estoril, Portugal. the GPVWC International Touring Cup rolled on into new territory, Poland and specifically the Poznan Racing Circuit for Round 3, and it certainly didn?t disappoint!

The Vod:Bul pair of Adam Taylor and Niki Djakovic left Portugal as the ones to beat but with the likes of Adrian Holm and Bart de Vos lighting up the track for Enterprise and Sven de Vries proving as competitive as always, they were once again going to have to drive out of their skin to hold onto their points advantage. However the competition were already given half a chance at making up ground on the pink BMW?s with the news that Adam Taylor would not make the round, being replaced by David Francic after starring last time out for Holland Racing Team.

Qualifying again saw the usual suspects rise to the front of the grid with Djakovic, de Vos and Holm all making it into the top four, however they were pipped by the Honda Civic of Chris Shepherd, scoring his second pole position of the year for Epic Racing and building on his reputation as a qualifying king. The Englishman set a time that was over three tenths faster than second placed Holm, third placed de Vos and Djakovic in fourth, the three all separated by an incredible 0.013s! Tobias Olsson rounded out the top five, half a second off pole.

The first ever GPVWC race to take place on Poznan Race Circuit was an exciting affair for everyone apart from perhaps the eventual winner, Chris Shepherd. The pole sitter lead from lights to flag in a largely uneventful drive. Behind him however was fantastic with Djakovic making the most of a fantastic start which saw him jump the two Enterprise cars ahead of him into second place, a position he held for the remainder of the race, under consistent pressure from third placed Holm. Bart de Vos ran in fourth for the majority of the race however, after what looked like an excellent pass by Ice Cold?s Olsson, the race turned into tears as the two made contact, putting both into the barriers and allowing Matt Richards to sneak into fourth for Hinss. Olsson eventually recovered to fifth but will no doubt be under investigation alongside de Vos, who finished sixth, for their coming together.

The second race of the night saw more frantic action behind the race winner. Djakovic made the most of the BMW?s rear wheel drive to beat pole sitter Shepherd to the first turn and never looked back after that, leading every lap in a dominant victory. Behind him, Shepherd and Holm took part in a race long fight for the remaining two steps on the podium, with the Swede coming out on top after putting a pass on the Epic Racing driver with only a couple of laps to go. Behind the top three, Bart de Vos was the meat in a Ice Cold Racing sandwich, with Olsson taking fourth and Stranne recovering to sixth after a quiet race one. Matt Richards couldn't replicate his previous performance and eventually finished eleventh following contact with Tuomas Koriala.

The random reverse grid draw meant the top fourteen from race 2 were reversed for race 3?s grid, giving pole position to Zedderick Racing?s Philip Morby. Adam Hodgkinson and David Jundt rounded out the top 3 on the grid. The first lap descended into chaos and indeed the stars from races one and two were all involved, with de Vos the first casualty being turned around into the barriers, which in turn caused Holm, Shepherd and championship leader Djakovic to all come together and end up in the grass. Only Holm was able to recover to the top ten, albeit in tenth. Hodgkinson made the better start off the front row and led the race for as long as he could manage, however a mistake on the penultimate lap gifted Matt Richards his first win of the season, with the luckless Hodgkinson having to settle for second. Behind them an incredible battle was waged for third involving David Jundt, David Francic, Eric Stranne, Niranjan Kumar and Sven de Vries. It really could've gone to any of them and Jundt was at the head of the queue, however it was Stranne who would eventually succeed, registering probably his most hard fought podium finish of his sim racing career!

After the dust settled on what was a fantastic debut event at the circuit, the championship standings see Djakovic hold a slender two point lead over Holm, with the fight for the title quickly becoming a two horse race. Third placed David Francic is already 52 points off the pace whilst, despite missing this round, Adam Taylor remains tied for fourth with Bart de Vos. In the team?s standings, Vod:Bul lead the way with a 28 point lead over second placed Enterprise. Ice Cold, Edonis and Epic round off the top five, but some way off the front two.

The next round sees the series remain in Europe, with the French Bugatti circuit playing host to Round 4 of the 2016 International Touring Car Series. The action will take place on the 3rd of October, exclusively live on GPVWC?s YouTube page.

If Round 3 is anything to go by, be sure to not miss out!