2014 Spanish Sport Series

**2014 Spain Sport Series**
Race details
Round 2 of 10 in the 2014 World Sport Series season

Date	April 16th, 2014
Official name	2014 Spanish Sport Series
Location	Circuit de Catalunya Montmeló, Spain
Course	Road Course 2.892 mi / 4.655 km
Distance	14 x2 laps
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Jesper Taulborg	Smile Power Racing
Time	1:45.208
Fastest Lap One
Driver	Agustin Canapino	Enterprise GP
Time	1:44.689
Podium One
First	Ruud Heesterbeek	Edonis Engineering
Second	Jesper Taulborg	Smile Power Racing
Third	Jordan Weekes	Torrent Motorsports
Fastest Lap Two
Driver	Fran Lopez	Ice Cold Racing
Time	1:45.158
Podium Two
First	Fran Lopez	Ice Cold Racing
Second	Cameron Brewster	Cosmo Autosport
Third	Mike Bell	Measuric Racing

The 2014 Spanish Sport Series was a World Sport Series simulation race that was held on 16th April 2014 in Montmeló. The round was contested over two races of 14 laps each at the Circuit de Catalunya and was the second round of the 2014 World Sport Series season. It was the third running of the Spanish Sport Series on the World Sport Series calender.

The races were won by Ruud Heesterbeek of Edonis Engineering and Fran Lopez of Ice Cold Racing; continuing the streak of different winners in 2014 as well as continuing the trend of the newer teams dominating the season. The event was also notable for being the first time a World Sport Series qualifying session and first race was held with weight penalties involved.

Report

Background

After a disastrous first event in Bahrain, SGP Team pulled out of the championship without notice not allowing the introduction of a new team until the 2014 German Sport Series. Also absent from Spain were Riku Sarpila of Measuric Racing and Roy Schroten of Woods Racing whilst Ross McGregor was introduced as the second Ice Cold Racing driver.

Spain also saw a number of replacements at various teams; Matt Richards replaced the disappointing Alex Cooper at Midnight Motorsport, Tommi Ojala replaced Ben Warren at Woods, Douwe Tapper came in for Oskari Kantonen at Draig Racing VBM, Martin Palm took over from the underwhelming Petter Kaasa at Torrent Motorsports, Harley Hamnett filled in for Bart De Vos at Triple Twenty, Riaan van der Westhuizen replaced Dimitri Demeulemeester at Deltec Racing but perhaps most crucially, Lewis McGlade would be driving in place of Drivers' Championship leader Chris Butcher.

Qualifying

The fifteen minute session was to prove an interesting spectacle as for the first time in the World Sport Series, weight penalties would be applied to the top five in the championship. The absence of Chris Butcher denied viewers the chance to see what damage the full 45kg of weight penalty could do over a super pole lap but funnily enough, Jesper Taulborg of Smile Power Racing would defy his 9kg to take pole position himself. Jordan Weekes for Torrent Motorsports, despite his Race 1 penalty in Bahrain, continued to look impressive taking P5 on the grid despite holding 27kg of weight though the other drivers with weight did suffer; Tom Parker down in P16 with David Jundt P18. Agustin Canapino put in a much more impressive showing for Enterprise GP leading to his first front row start of the season whilst Ruud Heesterbeek maintained his high qualifying record by taking P3. Martin Palm, in for Petter Kaasa, put in a solid yet uninspiring effort to qualify P14 for second placed Torrent Motorsports whilst a Butcher-less Aurora Motorsports struggled with Lewis McGlade taking P19 and Gary Lennon starting outside the top twenty.

Races

Taulborg leads the field round 'Elf'.

The Spanish Sport Series suffered one casualty before the grid had even formed as Riann van der Westhuizen could not race with technical issues on his debut for Deltec Racing Team. The start of Race One in Montmeló proved to be much more clean than the madness of Bahrain with the most drama coming from Jordan Weekes pushing Sven de Vries onto the run-off area and the grass on the pit straight. Unfortunately, there was an early casualty in the form of fourth in the Drivers' Championship Tom Parker who's scrap in the midfield came to a destructive end heading into 'La Caixa'.

Further up the road, Agustin Canapino made an early stab for the lead but ended up losing out to Ruud Heesterbeek behind. The three would continue to wage war right throughout the race as a few more drivers came to grief behind them. Aurora Motorsport's Gary Lennon and Rob Mason of Cosmo Autosport racked up their first retirements of the year through midfield scrapping though three laps later, a bizarre incident occurred as Sven de Vries suffered an explosive second engine failure on the pit straight just a lap from home, the Scot Paul Joseph getting caught in the accident.

Further madness was to ensue however as a resurgent Canapino made a last effort dive on race leader Jesper Taulborg, who had led since lights out (with the exception of Canapino's extremely brief lead on Lap 2), and was hit and had a tyre punctured as a result. Taulborg fell to third as Canapino took the chequered flag ahead of Heesterbeek. Second in the championship David Jundt endured an awful race ending up only 20th whilst Jordan Weekes after an uncertain and wild start came home a decent 5th. Series debutant Douwe Tapper (driving for Draig Racing VBM) was selected post-race to be on pole position for Race 2.

Eventual winner Heesterbeek battles with Canapino.

Bell and Silva duel at the front in Race 2.

Another pre-race loss slightly marred Race 2 as Matthew Allington, driving for Enterprise GP and set to start from P3 on the reverse grid, could not take to the grid due to technical issues. However, where Enterprise lost out, Woods Racing gained as the late signing of Pavel Loknovski enabled the English outfit to put out two cars. Another change came at Midnight Motorsport as, after a disastrous Race 1, Parker was replaced by Alex Cooper. The start brought with it yet another lightning start from Cosmo's Cameron Brewster who jumped both Lusitania Racing Team's Victor Silva and the aforementioned Tapper. It was also another clean start with no retirements in the first lap though Harley Hamnett was lost on Lap 2 following contact from Taulborg.

The key move of the race came on Lap 4 when Fran Lopez, after slicing his way through Silva and Bell, made a move on race leader Brewster into 'Renault'. The Spaniard made it stick despite the pressure of Bell threatening to make a move from behind. Following the move, Lopez was able to stretch his legs though near the end of the race unfortunately a few more were broken. Tommi Ojala recorded his first retirement of the season whilst Van der Westhuizen recorded his second in two races, both out with suspension damage, whilst Lusitania's other driver Menno Klont pulled in on the penultimate lap with an unspecified car problem.

Ultimately, Lopez won at his home track (the first driver to do so since Oscar Hardwick at the 2013 British Sport Series) by 9.453 seconds ahead of the mightily impressive Brewster who took his first podium of the season. He was able to lose Bell who, in the closing laps was overtaken by Taulborg, and had a hard job in the final moments of the race trying to fend off Lopez' team mate Ross McGregor who had a very impressive and consistent first event at GPVWC. The man with 45kg, Agustin Canapino, came home a very impressive 6th matching Chris Butcher's feat from Bahrain whilst the 9kg burdened Jordan Weekes had a tougher race following an early off at 'Repsol'. The Englishman finished 13th.

Heartbreak for Brewster once again as Lopez takes the lead.

Post-Races

The post-race penalties in Spain proved to be a lot more damaging than in Bahrain. Agustin Canapino was stripped of his win in Race 1 following the contact with Jesper Taulborg therefore leading to Ruud Heesterbeek inheriting his first win of the season. Meanwhile, Tom Parker picked up a ten-place grid penalty for Monaco following the destruction he caused in the early stages of the race which ultimately led to his own retirement. For Race 2 however, Jesper himself came under the axe after contact leading to Harley Hamnett's retirement led to the Dane receiving a time penalty himself and stripping him of his podium which was inherited by Mike Bell. Wauters Automotive's Ryan Walker and Aurora Motorsports' Lewis McGlade both also received time penalties for contact in the race.

For the first time this season, penalties were also given out due to failures to present the newly implemented rf_Scan Logs at the end of an event. Kyle Williams, both Deltec Racing Team drivers and Pavel Loknovski all fell foul to the offense.

Late in the season, Harley Hamnett was excluded from this and all 2014 events he had taken part in at GPVWC due to evidence being found that the Australian had been using illegal aids.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Weight (kg)	Lap	Gap
1	21	Jesper Taulborg	Smile Power Racing	9	1:45.208	—
2	8	Agustin Canapino	Enterprise GP	0	1:45.334	+0.125
3	32	Ruud Heesterbeek	Edonis Engineering	0	1:45.498	+0.290
4	14	Ross McGregor	Ice Cold Racing	0	1:45.573	+0.365
5	17	Jordan Weekes	Torrent Motorsports	27	1:45.653	+0.445
6	33	Sven de Vries	Edonis Engineering	0	1:45.764	+0.556
7	27	Ryan Walker	Wauters Auotmotive	0	1:45.878	+0.670
8	18	Ilija Brekalo	Triple Twenty	0	1:46.114	+0.906
9	35	Mike Bell	Measuric Racing	0	1:46.132	+0.924
10	15	Fran Lopez	Ice Cold Racing	0	1:46.193	+0.985

Note: Only the top ten qualifiers are covered on this page. If you wish to view the full results click [[1]].

Race 1

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Weight (kg)	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	32	Ruud Heesterbeek	Edonis Engineering	0	14	24:41.852	3	25
2	21	Jesper Taulborg	Smile Power Racing	9	14	+1.390	1	20
3	17	Jordan Weekes	Torrent Motorsports	27	14	+9.345	5	16
4	14	Ross McGregor	Ice Cold Racing	0	14	+9.808	4	13
5	27	Ryan Walker	Wauters Automotive	0	14	+10.622	8	11
6	18	Ilija Brekalo	Triple Twenty	0	14	+16.194	9	10
7	0	Matt Richards	Midnight Motorsport	0	14	+17.292	17	9
8	16	Martin Palm	Torrent Motorsports	0	14	+17.381	14	8
9	8	Agustin Canapino¹	Enterprise GP	0	14	+19.415	2	7
10	35	Mike Bell	Measuric Racing	0	14	+20.309	10	6
11	15	Fran Lopez	Ice Cold Racing	0	14	+23.498	11	5
12	26	Benediktas Sinkevicius	Wauters Automotive	0	14	+24.172	12	4
13	5	Tommi Ojala	Woods Racing	0	14	+25.849	13	3
14	39	Cameron Brewster	Cosmo Autosport	0	14	+28.441	20	2
15	7	Matthew Allington	Enterprise GP	0	14	+28.646	21	1
16	41	Victor Silva	Lusitania Racing Team	0	14	+31.797	23	0
17	10	Douwe Tapper	Draig Racing VBM	0	14	+31.932	25	0
18	3	Paul Watkins	TWR	0	14	+35.839	24	0
19	20	David Jundt	Smile Power Racing	36	14	+36.122	18	0
20	24	Lewis McGlade	Aurora Motorsports	0	14	+37.443	19	0

^† Driver retired from the race, but completed more than 75% distance and so remained as a classified finisher.

¹ Agustin Canapino initially won the race however fell to 9th following a twenty second time penalty for contact with fellow race rival Jesper Taulborg.

Note: Only the top twenty drivers are covered on this page. If you wish to view the full results click [[2]].
Note: The driver in BOLD was the driver who received the reverse grid pole position for Race 2

Race 2

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Weight (kg)	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	15	Fran Lopez	Ice Cold Racing	0	14	24:48.857	7	25
2	39	Cameron Brewster	Cosmo Autosport	0	14	+9.453	4	20
3	35	Mike Bell	Measuric Racing	0	14	+11.545	8	16
4	14	Ross McGregor	Ice Cold Racing	9	14	+11.758	13	13
5	8	Agustin Canapino	Enterprise GP	45	14	+13.978	18	11
6	16	Martin Palm	Torrent Motorsports	0	14	+14.149	9	10
7	18	Ilija Brekalo	Triple Twenty	0	14	+14.483	11	9
8	41	Victor Silva	Lusitania Racing Team	0	14	+20.412	2	8
9	33	Sven de Vries	Edonis Engineering	0	14	+20.466	30	7
10	10	Douwe Tapper	Draig Racing VBM	0	14	+20.736	1	6
11	20	David Jundt	Smile Power Racing	0	14	+21.307	20	5
12	17	Jordan Weekes	Torrent Motorsports	18	14	+24.369	14	4
13	21	Jesper Taulborg¹	Smile Power Racing	27	14	+30.432	16	3
14	0	Matt Richards	Midnight Motorsport	0	14	+30.863	10	2
15	38	Rob Mason	Cosmo Autosport	0	14	+31.499	31	1

^† Driver retired from the race, but completed more than 75% distance and so remained as a classified finisher.

¹ Jesper Taulborg initially finished on the podium. However, following contact which took Harley Hamnett out of the race, he took a time penalty giving the final podium place to Mike Bell.