Dave Carr-Smith took his first win of the season in Monza, and in the process giving Green Stripes Racing their first ever GPVWC Superleague win, ending Lukas Euler's winning streak at 5. Euler finished 2nd, ahead of Nick Rowland in 3rd.
Beautiful, Italian sunshine greeted the drivers and spectators for Round 11 of the GPVWC Superleague 2012 season. Another popular track on the calendar for many, Monza provides the teams with a fairly unique type of track where good straightline speed is paramount. Even with the uniqueness of the track, Midnight Motorsport remained favourites for the race. Jarl Teien returned to the track for the first time since the Korean Grand Prix, seeing Nordsjoen Racing finally fielding two cars. Ruud Heesterbeek was unavailable to race for Nijo Racing, so team boss and reserve driver Chris WIlliamson stepped into the car for Monza. Finally, Lewis Redshaw was also unavailable to race for Hawkeye Racing, so reserve driver Vinodh Moodley would once again see some action for the team.
Euler's perfect run of pole positions continued, taking it by an incredible 6 tenths of a second. Ojay Clark took a very impressive 2nd on the grid, finally unleashing some of the potential of the Red Archer car. The reigning Constructors champions have had a difficult season so far by their high standards, and hoped to rectify that here in Italy. Nick Rowland took 3rd, with Dave Carr-Smith 4th, Jamez Shepherd 5th, and Lee Morris 6th. The Nordsjoen Racing pair of Loknovski and Teien took 7th and 8th respectively, ahead of Tom Parker in 9th, and David Jundt rounding out the top 10.
It was Dave Carr-Smith who emerged victorious in probably the most chaotic race of the season so far, giving Green Stripes Racing their first ever win in their young Superleague career. Carr-Smith held off the charging Euler for most of the race, making the win that all the more impressive, and ending Euler's winning streak at 5. Nick Rowland took home 3rd place, his third finish in that position in as many races, doing a consistently excellent job. Jamez Shepherd finished in 4th for Hawkeye Racing, despite a first lap incident with Nordsjoen's Pavel Loknovski, and having to battle back through virtually the whole field, an excellent drive once again from the Australian driver. David Jundt survived most of the carnage throughout the field to take his own, and Red Archer's equal best finish of the season in 5th place. Unfortunately for the team, Ojay Clark had a coming together with Jarl Teien, ending both driver's race, and incident that will no doubt be looked at by the Disciplinary Committee. Simon Cattell's 6th place finish is impressive given the fact the Kernow Sport car remains relatively underdeveloped compared to many of their rivals. He finished ahead of Green Stripes driver and team boss Christoph Lichtenstein, scoring his first points of the season by finishing 7th, making it an even sweeter day for his team. Kieran Ryan came home in 8th place, scoring his first points of the season after what has been somewhat of a disastrous 2012 for himself so far. He, and Woods Racing will hope this race is the turning point, and he can become a regular points scorer from now on. This also marked the first time Kieran beat his teammate Tom Parker on track this season, who came home in 9th, despite twice losing his front wing. The potential for a better finish was there, but considering what happened, Woods Racing will be happy with both drivers taking home points. Ben Warren took home the final point in 10th for Nijo Racing, and was absolutely delighted at the end of the race with scoring his first ever Superleague point, holding off an impressive drive from Daniel Lovett in the poorly performing Synergetic Motorsport car. It was another tough race for Draig Racing, and namely Lee Morris, who suffered problems on the formation lap, forcing him to start from the pits. After working his way through most of the field, he came across teammate Keith Storrie trying to recover back onto the track from an earlier spin, and an unavoidable collision took both drivers out of the race. It was also a disastrous race for Nordsjoen Racing, with both drivers retiring, meaning the team has scored just 1 point as a whole in the last 4 races. Definitely a team that are currently a shadow of their former selves.
With Euler finishing in 2nd, he increases his championship points lead to 8 points over his teammate Rowland, with both drivers realistically the only ones with a realistic shot at winning the Superleague title. Lee Morris remains in 3rd place despite his second consecutive retirement, but is now 59 points behind Euler. Carr-Smith's win sees him just 11 points behind Morris, and a good battle for 3rd in the championship is set to commence. Ruud Heesterbeek remains in 5th and is expected to return to the track at the next race in Spa, but now has just a 2 point lead over the charging Jamez Shepherd who moves into 6th place. Cattell moves into sole possession of 7th place, moving the retired Joe Consiglio down to 8th, and the other retired driver Janne Tanskanen down to 9th. Pavel Loknovski remains in 10th place. In the Constructors championship, Midnight Motorsports double podium finish sees their lead increase over Draig Racing to an incredible 172 points, which means Midnight may be able to wrap up the Constructors championship win as early as the next round in Spa. Draig haven't scored points since Turkey, and their 2nd place is now more under threat from the charging Green Stripes Racing, who leap up from 5th to 3rd, pushing the struggling Nordsjoen down to 4th, and Red Archer VT down to 5th. Nijo Racing remain in 6th, and Cattell's consistent points finishing sees Kernow Sport in 7th, though are expected to lose out in the coming races thanks to Jamez Shepherd and the charging Hawkeye Racing who are now 8th. Woods Racing's first double points finish of the season sees them move ahead of the defunct Red 5 Racing team, pushing them down to 10th. Constant Racing are 11th, showing consistent promise, but not always getting what they deserve. Synergetic came close to scoring their first point since all the way back in Abu Dhabi and remain in 12th, while ST Racing's miserable season continues, not scoring points since Tom Eley got them 8th place at the first round in Melbourne.
