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Formula Sprint 2
Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka International Racing Course
Tuesday 2nd of April 2024 19:00:00
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April 10, 2015

 

Team enjoys its best race event yet with a pair of second and fourth place finishes.

The opening round of the 2015 GPVWC Supercup, at Albert Park in Australia, was a rather under-the-radar start to the campaign from Walk Racing, with everyone stunned, not least the drivers at how they were caught out by unpredictable weather. Since then, a massive effort from Ruud Heesterbeek and Risto Kappet, have turned the fortunes around, with Ruud scoring a double win last time out at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Round 4 moves from Spain to Portugal, and the Algarve/Portimao circuit hosting the racing. The standings for the Walk Racing drivers before the race looked as follows-

2nd Ruud Heesterbeek 95pts
12th Risto Kappet 32pts


With the team lying third in the team standings. This result however, was about to be turned on its head! Kappet said going into this race, "Practice for this event was a bit different than usual, thanks to WSS round being the week earlier, at the same track, I knew the jumps and cambers quite well and could enjoy the challenge of running such powerful cars on such a track. Did not do many laps at all but felt comfortable and also had some constructive rain practice with Ruud".

Qualifying Result
1st Risto Kappet
18th Ruud Heesterbeek


Pole sitter Risto Kappet said after qualifying, "Qualifying was great, I got within 0.2sec of my PB on the 2nd lap and that was enough for pole in the very very tight field. Quite happy to achive this, even if I may have been helped by rain in the last minutes of qualifying".

Heesterbeek said, "I had a very disappointing qualifying where I didn?t manage to set a quick time in the early stages, and five minutes before the end the rain came which meant I wasn?t able to improve my time. I was six tenths off pole but only qualified P18."

Race 1 Result
2nd Ruud Heesterbeek
4th Risto Kappet


Podium finisher Ruud said, "At the start of the race it was raining and we all started on the wet tyres. I learned from the first round in Melbourne and I wanted to keep the car on the black stuff at all costs, not taking any risks. I did exactly that in the beginning and slowly started making my way up the field. I was running in the top 10 when there was an incident ahead where a car had spun on the track."

"I chose the wrong way to go around it and had to run through the gravel, undoing some of my earlier work. I decided to only pit when the dry tyre would be clearly faster, and I made a total of three pitstops in the race. My timing of pit stops was quite good and soon enough I was running in the top 6 behind Risto."

"We were behind Van der Voort who spun off, and then Risto let me passed so I was running fourth. I had passed Muscat as well, but he made his final pitstop for slicks one lap earlier than I did and he ended up half a second in front of me. We both caught up to Jundt in front of us and we both got passed him, while the three of us passed Siggy in the lead, because he was still on the wet tyres. That meant I finished in 2nd place in the end, and very close to the race winner."


"It was very difficult to know what was going on, and what strategies other people were on, but I just took every battle as it came and I?m delighted to get 2nd place in such a tough race, especially having started from 18th on the grid."

Risto Kappet, who started on pole and finished fourth said, "Race 1 was wet from the start, I got a great launch from P1 and pulled clear of the fighting battle behind. Although I forgot to adjust the setup balance for wet tyres and was understeering alot, I was still the fastest guy on track until the track started drying. For a small window, the track was much faster with slicks, so I pitted, but it was a lap too late."

"Despite retaining the lead, I was held up by van der Voort who was on wets. Because it's hard to overtake with only one dry line on the slicks, I was caught and overtaken by Muscat. Soon the track was wet again so I had to go back to wets. I had some good pace (although I let Ruud past, since he had brilliant wet weather pace) and was racing with people."


"However, near the end, the track started drying again! I overtook eventual winner Muscat in the pitstops, for slicks, but made a mistake going out of the pits and then had a half-spin which cost me the opporunity to fight for the lead. I was again one of the fastest on the drying track in the end but 'only' finished in 4th place. A superb result had I seen the weather coming, but an under-peformance given my pace."

Race 2 Result
2nd Risto Kappet
4th Ruud Heesterbeek

2nd placed Risto summed up his race, "Race 2 was in the dry. I again had a great launch and the only people ahead of me with the correct prime 0 pitstop strategy, was de Vries and van der Voort. I was able to get rid of Sven after some time since I was much faster than him, then reeled in van der Voort. I enjoyed the drive alot, at the beginning I was having trouble adjusting to the grippy track but eventually was going pretty good."

"Overtook him with few laps to go, then had an incredible scrap trying to hold on to 1st, but I lost it in the final sector of the final lap. I did not cover the finish line, as I thought I could hold the position with exit speed like previous laps but was outdriven and outplayed. 2nd place again, was a great result overall, but of course gutted to not get the results that were mine that day."


Mirroring his teammates result in Race 1, Ruud Heesterbeek said "In race 2 it was dry at the start so I decided to start on the primes, which meant I wouldn't have to make a pit stop if it stayed dry. I started from P9 and I had to let the guys behind me on options go, because they were a lot faster."

"Luckily it stayed dry, so all option runners had to pit for fresh tyres and I inherited fourth place. I passed De Vries for third, but Gaczella who started from pole had caught up to us on options and he passed me for the final podium position. Fourth place in the end, good points again and with Risto in P2 we scored good points for the team as well."



After Round 4, the standings look as follows-

Drivers Championship
1st Ruud Heesterbeek 128pts
5th Risto Kappet 65pts


And Walk Racing take the lead in the teams championship by 23 points ahead of Satellite Racing!

We caught up with our drivers after the race,

Risto Kappet "Overall it was a great night, I had many weird mistakes which were not visible to others and Im still having to engage my brain, for these fast cars. But it was a great result, especially since the team again scored big points and once again, I only keep improving!"

Ruud Heesterbeek "With this great round we are now leading both championships and I am hoping to continue scoring good points consistently in the next rounds. Istanbul is next, which is a track I really like, so I would love to have a win there".

Team Boss Mr. C "I am ecstatic with the result from the nights racing, our drivers did so well, and I am really pleased to be back where we deserve, at the top".

Team Principle Jon Grainger "For us, as the premier championship we are currently racing in, to be now fighting for wins and podiums is great publicity and shows how well our drivers are doing. I am confident that given a few more races, Risto will be right up there battling with Ruud for the championship".

The next round is in two weeks time from Istanbul, Turkey,