By Johan Laubscher
Team Novadriver fielded a two-car team in the 2013 Spanish IBER GT
Championship. The team raced well during the year, but they narrowly missed out
on defending the Spanish GT crown.
The season review has been compiled from the 2013 Audi Motorsport Blog Weekend Round Up posts. Each round has been added as was seen in the individual Weekend Round Up posts during 2013, which can be accessed via the links throughout the review below:
Round 1: Portimão
Team Novadriver competed in the Spanish IBER GT Championship this
weekend. Round one of the Spanish GT was run together with round two of the International
GT Open at Portimao. The team was fast in the sessions and qualified on the GTS
(GT3 class) pole for race one. Novadriver took victory in the GTS class for
both the Spanish GT and GT Open in race one, also achieving third place
overall. The team unfortunately suffered a difficult race two with a DNF and a
twenty-third place finish.
Round 2: Jerez
The second round for the Spanish IBER GT Championship at Jerez once
again coincided with a round of the International GT Open, this being round
four. Team Novadriver entered the event with their two-car Audi R8 LMS ultra
team. They competed well during the red-flag affected first race. In the end
they finished fifth overall with the #81, second in the GTS and Spanish GT
category, whilst their teammates finished in eleventh overall. Race two saw the
#80 Audi finishing third overall and second amongst the GTS competitors, but
they did take the win within the Spanish GT category. Their teammates in the
#81 had a hard race and finished in thirteenth.
Round 3: Catalunya
The Spanish IBER GT Championship season concluded at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona this weekend. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were entered for the IBER GT finale. The IBER GT finale was held alongside the finale of the International GT Open, with both series running together on track.
The Spanish IBER GT Championship season concluded at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona this weekend. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were entered for the IBER GT finale. The IBER GT finale was held alongside the finale of the International GT Open, with both series running together on track.
Both championships are split into two categories: the SGT class for GTE
specification vehicles and GTS for GT3 specification vehicles. Three Audi R8
LMS ultra cars were on the grid, of which two were IBER GT entrants.
Team Novadriver had entered both of their Audi R8 LMS ultra cars this
weekend. The first car from Team Novadriver was the #81 Audi R8 LMS ultra with
drivers Cesar Campanico and GT Open GTS class (GT3) title hopeful, Rafael Hideo
Suzuki. This #81 car was entered for both the Spanish IBER GT and GT Open. Team
Novadriver was aiming for the Spanish IBER GT title and Suzuki was aiming to
become the GT Open GTS champion. Team Novadriver’s second car was the #81 Audi
R8 LMS ultra driven by Manuel Gião and Lourenço Da Veiga, who were only entered
in the IBER GT. A third Audi was also on the grid, but it was only entered in
the GT Open class, the car entered by Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, the #88 Audi
R8 LMS ultra of Filipe Albuquerque and Yves Weerts.
Qualifying for race one saw the #81 of Campanico and Suzuki taking
seventh on the overall combined grid and second within the combined GTS (GT3)
class. Thus they took fourth overall within the IBER GT and pole position in
the IBER GT GTS (GT3) class. Their teammates qualified eighteenth on the
overall combined grid, taking fifth within the IBER GT GTS (GT3) class.
The first race was held late on Saturday and concluded with the #81
Audi R8 LMS ultra placing fourth within the overall combined results. This was
enough to take third overall within IBER GT and second place within the IBER GT
GTS class. Their teammates in the #80 Audi finished fifteenth overall in the
combined results.
Qualifying for race two saw the #81 Audi in ninth place overall in the
combined results. This was a third place starting position within the IBER GT
GTS class. Their teammates qualified twenty-third overall.
The second and final race got underway on Sunday. This final race of
2013 saw the #81 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Campanico and Suzuki finishing
seventeenth overall, after a huge time handicap penalty during the pitstop.
They took fourth within the IBER GT GTS class. Their teammates in the #80 Audi
were involved in the start-line crash and they suffered damage while trying to
avoid the incident. They ultimately finished further back in twenty-seventh
position overall.
The final results unfortunately revealed that Cesar Campanico was not
crowned as the 2013 Spanish IBER GT champion. He finished third overall in the
standings and second in the GTS points. He missed both the overall and GTS
titles by a mere three points. This weekend concluded the 2013 Spanish IBER GT
season.
Photo credit: Team Novadriver
