The Competition102 GT4 European Series travels to Zandvoort for the final round of the 2016 season. Jörg Viebahn and Peter Terting hold a 28.5-point lead over PROsport Performance teammates Nicolaj Møller Madsen and Andreas Patzelt heading into the final race weekend in The Netherlands. Villorba Corse’s Luca Anselmi only really has a mathematical chance of winning the championship, being 45.5 points behind Viebahn and Terting. Allied Racing driver Jan Kasperlik goes into the final round of the season with the GT4 AM lead, but Jérôme Demay also has a chance to win the title.
Having won three of the eight races so far this season with their Porsche Cayman PRO4 GT4, Terting and Viebahn are the title favourites and are highly motivated to finish the job at the Dutch race track. But with a maximum of 50 points still to play for this weekend, their teammates Møller Madsen and Patzelt can still win the drivers title in GT4 PRO. The Danish-German duo won one race so far this season and will have to aim for more wins at Zandvoort to stay in the hunt until the final race on Sunday.
Allied Racing’s Jan Kasperlik saw his lead at the top of the GT4 AM class reduced to 14.5 points, after Street Art Racing driver Jérôme Demay claimed three podium finishes in the last three races. Both Kasperlik and Demay won two races this season and it will likely come down to the final race of the season to decide the GT4 AM champion.
It has been over a year since the Competition102 GT4 European Series visited Circuit Park Zandvoort and last time out the KTM X-BOW GT4 claimed two pole positions and a double overall victory on its race debut. The nature of the track suits the KTM very well and with eight Reiter Young Stars Cup cars entered, an overall podium finish should be possible. Lennart Marioneck is the current Reiter Young Stars Cup points leader, while Caitlin Wood leads the female driver championship. Both RYS champions will be awarded a seat in the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup.
After scoring a podium finish in Hungary, Sergiu Nicolae joins Sofia Car Motorsport again at the Dutch track. He will be partnered by fellow Romanian Eduard Anton. Dutch team NMT Racing have entered a BMW M3 GT4 for Tristan and Yorick Boorsma. The two Dutch brothers made a successful series debut at Zandvoort in 2015, finishing second in GT4 AM in race two.
Two British Aston Martin Vantage GT4s join the series at Zandvoort this weekend. Generation AMR Super Racing have entered Matthew George and James Holder for the season finale, while Academy Motorsport has confirmed Dennis Strandberg and Will Moore as its drivers for the weekend.
Pieter-Christiaan van Oranje and Tim Coronel return to the series, having missed the Hungarian round two weeks ago. Van Oranje and Coronel will race one of the Allied Racing BMW M3 GT4s, while Liesette Braams and Gaby Uljee will share the wheel of the second car again. A total of 12 Dutch drivers are set to compete in front of their home fans, including triple European GT4 champion Ricardo van der Ende. His Racing Team Holland by Ekris Motorsport team is still looking for its first win of the season.
Peter Terting (#18 PROsport Performance Porsche): “I’m really looking forward to the big final at Zandvoort. It’s a very spectacular circuit, which doesn’t allow any mistake. I did have some cool races here in the past in DTM and GT Masters, so I know the track well. Compared to Budapest my car has been given a 50 kg weight increase, which will make it hard to win. The team and I will do our best to score as many points as possible and for sure I want to be on the podium in Zandvoort!”
Jan Kasperlik (#22 Allied Racing Porsche): “We are the AM championship leaders and everyone can be sure we will do everything possible to win the title. At Zandvoort surviving the first race without any damage is important, as between the two races there’s only just enough time to do a short service and check the setup of the car. There’s no time to repair major accident damage.”
Track action at Zandvoort starts on Friday, October 7 with a 60-minute free practice session at 14:30. After a second practice session on Saturday, October 8 at 10:30, the teams will qualify from 14:50 – 15:30 that same day. The two races will be held on Sunday, October 9. Race 1 will start at 10:00, while the second race is set to begin at 15:00. The races will be shown live on gt4series.com/live.
