Manuel Gião and Mathieu Martins, driving the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 for Racar Motorsport, claimed victory in the second race at Circuit Ricardo Tormo after a thrilling and action-packed contest.
In the second race of the weekend in Valencia, the duo in the British-made car started from seventh on the grid but steadily climbed the order during the 45-minute race, thanks to a fast and consistent pace.
As seen earlier in the day, the Toyota GR Supra GT4 of César Machado and Jan Durán started from pole position, but the Spaniard from Speedy Motorsport was unable to maintain the lead, dropping to third place.
Jan Durán managed to fight his way back to second, but overtaking the BMW M4 GT4 of BMW España Motorsport, driven by José de los Milagros, proved too challenging, and he could not complete the move.
Meanwhile, Mathieu Martins gained a position at the start and from the eighth lap began his charge, moving up the field with precise overtakes on Roberto Faria (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 – Racar Motorsport), Patrick Cunha (Audi R8 LMS GT4 – Veloso Motorsport), and Filip Vava (Mercedes AMG GT4 – NM Racing Team). This allowed him to hand the car over to Manuel Gião in second place.
When the 2022 Iberian Supercars GT4 Champion rejoined the race, he was already in the lead, benefitting from a time penalty for the Toyota duo from Speedy Motorsport, and he drove flawlessly to secure a comfortable win.
César Machado launched a late attack to finish second, fending off the closing Aston Martin duo and distancing himself further from José de los Milagros and Nerea Martí, who completed the podium in third place.
After being involved in the battle for the overall podium, Patrick Cunha and Jorge Rodrigues, who struggled with tyre issues on their Audi R8 LMS GT4, shifted focus to the GT4 Bronze class, comfortably winning their category. Their main rivals, Alberto de Martín and Nil Montserrat, suffered a puncture in their Mercedes AMG GT4, dropping them to 28th overall and fourth in class
Ricardo Costa and Harrison Walker, making their Iberian Supercars debut in a Toyota GR Supra GT4 for Speedy Motorsport, finished their first event with a podium, taking second place in GT4 Bronze. Lema Racing driver Luís Calheiros and Paulo Macedo, in a Mercedes AMG GT4, completed the podium in third.
In the morning, the Nabais brothers André and Miguel claimed victory in GT4 Am, but in the afternoon race, Keith Gatehouse and Igor Sorokin took the win in the class, beating the Speedy Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 duo and the Promotion Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 driven by Smörg and Javier Macias.
Pere Marques and Mikkel Kristensen repeated their triumph in the GTX class from the morning, capping off an almost perfect weekend on their debut in the series. In the second race, the Ligier JS2R-run by Chefo Sport drivers was joined on the class podium by Andrius Zeimatis (Porsche 981 Cayman GT4 operated by Speedy Motorsport), who gained the most positions during the race, and Tomás Pinto Abreu and Simon Moore (Ginetta G50 for Tockwith Motorsports), earning valuable points in the fight for the division title.
Rui Miritta completed a flawless weekend, once again asserting dominance in his Porsche 911 prepared by Monteiros Competições, finishing ahead of a similar car from Tockwith Motorsport shared by Dave Bennett and Marcus Fothergill.
The final round of the Iberian Supercars and Supercars Jarama RACE will take place at the Algarve International Circuit on the 26th and 27th of October, in a race also counting towards the Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade.
