Denis Remenyako made a late pass on James Sofronas to win a gripping Blancpain GT Sports Club Saturday race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while Jens Reno Moller clinched the overall drivers’ title.
Multiple changes of position throughout the top five made for a pulsating 45-minutes of GT racing action, which concluded with Capital Racing Team’s Remenyako scoring a second consecutive victory in his Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The Russian driver started from pole but was quickly swamped by the lightning-fast getaways of Murod Sultanov – who led the opening two laps – and Danish ace Moller in the #11 Honda NSX GT3 Evo.
But Remenyako didn’t give up, and by the end of the third lap was back in the lead, while soon after both Sultanov in his Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 and Moller were overtaken by Sofronas in the WRT-prepared Audi R8 LMS GT2.
This exchange set the rhythm for the mid-portion of the race, with Remenyako working up a seven-second lead over Sofronas, who was giving the GT2-spec Audi a spirited run on its eagerly anticipated race debut.
At halfway, Moller had started to reel in Sultanov, but the Honda driver was already in a position to clinch the Overall drivers’ title despite playing catch-up to his closest points rival on the track.
Moller needed to finish fourth to become champion, based on his 38-point advantage, but the Dane clearly wanted to achieve the feat in style with a podium finish.
His plans were dented slightly by a safety car intervention, which took place after Pavel Strukov’s Ferrari spun at the final corner.
This reset the field, and not only gave Sultanov some much-needed breathing room after his duel with Moller, but also neutralised Remenyako’s lead over Sofronas.
When the field was released with 14 minutes to go, the intense action and positional jockeying displayed at the start of the race came to a head once again.
Sofronas kicked things off by taking the lead from Remenyako into Turn 1, with the powerful Audi GT2 showing exceptional top-end speed.
However, the GT3 cars appeared to have the better measure in the corners, and this created an enthralling fight to the end with Remenyako’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 all over the back of Sofronas in the twisty parts while the Audi gained space on the long front straight.
Their lead battle reached its height with less than 10 minutes left on the clock: Remenyako, despite struggling for grip with his ageing tires, made a daring inside lunge on Sofronas to take a lead he would refuse to relinquish.
The drama didn’t stop there, however, as Sultanov managed to find a way past Sofronas before the chequered flag – although even second place for the Kessel driver couldn’t prevent Moller from securing the championship (in his debut season) with fourth.
Perhaps the best seat in the house on Saturday was in the cockpit of Coach McKansy’s Titanium Cup-winning Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, which spent much of the race sat behind the brilliant podium battles.
McKansy, preferring not to risk a big overtaking move, came through in fifth to bank further valuable points for his Overall haul, ahead of Luigi Lucchini in the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 458 GT3 and Frederic Fangio in one of two Spirit of Race-entered Ferrari 488 GT3s.
Eighth went to Pierre Feligioni, who won a thrilling race-long tilt against fellow Lamborghini drivers Dilantha Malagamuwa – who scooped second in Titanium Cup – and Angelique Detavernier.
In Iron Cup, Louis-Philippe Soenen ended a streak of five races without a win by producing a stellar reliability-focused drive aboard his Spirit of Race Ferrari.
The Belgian driver benefited from a puncture to erstwhile leader Stephen Earle and brought home the win ahead of the American driver and Rick Lovat.