City Challenge Baku 2012
Successfull ending in the cement passage
A little
touch of adventure laid on the plan completing the racing series with a city
race in the Azerbaijanian capital city Baku. Without knowing what the MRS team
had to expect, directly after the season’s finale of the Porsche Carrera Cup at
the Hockenheimring, two Porsche GT3 and the appropriate equipment were packed
into a plane and transported to far Azerbaijan.
First of all, the city of Baku and the organization of the City Challenge did an amazing job in all parts. A motorsport top class event in an amazing city.
Even the 24 cars filled starting field was convincing. Former Formula 1 aces like Jacques Villeneuve and Jos Verstappen took up the challenge at the city circuit just as well as current sports car professionals. Besides the GT3 cars McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche and Co, there was a fraction of Porsche GT3 cars, as they were driven at the Porsche Carrera Cup. For these, in terms of the performance a little bit defeated cars, the organizer has announced an extra class.
The MRS team started besides the regular driver Philipp Eng with three new members. Felipe Fernández Laser (Porsche Carrera Cup) shared a car with Tim Tews (VLN/24h Barcelona) and the Porsche Carrera Cup driver Elia Erhart shared the smurfblue GT3 with Philipp Eng. Also the race format was a little bit different as usual. Besides enough time for free practices there were two qualifying sessions and two qualifying races, before on Sunday afternoon the real showdown took place, an one hour long race with a mandatory pit stop, driver and tire change. In front of sold out grand stands top motorsport was offered to the fans. Just after the start bad news concerning car number 15 reached the MRS team. A Corvette pushed the green and white “Logiplus” Porsche into the concrete wall, thereby the rear suspension was damaged so badly, that Felipe Laser had to return to the pit. In record time the MRS crew changed the suspension and send Laser back to the race. Indeed without a chance with some laps behind Laser drove some fast laps, before he passed to Tim Tews.
Things went better for car number 14. After an error-free race starting driver Elia Erhart could pass the car on position 15 and on fourth place in the class to Philipp Eng, who could move forward during the race. In the last lap Philipp Eng passed the second in the class of cup cars and reached his second podium in one week, on an awesome tenth overall.
Karsten Molitor (team leader): „We are of course very happy with the result, but especially with the event in total. We didn’t know what to expect here. The city track was really sensational, a big compliment to the organizer City Challenge. Everything was planned in detail very well, this race was broadcasted worldwide by the different TV stations, which really impressed us very much. Besides motorsport at its best there was first-class entertainment almost around the clock. A mix which caught very well on the fans and involved persons. Also the city Baku with his enthusiastic people fascinated us. We sincerely hope that this will not be the last motorsport event of its kind and we can already say today, that we surely be pleased to participate again in case of a remake.”
First of all, the city of Baku and the organization of the City Challenge did an amazing job in all parts. A motorsport top class event in an amazing city.
Even the 24 cars filled starting field was convincing. Former Formula 1 aces like Jacques Villeneuve and Jos Verstappen took up the challenge at the city circuit just as well as current sports car professionals. Besides the GT3 cars McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche and Co, there was a fraction of Porsche GT3 cars, as they were driven at the Porsche Carrera Cup. For these, in terms of the performance a little bit defeated cars, the organizer has announced an extra class.
The MRS team started besides the regular driver Philipp Eng with three new members. Felipe Fernández Laser (Porsche Carrera Cup) shared a car with Tim Tews (VLN/24h Barcelona) and the Porsche Carrera Cup driver Elia Erhart shared the smurfblue GT3 with Philipp Eng. Also the race format was a little bit different as usual. Besides enough time for free practices there were two qualifying sessions and two qualifying races, before on Sunday afternoon the real showdown took place, an one hour long race with a mandatory pit stop, driver and tire change. In front of sold out grand stands top motorsport was offered to the fans. Just after the start bad news concerning car number 15 reached the MRS team. A Corvette pushed the green and white “Logiplus” Porsche into the concrete wall, thereby the rear suspension was damaged so badly, that Felipe Laser had to return to the pit. In record time the MRS crew changed the suspension and send Laser back to the race. Indeed without a chance with some laps behind Laser drove some fast laps, before he passed to Tim Tews.
Things went better for car number 14. After an error-free race starting driver Elia Erhart could pass the car on position 15 and on fourth place in the class to Philipp Eng, who could move forward during the race. In the last lap Philipp Eng passed the second in the class of cup cars and reached his second podium in one week, on an awesome tenth overall.
Karsten Molitor (team leader): „We are of course very happy with the result, but especially with the event in total. We didn’t know what to expect here. The city track was really sensational, a big compliment to the organizer City Challenge. Everything was planned in detail very well, this race was broadcasted worldwide by the different TV stations, which really impressed us very much. Besides motorsport at its best there was first-class entertainment almost around the clock. A mix which caught very well on the fans and involved persons. Also the city Baku with his enthusiastic people fascinated us. We sincerely hope that this will not be the last motorsport event of its kind and we can already say today, that we surely be pleased to participate again in case of a remake.”
