By: Irina Boyarskaya
Photo: www.24hseries.com and Irina Kolomeytseva
You can say that it's not the race for result as much as you like, you cat set practice tasks and build plans on the trajectory practicing... But it's enough to give the steering wheel in the hands of a racer, put the pedals under his feet and twinkle with a starting signal light and he will recall all his training plans in reluctance only in the boxes after the finish. After he has previously upgraded his vehicle from the sixth position in his class to the second position overall...
This is the summary of the hour and a half-long racing series of Oleksandr Gaidai on Friday, the 13 of March. It is fresh and cool spring weather in Mugello. 72 vehicles participating in the 12-hour Italy Mugello race are expanded on the five kilometers of the racing track, and the white Porsche with the red line of the GDL team is confidently breaking forward surprising competitors with supercars.
We have already mentioned the reasons why Oleksandr Gaidai appeared on the Italian endurance race amidst the French practices and, moreover, as a part of the Italian team. In that publication we've also noticed that our pilot is serious about his practicing process as he considered the 12-hour race.
There was more than enough overtaking practice in this race. Bearing in mind that the race had just started, that he had of about 12 hours of the tough and fighting drive and there was one car for the three drivers, and those two guys in the boxes also wanted to drive, Gaidai wasn't risking for nothing, but didn't excuse any single mistake of his competitors. An hour and a half flew in one breath, and having heard the command from the boxes Oleksandr turned to the pit lane.
Has it happened to you? If you are in a rush, flying the highway and already supposing that you'll make everything in time, and... bang! - her is the traffic jam. So Gaidai who had reached the leader of the peloton revealed the queue for topping-up of six cars ahead of him. A small mistake, the command to the pilot to turn to the boxes not in time results in an offensive loss of gained positions...
Nevertheless, the first racing day was successful for our pilot. Unfortunately, his teammates couldn't demonstrate the same bright result, and the vehicle flew off on the gravel four minutes before the finish and came to the boxes with the broken radiator.
The mechanics were working at night to revive the car, and their diligence was rewarded with ten penalty laps according to the regulations for such a hard work. In brief, in the morning Oleksandr Gaidai who had finished the second in his part on the race the previous day discovered that he had the 62nd position on the start.
And it seemed that there was no sense to fight and dream of the result but it's a hard task to get such a message across the racer in the sporting car! If you only can catch up to him... So, on Saturday morning the Porsche with the starting number 77 was demonstrating the lap times in the top-10 of the absolute.
It seems that the 12-hour race can just attrit pilots and vehicles. But in practice it revealed that only three crews of 72 on the start reached the finish. The others could drive enough laps to be recognized as finished. The GDL Racing crew managed to finish the race on the 25th position in the overall classification.
O. Gaidai: "Me and my teammates have quite different level of training. That's the reason not to expect the top result. Yesterday there was a chance to fight for something on the start but, taking into account both pilots' and team's mistakes during the race, we rolled back a lot. But the team understood that I was trying hard driving at the end of tether. And I had a very efficient weekend from the practicing point of view. I'm satisfied with my driving."
Hankook 12H-Italy Mugello. 13-14 марта 2015.
1. #7. HB Racing Team Herberth (Porsche 997 GT3 R), class A6-Pro -- 342 laps --
2. #30 Ram Racing (Mercedes SLS AMG GT3), class A6-Pro +1:51.910
3. #9 Hofor-Racing (Mercedes SLS AMG GT3), class A6-Pro -- 333 laps --
4. #66 Black Pearl Racing by Rinaldi (Ferrari 458 Italia GT3), class A6-Pro -- 331 laps --
5. #67 GDL racing 1 (Mercedes SLS AMG GT3), class A6-Pro 1.423
6. #17 Ruffier Racing (Porsche 991 Cup), class 997 -- 329 laps --
7. #63 Porsche Lorient Racing 2 (Porsche 997 Cup S), class 997 -- 328 laps --
8. #10 Hofor-Racing 2 (Mercedes SLS AMG GT3), class A6-Am -- 325 laps --
9. #56 Classica Motors by RMS (Porsche 991 Cup), class 997 -- 323 laps --
10. #52 MSG Motorsport 2 (Porsche 991 Cup), class 997 -- 321 laps --
...
25. #77 GDL racing 3 (Porsche 991 Cup), class 997 -- 304 laps --
...
69. #162 Niedertscheider Motorsport (Ginetta G50 GT4), class SP3 -- 100 laps --
Now we can have a break... The whole five days! And the Ledenon practice is expecting for us at the end of the next week.
Official website: http://www.24hseries.com/12h-italy-mugello/home