Donington: Bobbi and Biagi set new mark

The race was highlighted by an incredibly boisterous opening, which included a number of collisions between the leading runners. The drama started even before the warm-up lap, when the front row qualifier Konrad Motorsport Saleen was forced to start last as Jean-Marc Gounon failed to get strapped into the car in time.

Bobbi's big scare came just 15 laps in to the race when he attempted to pass early leader Mike Hezemans (Force One Chrysler Viper) and collided with him at both the Melbourne and Goddards hairpins. The second Force One Viper of Philippe Alliot then took up the lead but he dropped back with traction problems, which allowed the Lister Storm of Jamie Campbell-Walter to take a solid lead.

Just after Campbell-Walter handed over to co-driver Nathan Kinch, the car suffered a broken steering rack that put it out of the race and handed the initiative to the Bobbi/Biagi combo. In fact, the Italians' opposition pretty much self-destructed, as the second Lister dropped out after a wheel fell off and the recovering Saleen of Gounon/Franz Konrad/Toni Seiler went off at the Old Hairpin with 30 minutes to go after being hit by a backmarker.

That allowed the Zwaan's Racing Chrysler Viper to come through to finish in an unlikely runner-up spot, with the Care Racing Ferrari of Bryner/Calderari/Livio taking third. The Alliot Viper finished fourth, despite two big spins at Coppice, while the Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen of Erdos and Newton just held off the Verdon-Roe/Zadra Lister Storm (which lost two laps having a battery changed) for fifth.

"We were agonisingly close to a podium finish but just ran out of time," said GNM team manager Gordon Davies. "If we hadn't had to contend with the unscheduled early pitstop there is little doubt that Tommy and Mike would have been competing for a top three place."

Stephane Ortelli and Mark Lieb won N-GT in their Freisinger Motorsport Porsche, but only after the EMKA version of Tim Sugden and Emmanuel Collard dropped out with a driveshaft failure.

The RWS N-GT Porsche of Stephane Daoudi and Britain's Johnny Mowlem came second in class, and tenth overall. "I always go well when I do the FIA races," Mowlem told autosport.com, "which must mean i'm either very lucky, or very good!"


1 Bobbi/Biagi, Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550, 125 laps
2 Van der Zwann/Van der Zwann/Abbelen, Zwaan's Racing Chrysler Viper, +1 lap
3 Bryner/Calderari/Livio, Care Racing Ferrari 550, +1 lap
4 Alliot/Halliday/Zacchia, Force One Racing Chrysler Viper, + 1 lap
5 Erdos/Newton, Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen S7-R, +1 lap
6 Verdon-Roe/Zadra, Creation Autosportif Lister Storm, +1 lap


1 Ortelli/Lieb, Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3-RS