Tempesta Racing Take Victory On Blancpain GT Endurance Series Debut
April 17, 2019 – The Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Chris Froggatt, Jonathan Hui & Chris Buncombe fought through heavy rain and immensely challenging conditions at Monza on Sunday to win the Pro-Am class of the opening round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Series.
The series newcomer #93 Tempesta Racing Ferrari showed strong pace throughout the open practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, topping the times of the Friday evening Bronze Session. The qualifying on Sunday morning witnessed multiple red flag periods when the sessions were stopped due to heavy rain and incidents on track.
The rain continued throughout Sunday and when the lights went out for the start of the race at 3pm the decision was made to start the race behind the safety car. Chris Buncombe took the start and made good progress taking the car into 3rd position in Pro-Am before handing over to Jonathan Hui for the second stint.
Variable conditions continued which provided a challenging environment for Jonathan’s Blancpain GT Endurance Series debut but he drove a trouble free stint with strong pace ensuring the opposition were kept on their toes. Whilst many teams opted to gamble on switching to slick tires, a decisive strategic call to stay on wet tires proved to be the right choice to maintain a strong position. Eventual contact between two Mercedes entering the high speed turn 3 at Curve Grande meant that Jonathan took the lead in the class shortly before pitting to hand over to Chris Froggatt for the final 1 hour of the race.
As the track slowly began to dry, a number of cars suffered punctures on their wet tyres so the priority for Chris was to drive within the limit of the tyre to ensure the Team could maintain their significant lead. Whilst much of the standing water had cleared, the track remained treacherous and extremely slippery – a tough challenge for Chris on his debut in the Series.
The chequered flag fell at 6pm with Chris Froggatt bringing the car home as the top placed Ferrari on track and on Italian soil. A dream debut for the team and all important maximum points scored to open the Championship campaign.
Chris Froggatt said “In the end we couldn’t have asked for more this weekend, it was the perfect debut. Conditions were really tough on Sunday but everyone was determined to push through and give all that we could. Thank you to everyone involved; my team mates Jonathan and Chris, Marco our chief engineer and Eddie Cheever.”
Jonathan Hui said “The conditions were really tricky out there, we predicted that attrition could be high so whilst trying to push hard, we knew it was important to remain patient and calm. There’s a saying that to finish first, you must first finish and no doubt we benefitted from a bit of luck in the race. I would like to say a huge thanks to my team mates and to AF Corse for their technical support, and special mention to Eddie Cheever who gave us a lot of great advice over the radio.”
“This was the perfect way to start our season! A new team, new car and new team mates and we leave Monza with a victory in a Ferrari, that’s very special. The whole team did an incredible job all weekend and despite the atrocious conditions, my team mates who have joined the Series for the first time did an unbelievable job to make this victory possible! Thank you to everyone.” commented Chris Buncombe.
The team now moves on to Paul Ricard in the South of France for the first round of the GT Open Championship on April 27-28.