For his second GTWC Pro-Am race win, Pires brought the #44 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG home just over 1s ahead of Steve Brooks/Ryan Wood’s Team BRM Audi.
The win leaves Pires and Leitch in the Pro-Am championship lead by just nine points.
Jaxon Evans/Elliott Schutte rounded out the podium in the ARGT Ferrari 296, ahead of the #66 Tigani Mercedes of Jayden Ojeda/Paul Lucchitti.
After moving from 13th to eighth on the opening lap, Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser rounded out the top five for Team BRM.
Leitch took the lead with a decisive move around the outside at Turn 1 on the opening lap, shutting the door on teammate Oscar Targett as the latter struggled for grip on the damp surface.
Wood and Evans both rocketed through the pack on the first lap, each making their way into the top five as the field jockeyed for position.
Josh Buchan’s #23 Zagame Autosport Ferrari was left battered and bruised in the melee, being forced wide twice in consecutive corners and forced to nurse a punctured right-rear tyre.
Leitch set about building a margin in clean air over Targett, while Broc Feeney and Wood closed up on the #56 Mercedes-AMG.
Wood attempted a late move on Feeney at Turn 4, making contact with the reigning champion’s left rear corner.
The pair continued line astern with no damage, however that allowed Leitch to build a comfortable margin.
Wood and Feeney’s squabble assisted the leader to build a big enough gap to negate the additional 5s of pit stop time earned by a third place finish in Race 1.
The battle erupted when Wood finally worked his way past with a forceful move at Turn 5, and slight contact resulted in Feeney running wide on exit.
When the field cycled through the pit lane, Pires was able to hold the lead despite the extra pit stop time, however Schutte emerged directly behind the Mercedes.
A snap oversteer moment through Turn 2 in the following laps allowed Brooks through to 2nd place.
Trouble struck the #1 Audi as the driver’s door would not close once Brad Schumacher was aboard, de-railing a potential podium result.
The team battled with the door latch as the car plummeted down the order, eventually resorting to tape.
Schumacher was back in the pit lane a lap later, however, as the tape failed to hold.
The team then elected to replace the door entirely, sending Schumacher back out almost three laps down.
With the 15s success penalty for winning Race 1, Targett and Justin Tigani came home in sixth from pole position.
Valentino Astuti/Darren Currie (#2 Audi), Will Davison/Renee Gracie (#181 Ferrari), Tony D’Alberto/Adrian Deitz (#93 Lamborghini), and Luke Youlden/Nathan Halstead (#71 Porsche) rounded out the top 10.
Feeney and Schumacher dropped to 13th position outright, but crucially scored a single point for finishing 10th in class.
Discussion about this post