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News Archive » Two Wins at Spa for CRS Racing June 27, 2010 Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen took their second International GT Open victory at Spa in Belgium today, in the second of the weekend’s two races. They weren’t the first CRS winners at Spa though as a last minute entry into Saturday’s Dutch Supercar race saw Andrew Kirkaldy and Klaas Hummel clinch victory. Niarchos and Mullen already had a fourth place finish in the bag from yesterday’s GT Open race and they wanted a podium at the very least in race two. Niarchos got away well at the start of today’s race from 13th place on the grid, making up a few places at the start and racing well until lap five when a big accident for the two AF Corse Ferraris of Rui Aguas and Alvaro Barba brought out the safety car. When the pit window opened the team called Niarchos in and gave Tim Mullen the opportunity to rejoin the race in a position where he could start to pick off the remaining cars ahead of the No.91 CRS Ferrari. Mullen had a fight on his hands but got straight down to business and passed each car until he took the chequered flag in the lead, scoring a great second win for the long-time team-mates. Today’s race produced a very different result for Andrew Kirkaldy and Klaas Hummel. Kirkaldy started the race from fourth on the grid, went down the outside into Turn One and emerged in second place. After reporting the car felt a little loose at the back he then lost a place to a Porsche on lap four. A lap later, as he made his way through Blanchimont, the fastest corner at Spa, he lost the back of the car and went off into the barrier. Race over. The blow of crashing out of the GT Open race was softened for Kirkaldy and Hummel by their win in yesterday’s Dutch Supercar race. The pair raced together this weekend as Hummel’s regular team-mate, Chris Goodwin, had business commitments, and it turned out to be a successful partnership. Klaas Hummel gets faster with each race so the extra track time available through entering the Dutch Supercar race was a real bonus ! for the Dutchman. It also produced his first win of the season. As they hadn’t qualified for the race they started at the back of the pack for their class, which was way back in 36th place. Never one to hang around, Kirkaldy was up to eighth on lap one and came all the way through to first place with a comfortable 12 second lead by the end of his run. Hummel continued the run to the flag in first place until the penultimate lap when he was passed by sportscar veteran, Martin Short. Luckily for Hummel and Kirkaldy a crash further down the field soon brought out the red flags and the race result was declared on the count-back and CRS Racing had its first Dutch Supercar win. “This has been an incredibly busy weekend for the team,” said Managing Director, Mark Busfield. “We were delighted to see Klaas take his first win with CRS, in his home championship too. He is improving fast at the moment so we just! need to keep the momentum up for him. On the GT Open side it w as unfortunate that Andrew had the crash in race two, which we suspect was caused by a slow puncture. It was great though to see Chris and Tim come through to take another win.” ENDS |
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