Grabowski and Costa set up Danville duel!
Apex Racing Academy Porsche Cup S2 R8 – Road America
As the Apex Racing League Porsche Cup championship reaches its penultimate round, Kamil Grabowski and Pascal Costa continue to grapple for the title. Arriving at Road America, Grabowski holds a nineteen-point advantage over Costa.
Since 1955, racers have flocked to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in pursuit of speed and competition. Measuring four miles in length, Road America’s high-speed curves remain unadulterated. With plentiful opportunities for slipstreaming, predicting a result would be almost impossible.
Grabowski struck the first blow in qualifying, outpacing Costa by three tenths of a second. In an impressive tenth overall, Luke Maxwell led the AM class drivers.
Race 1
Immediately landing a counter blow to Grabowski’s pole position, Costa executed the perfect launch and won the drag race to turn one. During the opening laps, Grabowski remained patient, shadowing Costa’s every move. Approaching half race distance, Grabowski began his manoeuvre at turn five and sealed it up at turn eight.
Throughout the remainder of the contest, Costa kept Grabowski under the cosh but couldn’t make a counter move on his Polish rival. First blood to Grabowski.
In the AM class, Kev Copeland scored a critical class win to keep his place in the fight for the title with Leon Erger.
Feature Race
After a reverse grid shake up, Dominik Foerster started the thirty-minute feature race on pole position. Lewis Ward lined up alongside Foerster on the front row. Race one frontrunners, Grabowski and Costa, started from the eighth row.
While Ward and Foerster duelled for the lead, disaster struck for Grabowski. A mistake from another driver at turn six triggered a multi car pile-up, sending the Pole into the gravel and down the order. Advantage Pascal Costa.
Lewis Ward soon broke away from Dominik Foerster and built a comfortable lead by one third distance. Throughout the remainder of the race, Ward relentlessly pulled away out front and picked up his first win of the season.
Fighting through the pack, Pascal Costa ascended all the way to second place by the flag. Although Grabowski tenaciously fought back to eighteenth position after pitting for repairs, the Polish star’s championship lead had evaporated. Just one point now separates Costa and Grabowski heading into the final round at Virginia International Raceway. Thus, setting up a winner takes all duel in Danville.
Salvatore Larne emerged from an epic battle with Josh Camm and Christopher Kochanek to claim the final spot on the podium.
While his championship rival Mikael Fang floundered, Leon Erger edged out Luke Maxwell for a critical AM class win. Erger heads to VIR with a nearly unassailable advantage in the AM class title fight.
Post Race
Immediately after an eventful feature race, several of the ARA Porsche Cup drivers joined the Apex Racing TV commentary team to volunteer their assessments of the meeting:
Leon Erger: “Definitely eventful races! I managed to get through, but I was really lucky. I had incidents in both races, both of which I don’t think are purely my fault. It’s kind of annoying, I think I had a chance for a podium in race two. I’m kind of frustrated but I shouldn’t complain!”
Kev Copeland: “I wasn’t feeling that much pressure because it was a long shot. I would have needed to beat Leon by quite some margin in both races. I got really unlucky in race two which was quite disappointing.”
Christopher Kochaneck: “My race day was pretty eventful! I missed my braking points a few times as I underestimated the effect of the draft. I made a few slight mistakes, but I could recover.”
Bradley Hulse: “I had a very average qualifying. I had a good start in race one and managed to get through the field. You can always rely on the PROs to have a messy race, so I capitalised on their mistakes.”
On the seventh of April, the Apex Racing Academy Porsche Cup reaches its finale. Although the AM class looks set to go to Leon Erger, a winner takes all battle for outright honours between Pascal Costa and Kamil Grabowski is one not to be missed. Tune in to Apex Racing TV at 7pm GMT to catch all the live action.
