2016 PCC Europe: Race 4: Paris

Kowalczyk Takes Dominating Victory



Izaak Kowalczyk took his second win of the year in PCC Europe's first leg of the Paris Double-header, leading the final thirteen of the race's fifteen laps.

Kowalczyk started in fourth place, directly behind teammate Leonid Chernov and in front of Grigoriy Novakovsky, another teammate.  The three RUS Autosport cars worked together on the long first straightaway to pull ahead of pole-sitter Klara Kindahl and third-place started Kristoffer Laaksonen, and by the exit of the Carousel ran first, second, and fourth.  This order would remain static until the end of the third lap, when Leonid Chernov, the leader, reported a tire going down on his #61 LUKOil Lada and pulled into the pits.  Kowalczyk would inherit the lead and a half-second gap between himself and Laaksonen.  By the end of the race, however, the gap was over five and a half seconds, and Kowalczyk took the top spot on the podium.

With this win, Kowalczyk moves up to third in the standings with 125 points, just 33 behind points leader Jan Schmidt.

Laaksonen Closes on Championship Lead



Whoever said that team orders were in effect at Altoros Gessler GP clearly hasn't watched any of this PCC Europe season.  Kristoffer Laaksonen brought his #1 Altoros Gessler home in second place, gaining five crucial points on his upstart teammate Jan Schmidt.  

Laaksonen started the race in third place and made quick work of pole-sitter Klara Kindahl, who hit the wall coming out of the Carousel on the first lap.  However, eventual race-winner Izaak Kowalczyk managed to get around Laaksonen in a daring three-wide maneuver near the exit of the Carousel, putting Laaksonen back to where he started.  He would remain in that position until the end of the third lap, when leader Leonid Chernov brought his car in to service a flat tire.  Laaksonen got a huge run on now-leader Kowalczyk coming into the Carousel on the fourth lap, but an over-ambitious outside overtake was not on the cards, as he hit the wall coming out of the Carousel much like Kindahl did on lap one.  Laaksonen would not get close to Kowalczyk again and would finish five and a half seconds behind the leader by the end of the race.  Schmidt, who finished third, was not not close enough to provide a fight to his teammate, finishing almost five seconds adrift of the #1 machine.

With this finish, Kristoffer Laaksonen moves up to second in the championship, leap-frogging Grigoriy Novakovsky to get there. Novakovsky experienced an undisclosed engine problem on his #66 LUKOil Lada from third on lap nine, bringing his car into the pits. The crew went under the hood and sent him back out, finishing 37th and out of the points.  Laaksonen sits on 150 points, just eight behind teammate Jan Schmidt.

Successful Weekend for Antonen



In only his second start in the PCC Europe Series, Tussi Antonen has proven to be a capable road racer. He finished seventh, a career-best, after starting fourteenth.  Antonen took advantage of a bit of chaos at the start to move up three positions by the end of lap one, then slowly picked off the #43 of Salvatore Torregrossa and the #79 of Ruby Kousaka to work his way into the top ten.  Two more positions from the ailing RUS Autosport team put Antonen up into seventh place, where he would finish the race, the best-running of the Scuderia Gianunzio cars.

With this finish, Antonen moves up to sixteenth in the standings, with 44 points in two starts.


Chernov Squeaks into Final Point



A potential race-winning run went down the drain early for RUS Autosport's Leonid Chernov, but a never-give-up attitude and a lot of grit and determination brought home a crucial point for the #61 team today.

Chernov started on outside pole and quickly dispatched pole-sitter Klara Kindahl by the Carousel.  Chernov maintained a healthy lead over now-second place Izaak Kowalczyk until halfway through the third lap.  After going over the first bridge, Chernov reported that he had picked up a massive vibration on the left-front tire and was bringing the car into the pits.  As it would happen, Chernov ran over debris from a collision between Merce Dees Winslol and Anders Magnussen on the first lap.  After a pit stop to replace the blown tire, Chernov found himself thirty-seventh, well outside the points-paying positions, and with only twelve laps to gain seventeen positions.  With one of the fastest cars on the track, Chernov picked off cars left and right on a day where passing was a challenge.  Up until the final lap though, Chernov was outside the points.  Coming into the final turns, Chernov made an ambitious move to the inside of Shoomi Winslol and pulled off the pass for 20th position, earning himself one crucial point towards the championship.

With this finish, Chernov minimized the damage to his championship run and lost only one position, falling to twelfth in the standings.  He is currently the worst-placed RUS Autosport driver in the PCC Europe Championship.

Lake Finishes Last, All Cars Advance to Second Round of Double-Header



It was not a good day for Alexa Lake and her #26 Master Sport team, who finished last, one lap adrift of the winner on the Paris Street Circuit. Throughout the weekend it was apparent that Lake, once again, was not up to the caliber of her teammates Katyen Scurrel and Ingrid Jane Ambleton.  However, she still managed to place her car 31st on the grid, her second-best qualifying effort of the season.  When the race started though, she quickly fell through the field, running afoul of several of her competitors and the wall.  After a lap four pit stop to repair damage to the car she found herself in the sights of the leaders, who quickly put her a lap down.  Her pace did not improve much throughout the event, and frankly she looked a bit lost out on the track at times.  With all cars finishing and moving on to the second round of the double-header, hopefully her oval skills are better than her road-racing ones.

F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 4 16 I Kowalczyk 112.251 15 13* 185 Running
2 3 1 K Laaksonen -5.66 15 0 170 Running
3 5 27 J Schmidt -10.40 15 0 165 Running
4 1 2 K Kindahl -21.72 15 0 160 Running
5 8 47 I Ambleton -25.02 15 0 155 Running
6 9 11 J Beaufort -25.49 15 0 150 Running
7 14 51 T Antonen -27.71 15 0 146 Running
8 10 79 R Kousaka -31.42 15 0 142 Running
9 13 76 K Mallory -32.07 15 0 138 Running
10 24 44 S Buchanan -34.47 15 0 134 Running
11 11 78 D Hetzel -35.14 15 0 130 Running
12 7 99 L Zarapin -40.96 15 0 127 Running
13 15 18 G Fini -44.31 15 0 124 Running
14 17 3 M Haas -45.04 15 0 121 Running
15 12 43 S Torregrossa -46.27 15 0 118 Running
16 20 32 O Keskula -47.08 15 0 115 Running
17 19 550 S Filipov -47.67 15 0 112 Running
18 21 77 A Kostopoulos -48.38 15 0 109 Running
19 30 98 D O'Hara -48.96 15 0 106 Running
20 2 61 L Chernov -49.68 15 2 108 Running
21 28 713 S Winslol -49.97 15 0 100 Running
22 29 90 N Marchankov -50.36 15 0 97 Running
23 22 109 A Motov -50.83 15 0 94 Running
24 27 505 G Vignon -51.56 15 0 91 Running
25 38 23 K Scurrel -52.24 15 0 88 Running
26 33 42 G Balducci -54.27 15 0 85 Running
27 25 81 V Winslol -1:00.18 15 0 82 Running
28 35 427 A Smith Jr. -1:01.30 15 0 79 Running
29 34 73 M Balazs -1:04.30 15 0 76 Running
30 39 09 AJ Canton -1:04.94 15 0 73 Running
31 32 10 D Lorenz -1:09.12 15 0 70 Running
32 36 63 J Bracchi -1:14.39 15 0 67 Running
33 26 34 H Ventola -1:14.83 15 0 64 Running
34 40 03 E Mira -1:18.52 15 0 61 Running
35 37 31 A Misko -1:27.42 15 0 58 Running
36 23 37 L Fleming -1:54.76 15 0 55 Running
37 6 66 G Novakovsky -1:58.07 15 0 52 Running
38 18 33 A Magnussen -2:02.50 15 0 49 Running
39 16 644 M Winslol -1L 14 0 46 Running
40 31 26 A Lake -1L 14 0 43 Running