CHEVROLET AND BMW TAKE A WIN EACH

+ Click to Enlarge ITALIAN DRIVER, AUSTRALIAN CAR: That's what International Superstars V8 racing is all about as Fabrizio Armetta thunders to a win in a Chevrolet Lumina in Race 1 at Kyalami. Image: Motorpics

December 14, 2009
By Peter Burroughes

The first round of the International Superstars series for V8 production cars to be held in South Africa lived up to its name at the weekend as two Italian drivers took the honours at Kyalami– one in an Australian and one in a German car.

RACE 1

Fabrizio Armetta, driving a Chevrolet Lumina CR8, scored his and his team's first Supercars win after a perfectly judged race from pole position. He led from start to finish and recorded the fastest lap of the race, a 1min49.311 scorcher, on lap two of the 15-lap race.

Second was the youngest driver in the race, 28-year-old Christian Montanari of San Marino (BMW M3), who came up from sixth on the grid to take second on the last lap in his Supercars debut.

At half distance Montanari, a former Italian karting champion, was third behind Armetta and reigning Superstars champion Gianni Morbidelli (BMW M3).

He was more than nine seconds behind Morbidelli and out of contention when Francesco Draconi spun his Jaguar XF off the circuit into the sand trap and the safety car came out.

When the race resumed a lap later the field had bunched up and Montanari was able to challenge Morbidelli for second. The two M3's closed on the race leader's Chevrolet and the three-car train – all within a second – led the 17-car field until Morbidelli's BMW slowed with a front suspension problem on the last lap and limped home fifth place, handing Montanari second, 2.3sec behind the winner.

Third was Mauro Cesari in a BMW 550i, 9.5sec behind the winner. Cesari started from fourth but dropped back on lap five. A lap from the finish he was sixth behind Armetta, Morbidelli, Montanari, Ermanno Dionisio (Audi RS4) and Pierluigi Martini (Chrysler 300C SRT-8).

Cesari caught former F1 driver Martini on the second last lap and finished 0.05sec ahead of the Chrysler to take fourth but was promoted to third and Martini to fourth when Dionisio was penalised 25 seconds for overtaking under a yellow flag – which demoted the Audi driver to 13th.

Martini, 48, started from third and held off a strong challenge from Montanari until his tyres began to go off at half distance. Two laps from the end, his tyres shredded, he went wide on the left-hander at the bottom of Kyalami's fearsome Mineshaft and Cesari was quick to take advantage.

RACE 2

Lucan Rangoni, in his International Superstars debut, made the most of a front-row start on the reversed grid for the second race to take a commanding win in an Audi RS4.

He was seventh in the morning's first race but unchallenged in race two, winning by more than three seconds and putting up the fastest lap of the race at 1min50.15.

A seasonal Highveld thunderstorm was just minutes away from Kyalami as the 17 cars lined up for the rolling start but the rain held off until the lap 12, when a heavy downpour brought out the red flag to signal the end of the race.

The official result reflected positions at the end of lap 11 and saw Rangoni ahead of Race 1 winner Armetta, who'd had to start from eighth after his earlier success (the top eight finishers from Race 1 started in inverted order) and was already third by lap four, behind Rangoni and David Baldi (BMW M5). Baldi started from pole but was swamped by the faster cars and finished seventh.

Montanari backed up his second in Race 1 with third, only 0.5sec behind Armetta and 4.5sec ahead of 2009 Superstars champion Gianni Morbidelli's M3.

Two of the leading contenders went out on lap two when Martini and former Olympic downhill skier Kristian Ghedina (BMW 550i) collided in turn four while contesting third.

Championship positions after Round 9 of Superstars
1 Gianni Morbidelli (BMW) - 97
2 Stefano Gabellini (BMW) - 151
3 Max Pigoli (Mercedes) - 137
4 Roberto Papini (BMW) - 124
5 Pierluigi Martini (Chrysler) - 122
6 Mauro Cesari (BMW) - 120
7 Kristian Ghedina (BMW) - 113
8 Fabrizio Armetta (Chevrolet) - 67
9 Francesco Ascani (BMW) - 62
10 Roberto Russo (BMW) - 61