Video: Ginetta Cup race-recap round 1: Monza

On Saturday January 30th, The Privateer’s Pitbox’ first ACC championship made its debute with a double header sprint race as part of our Ginetta Cup. The first race was positioned as a warm up to what’s to come, with Monza being a fairly easy track to race at. This meant our racers could focus on their cars and those of the people around them.

The video above is a commentated highlights real. If you want to watch the race enfold live from my perspective, watch my Twitch-VOD instead!

The race itself was a blast, and I heard nothing but positive remarks (so far, at least) from our competitors. Below, you’ll find a short description of my experience of the event and the supporting overviews of the results.

Qualifying

Jeroen Jongen took pole position and the accompanying 10 bonus points, with Alexander Bonner a close second. Pavel Dolezal qualified in third, just in front of me in fourth position putting my first two points on the board. I made a tiny mistake costing me a couple of tenths. The top 9 proved pretty close, with an average gap of just 0.100 seconds between them, foreshadowing a close race.

The Race

The race proved to be a close affair. I was able to overtake Pavel at the start to take third, but the top four remained close. After a while I was able to force my way past Bonner for second, but was unable to overtake Jeroen.

I tried once, going side-by-side through both Lesmo-corners, but this resulted in me sliding wide into Jongen. This sent Jeroen into a half-spin, right into the path of Bonner who was unable to avoid his yellow eyesore. Pavel was happy to take two positions, while Jeroen remained in front while I was back to third. Watch the live clip here.

A couple of laps later, I was able to retake second from Pavel, with Jeroen still in front. The final ten minutes of the race I tried everything I could to overtake him, but to no avail. At least I got a lot of good screenshots out of it.

With just a couple seconds left on the clock, Jeroen entered the final lap. I could see him inching to the left, and just as he hit the brakes his left-side wheels touched the grass causing a moment of instability. In turn, this caused Jeroen to miss his braking point.

He had done this a few times already and was able to retain his position fairly easily. This time, however, he tried to steer back onto the track, jumping over the kerb and missing the track entirely. Watch the clip of it happening live here.

I was able to overtake him, as well as Alexander Bonner who had overtaken Pavel Dolezal earlier. From then on, with a couple of seconds margin, I was able to coast my way to victory of the first race of The Privateer’s Pitbox’ Ginetta Cup!

Round 01 Results

Not only did I win the race, I was also able to set the fastest lap earning me an extra five points. Dan Robertson was able to gain five places during the race, earning him the ten points for ‘ Most positions gained’. Meanwhile, Evers had a terrible race, losing eight places.

Standings Ginetta Cup

All tallied up, this means I find myself in the lead after round 1 with 67 points, nine clear of second place Alex Bonner. Jeroen’s pole position means he’s still fairly close in contention, with a bit of a gap to Pavel’s 44 points. Dan Robertson made his ten bonus points count, jumping from tenth to seventh in the standings.

I hope you enjoyed this write up, I know I did. Not as much as the race though. If you’d like to stay on top of any further updates, or would like to participate for future rounds, feel free to register for our Ginetta Cup (there are still a couple of spots open for registration) and jump in our discord!

For the latest news you can also follow me on twitter @felixdicit, or @the_pitbox.