Round 4 - San Marino (Imola)

PRO SERIES San Marino (Imola)
1997/98 Pole Position: David Zasitko (1:17.340)
1997/98 Race Winner: Gary Leighton (0h43m09.109)
Race Distance: 31 laps

Qualifying

PosNo.DriverTeamTimeDiff.Pts
1.  #13  David Zasitko  Turbo Geese  1:16.813  +00.000  20
2.  #13  Gary Leighton  Turbo Geese  1:17.401  +00.588  16
3.  # 2  Mario Sarno  Players-Racing  1:18.184  +01.371  14
4.  #11  Michael Kane  MRNorange  1:18.519  +01.706  12
5.  # 1  Paul Wilcox  Players-Racing  1:18.630  +01.817  10
6.  #31  Garry McCandless  GJM Racing  1:19.119  +02.306  8
7.  # 7  Olivier Leroy  Cyber Speed  1:19.564  +02.751  6

Race

Any spectators who turned up for qualifying the previous day were completely confused by the grid for the Professional Series race on Sunday. Of the 7 cars who had taken part in the hour long session only three had turned up for the race along with the Team Ecosse junior team and the Cyclone car. Most amazingly the Turbo Geese team had packed up and gone home despite their crushing form in qualifying which had netted them the front row of the grid. After much deliberation the officials of the race decided to leave the front row of the grid empty. When the race got underway, Mario Sarno took the lead but made an error which allowed team-mate Paul Wilcox and the Team Ecosse car of Paul Branney slip by. Behind all this Olivier Leroy ripped most of the front section of his car off and limped back to the pits for repairs, eventually rejoining.

Back on the track Sarno re-asserted himself, slip streaming Branney and whistling past him before outbraking Wilcox in one deft move. Once ahead he proceeded to pull away at a frightening pace, setting a succession of fastest laps. On lap lap 13 Branney retired from a secure third place and two laps later Sarno was in the pits for fresh rubber. However the gasps from the crowd drowned the engines of the cars a further two laps later when Sarno, with a forty second lead over his team-mate who had yet to stop and newer tyres, ran out of luck and crashed out. Wilcox, not believing his luck, thus inherited the lead and cruised to victory despite having to replace a broken wing on lap 22. Olivier Leroy finished a lap down in second while Willy Maier crashed out for good on lap 26 having been in the pits for repairs two laps earlier.

PosNo.DriverTeamTimeDiff.Pts 
1.  # 1  Paul Wilcox  Players-Racing  0h45:35.694  +0:00.000  180+5
2.  # 7  Olivier Leroy  Cyber Speed  -1 laps     170 
3.  # 5  Willy Maier  Cyclone  25 laps  80.6%  133 
4.  # 2  Mario Sarno  Players-Racing  16 laps  51.6%  82+5+3
5.  #28  Paul Branney  Team Ecosse  12 laps  38.7%  59 

Last modified: Wednesday 03 February 1999 - 16:31