Stephen Grove and Marc Cini have finished their Le Mans Carrera Cup campaigns in impressive style with strong results in the 45-minute curtain raiser to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Both Australians managed to improve their positions from Thursday’s qualifying session and charge into the top half of the Outright results – an impressive results for their first appearance at the French circuit – in the combined Porsche Carrera Cup France and Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain event.
Grove led the Australian contingent home with 25th place and 11th in Class B, finishing just ahead of his countryman Cini, who placed 29th and 15th in Class B out of the 61 competitors in the race.
Stephen Grove
Qualifying (Outright) – 38th
Qualifying (Class B) – 14th
Race (Outright) – 25th
Race (Class B) – 11th
Marc Cini
Qualifying (Outright) – 47th
Qualifying (Class B) – 22nd
Race (Outright) – 29th
Race (Class B) – 15th
Former Porsche Carrera Cup Australia drivers and pre-season driver coach for the Australian championship, Ben Barker, was the ultimate winner of the Carrera Cup race by five seconds from Tom Dillmann and Lonni Martins.
Polesitter Kevin Estre had continued to lead well into the 45-minute race despite making contact with Kiwi Earl Bamber, forcing the latter to stop with a puncture.
Estre soldiered on, eventually crossing the line in 20th.
Laurent Aiello, part of Porsche’s outright winning line-up in the 24 Hour in 1998, produced a super drive to finish fourth after starting 14th.
