Target Racing duo come out on top in exciting opening race of the weekend

Sant’Agata Bolognese/Francorchamps, 29 July 2022 – Target Racing’s Milan Teekens and Marzio Moretti claimed a breakthrough maiden Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe victory in the opening race of the Spa-Francorchamps weekend. The Dutch-Italian partnership, at the wheel of the #54 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2, survived a pit-stop time penalty to beat points leaders Max Weering and Loris Spinelli (Bonaldi Motorsport) with Pro-Am winners Lewis Williamson and Massimo Ciglia finishing a superb third for Oregon Team. Teekens and Moretti’s success was also significant as it broke the record-breaking six-race winning streak of Spinelli and Weering, although the latter pairing maintain a healthy lead in the Pro championship standings.

From the rolling start, Spinelli leapt off the line to maintain his lead into La Source for the first time, as Moretti made an assertive move to the inside of front-row-starter, BDR Competition’s Amaury Bonduel. The order remained the same either side of an opening lap safety car, deployed following contact between the #6 VS Racing machine of Stéphane Tribaudini and the Pro-Am Rexal FFF Racing Team entry of Dan Well at Speaker’s Corner.

A second safety car was brought out just before the pit window opened, after a frightening accident involving the Am class leaders, Gabriel Rindone (Leipert Motorsport) and Andrzej Lewandowski (VSR) under braking for the Bus Stop chicane. Lewandowski pulled out to make an overtake but clipped the right rear of Rindone’s car, briefly launching the VSR Huracán into the air before coming to a rest in the gravel. Both cars retired on the spot.

With the safety car out, almost every car made its pit-stop with just over 30 minutes left. Every car, except Bonduel – along with the Lamborghini Cup cars of Kumar Prabakaran (who ran as high as second overall) and Alfred Hernandez Ortega. Teekens took over from Moretti to grab the overall lead and, despite receiving a post-race penalty of 0.270s for a pit-stop infringement, opened up a margin of over two seconds to claim the win.

Once again, the Pro-Am class produced another thrilling race, with Oregon Team’s Ciglia and Williamson taking their third victory of the season in spectacular fashion. The #27 Huracán qualified fourth in class but was effectively third on the grid after the Micanek Motorsport entry of Bromek Formanek and Karol Basz failed to start. Ciglia came under pressure from the Bonaldi Motorsport car of Pietro Perolini early on but, once Williamson took over for the second stint, the points leaders made a fantastic charge to the overall podium. Williamson moved into second place by driving around the outside of Oscar Lee (who had taken over the #51 Rexal FFF Racing Team car from Dan Wells) at Blanchimont before immediately going around the outside of Emanuel Colombini (VSR) at the Bus Stop to grab the lead.

Such was the pace of the #27 car, that Williamson closed onto the back of the overall top three in the latter stages. A drivethrough penalty for the Pro class car of Manuel Bejarano (Imperiale Racing) for a pit-stop infringement gave Williamson third at the finish.

The Am class was full of action early on as Rindone and Lewandowski both made it past the polesitting Arkadia Racing Huracán of Stéphan Guerin. The contact between Lewandowski and Rindone at the Bus Stop chicane ended what had promised to be a lively battle and handed the lead back to Guerin before the pit-stops. Guerin, as a solo entry, had to wait three seconds longer than those behind at his pit-stop and, following the pit window, it was the Boutsen Racing car of Elie Dubelly and Pierre Feligioni – which had run solidly in fourth at the start – that moved into the lead. The #2 car never let its lead go and took its first victory of the season, with Boutsen Racing team-mate Marc Rostan coming home second. Guerin completed the podium in third.

Semspeed siblings Benoît and François Semoulin took a popular victory on home soil in the Lamborghini Cup after a calculated drive from second on the grid. The #8 Rexal FFF Racing Team car of Donovan Privitelio took pole position and held onto the top spot in the early going but lost out to Benoît Semoulin at the pit-stops. Thereafter, Semoulin managed to finish 17^th overall, five places and over two seconds clear of Gerard van der Horst in second, with Hans Fabri making it an all-Benelux podium in third. Behind, the fortunes were mixed, with Luciano Privitelio taking over from his son and finishing fifth behind BDR Competition’s Hernandez Ortega. There was also disappointment for Boutsen Racing’s François Grimm, who retired after losing control of his car at Les Combes, while team-mate Rego Regis de Sebes also went off at Campus.

Race winner Marzio Moretti (#54 Target Racing) said: “I am extremely happy; I was already happy after my stint was done because I knew that I did my best and handed the car over to Milan in second. But I was also so nervous, so I had to watch the rest of the race on a small monitor at the back of the garage, on my own and not on the pitwall! But it was an amazing race, every race we have shown good pace, but we had problems. I couldn’t be happier, it’s a win. My start was good, and I actually spent a lot of time studying the previous year’s starts and knew I had to go down the inside to have a chance of second and it worked. Our car was set up for being fast in the corners, so our straight-line speed wasn’t the best, but I defended well, and it was alright in the end.”

Team-mate Milan Teekens (#54 Target Racing) added: “Marzio and I are a great partnership, and we really deserve this victory today. Since the start of the season, we have shown a lot of strong pace, but things haven’t always gone our way, like at Imola where we had technical problems and then again at Misano. But I have to say, Marzio did a really good first stint. We were able to manage our pace after a great pit-stop and the car was great. I heard we had a penalty from the pit-stop, so I knew I had to make a gap over Max [Weering]. The victory is even better because it is close to a home race for me, unfortunately we don’t go to Zandvoort but this is good enough!”

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe – 2022 Calendar

Round 1: Imola (Italy), 1-3 April

Round 2: Le Castellet (France), 3-5 June

Round 3: Misano (Italy), 1-3 July

Round 4: Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) 29-30 July

Round 5: Barcellona (Spain) 30 September-2 October

Round 6: Portimão (Portugal), 3-4 November

Finals: Portimão (Portugal), 5-6 November