The third round of the 2016 International GT Open at Circuit Paul Ricard (4-5 June) generated wall-to-wall drama and a bittersweet podium finish for TF Sport and its drivers, Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey.
Beautifully warm and sunny conditions, typical of France’s Mediterranean coast, greeted teams for the first of two International GT Open races on Saturday (4 June) afternoon, and TF Sport was in good shape to take the fight to its high-calibre opponents.
Turkey’s Yoluc lined-up ninth on the grid and initially ran free in clean air, keeping tabs on the intensifying battle for sixth led by Piergiuseppe Perazzini and former Formula 1 star Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Liuzzi was a decent yardstick for TF Sport’s gentleman racer and Yoluc shadowed the Italian Pro’s every move, quickly bridging to gap and passing the Ferrari 488 of Perrazini to break into the top seven before the stops.
Who would win was anybody’s guess after the compulsory driver changes, but Hankey was in a strong third position after performing a pair of spectacularly decisive overtakes on the BMW M6 of Fernando Monje and the Audi R8 of Miguel A. de Castro, with a rapidly diminishing seven-second deficit to the race leaders.
The length of the pit straight covered the top four runners with 20 minutes remaining and the TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage was in another league to the leading BMW and Lamborghini, but unresponsive lapped traffic caused Hankey to slip into the clutches of FFF Racing’s Andrea Caldarelli.
The tension rose inside the TF Sport pit garage as Hankey tried attacking one Lamborghini for second and fending off another, and the top five were covered by a mere 2.4s with enough time for three laps.
Contact saw Thomas Biagi in the second-placed Lamborghini spin out and the four remaining contenders concertinaed on the final lap, Marco Cioci and Caldarelli ultimately snatching a podium result from Hankey’s grasp in a tense and sometimes physical charge to the chequered flag.
However, there would be another opportunity to scale the rostrum in race two on Sunday (5 May), with Hankey starting on row two of the grid after setting the third fastest time in qualifying.
The British Pro attempted to get the jump on the leaders on the charge to Turn 1, but held station while the top three pulled a healthy gap on the scrap for fourth.
Places were traded out front and Hankey kept a watching brief on the situation for the duration of his stint, but a swift driver-change as others served success penalties in the stops meant Yoluc resumed in second overall, on the coattails of the Garage 59 McLaren of Michael Benham.
Both drivers are in the early stages of their motor racing careers and had a golden opportunity to take a victory on the international stage, so Yoluc settled into a rhythm behind his rival until the final 15 minutes, when the trigger was pulled.
An elevation in pace and controlled lunges clarified Yoluc’s intentions and he was an ever-present threat for the win when, in another last-minute twist of fate, Benham span and tagged the TF Sport Aston Martin as he rotated.
There was utter dejection in the pits as Fabrizio Crestani was gifted the victory, but that Yoluc was able to continue and salvage a third place was some consolation for TF Sport in what was easily the most dramatic weekend of the 2016 International GT Open season.
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, said: “It’s disappointing when you know a pair of victories were within reach, but we said we’d be happy to take a podium coming into the International GT Open weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard. Salih (Yoluc) raced really well and his pace was strong in race one, which was always going to end in a crescendo. Ultimately, Euan caught the leaders at the wrong time and we could have ended the race in first or fifth, so fourth isn’t a bad result at all.
“Euan then did a great job to qualify third for race two and some setup changes unlocked more pace. For Salih, it was a case of hunting down the McLaren and it’s such a shame that it all unravelled on the penultimate lap, but he had absolutely nowhere to go and we were lucky to escape without a puncture or race-ending damage and achieve a podium.”