IRON LYNX BRINGS HOME VICTORY IN LAMBORGHINI SUPER TROFEO EUROPE VALENCIA ROUND
Iron Lynx descended on the Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuit for the fourth round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season. All five Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO 2 entries across the four classes produced strong pace across the weekend and culminated in good results during the two 50-minute races held around the Spanish circuit before the season-ending double-header at Vallelunga in November.
The opening day of running was interrupted by rain, which had continued to linger in the area as Saturday arrived. The first qualifying session, which was held in damp conditions, was called early due to a lengthy red flag, with the #78 of Emanuele Colombini and Emanuele Zonzini taking Pro-Am pole and the #8 of Luciano and Donovan Privitelio on LC Cup pole being the highlights with just a few laps completed in the session.
Qualifying 2 was delayed as a result of the earlier incident, and by then the track had significantly dried up. The session proved to be more challenging for the Iron Lynx quintet, but all of the entries were in the mix and ready to make ground up.
The first race featured an outstanding opening stint by the #10 of Ugo de Wilde and Rodrigo Testa. De Wilde started 19th overall and made many positions at the start before a Safety Car came out shortly before the pit window opened. De Wilde handed over the car to Testa, who then proceeded to continue the charge up the order. The team was in contention for the overall podium, but just missed out in the closing stages. Nonetheless, a fantastic charge up to fourth had been completed.
Elsewhere in Pro-Am, the #78 of Zonzini and Colombini made the most of their strong position and controlled the battle, taking a comfortable race victory while battling with the Pro cars. The #89 of Nigel Schoonderwoerd and Yelmer Buurman raced well to sixth after picking up positions late in the race, with Schoonderwoerd’s times being among the fastest of the Am drivers. The Privitelio duo started the race well from class pole but faded as the race progressed. They eventually brought home fifth in class. The fifth entry – the #4 of Claude-Yves Gosselin and Marc Rostan – came home a solid sixth in Am also after a fight up through the field towards the closing stages.
Overnight rain left the circuit in a challenging state for race two on Sunday. The opening stages of the race featured several Safety Cars, including one in which the #78 of Colombini and Zonzini was hit off into the gravel by the #88 Leipert Motorsport entry as it was called. Additionally, the #4 of Rostan and Gosselin was spun off into the gravel as the pit window opened, ending their day early as well.
The #10 of Testa and de Wilde featured prominently in a close-fought battle for the overall win but came home dropped back slightly and came home in sixth. In Pro-Am, the Schoonderwoerd/Burrman entry raced well and fought for the class podium, but a penalty for overtaking under the Safety Car prevented a late challenge for a top-three finish. Meanwhile in the Lamborghini Cup, the #8 of Luciano and Donovan Privitelio raced hard in the closing stages to come through and take a class podium in third to continue their strong season.
Valencia with 43 cars promised a busy Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe weekend and it delivered with two entertaining races. Our team and drivers performed well considering the tricky conditions across the event. I am happy to see Zonzini and Colombini get a class victory in the first race, where I was also really impressed by the pace of de Wilde and Schoonderwoerd in particular. The second race proved to be a bit more challenging, but the team fought right until the end. We were unlucky to lose two cars in the race through incidents, but the remaining three raced hard in our final race before Vallelunga.
Iron Lynx Team Principal and CEO, Andrea Piccini