1.06.08 Second victory for Wolfgang Kaufmann

Wolfgang Kaufmann secured his second Citation Cup victory of the FIA-GT season in last weekend's race at Monza.

Alexander Talkanitsa and Wolfgang Kaufmann

Rainy conditions in Monza - FIA GT 2008

Rainy conditions in Monza - FIA GT 2008

“Considering the weather situation and the hard GT3 tyres that the regulations mandate we must use on our Corvette, Alexander Talkanitsa and myself are more than satisfied with this result”, the man from Molsberg sums up his weekend where he shared the GT1 Corvette C5-R with Alexander Talkanitsa from Byelarus.

Just as in the season opener at Silverstone, the weather played all its tricks. Throughout Saturday, and then in the Sunday morning warm-up, the Royal Park was flooded with up to 10 centimeters of standing water that turned the race track into an Aquadrome. “The rules only allow us rain tyres or slicks, just as they are also used in the FIA-GT3 European Championship. But the fastest times were done with Intermediates, in changeable conditions. This option was not open to us, so our grid position did not represent our true speed.”

The 2 hour race on Sunday got underway under partly sunny skies, on a dry track. Wolfgang Kaufmann had to work his way through a field of no less than 14 GT2 competitors as the slower GT2 cars had been able to qualify in mostly dry conditions. In an excellent 11th place overall, and leading his class, Kaufmann then handed the Corvette over to his team mate Talkanitsa for the middle stint.

In the end, the meagre qualifying result was made up for by victory in the Citation Cup, ahead of some of the favourites from the Aston Martin and Corvette C6.R contingents.