Brno Eurosport Super Racing Weekends 16/04/2001   Brno Preview   Monza was an eventful start to the season – more eventful than some would like. 35 cars are listed for the second round on April 16 at Brno, so it’s more or less the standard entry, minus one Mac Racing Porsche and one JMB Ferrari, but with the addition of an Alda Motorsport 911 GT2 from Poland. The latter shouldn’t have a dramatic affect on the results. First rounds of any championship rarely reflect the full potential; that tends to come once those early teething troubles have been eradicated. But despite problems for such as the Carsport Vipers, there was enough happening on the track at the old Autodromo to confirm that this series is on the up. What both classes are crying out for is some success from Ferrari products. The Rafanelli 550s look as though they are almost there in the GT class, while Pescatori and Terrien are sure that their JMB 360 can beat all the Porsches in N-GT before long. If and when the Ferraris taste sucess in the two classes, then Stephane Ratel can truly claim that the modern FIA GT Championship – with cars developed by private teams - has arrived. For now though, it looks like Lister against Viper for ultimate honours in GT, and Porsche to carry on winning in N-GT. The lead Lister will have a 40 kg handicap in the Czech Republic, against 30 for the Larbre Viper. Not enough to make a difference in the battle between them, but maybe enough to bring the opposition closer. That should be the Belmondo Vipers, the GLPK Viper (repaired after a Tamas Illes crash at Monza), the Carsport Vipers...and the Rafanelli 550s. But with Richard Dean in the Lister for this race (Tom Coronel is busy with his original commitments in Dutch Touring cars), perhaps the Lister won’t ‘notice’ all of those 40 kg with him aboard – he’s very much jockey sized. The Listers suffered with fuel contamination in Italy, but overcame that problem to take the win and start out 2001 just as they did 2000. The 2001 cars are still very new (yes, they are brand new chassis, despite rumours to the contrary), but the Lister refinements seem to work in ways that have so far eluded Mike Hezemans’ Vipers. Have the Dutch team cured their oil tank problems in time for race two? N-GT saw an unexpected winner at Monza; somehow, Pirelli tyres went from unfashionable last year to the best thing since sliced bread two weeks ago. Johnny Cecotto is joined by Andrea Montermini this time, so the other fancied runners might have at least as hard a time. RWS changed all four tyres at Monza when they apparently didn’t need to, slipping out of the top three and never fully recovering, but Luca Riccitelli will always be one of the really quick guys in this class. Michel Neugarten is likewise very quick, but his dose of luck ran out at Monza just before the flag. Some of the other quick guys didn’t shine as expected first time out, but such as Tim Sugden, Wolfgang Kaufmann and Stephane Ortelli will surely stamp their mark on proceedings in due course. It looks as though the races won’t go the way of just two teams, as they did last year. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport