GTO: CRS Racing Barcelona summary

SECOND PODIUM FOR MULLEN & CHRISTODOULOU

Tim Mullen and Adam Christodoulou took a hard fought second place in the penultimate race of the 2010 International GT Open in Barcelona yesterday. They then finished off the season with a top ten finish in the final race today. Klaas Hummel and Chris Goodwin took a good 12th place finish in race one, before retiring close to the end of today's race with a technical problem but still being classified in 17th.

Tim got away well at the start of race one, moving up from seventh on the grid to fifth by the start of lap two. Klaas had a good start from 25th, also gaining two places. By the half hour mark Tim was right up into third place and getting stuck into the battle for the lead. He fought hard to take second place from Matt Griffin, then set off after the bright yellow No. 11 Kessel Ferrari of Phillipp Peter. As the pit window opened Tim made his move on Peter and took the lead of the race.

After the pit stops Adam Christodoulou found himself in second place as the No.91 CRS Ferrari had a longer pit-stop penalty than the No.11 car. He hunted the yellow Ferrari down though and stormed into the lead. Unfortunately the hunter then became the hunted and, after holding off a charging Alvaro Parente for a long time, both cars ran wide and Parente took the lead, and ultimately the win, with just a few minutes left to go. Klaas Hummel had a great run in the first half before handing over to Chris Goodwin who also had some good battles before finishing in a fine 12th place.

The start of race two this morning was a messy one: the driver in front of Adam, lining up in third, was caught napping as the lights went green so Adam got boxed in. Chris Goodwin had a clear run and went around the outside of the rolling roadblock and moved from ninth to sixth, with Adam right behind him.

All ran smoothly until the pit stops when a small problem lost time for the No.91 car, leaving Tim Mullen down in 13th place. He soon got busy though and hauled himself up to 10th for the chequered flag. Klaas, now in the No.90 car, was really on it today but was scuppered with just four laps to go by a gear linkage problem, which forced him to retire. He still took 17th though and showed his true pace before the retirement.

"Yesterday was our best team result of the GT Open season," said CRS MD, Mark Busfield. "It's great to see Klaas performing so well. He has really upped his game and I think the testing we have done here really helped him. It's good to finish the season with a podium so well done to Tim and Adam."

-source: crs racing