Victory for Hexis-McLaren in City Challenge Baku GT race

Published on 28 October 2012 by Niels Hendrix

Hexis-McLaren duo Frédéric Makowiecki and Stef Dusseldorp won the one hour City Challenge GT race, the headline competition of the inaugural running of the City Challenge event on the 2.144 kilometres long street circuit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. In the race with mandatory pit stop including tyre and driver change, the French/Dutch combination with the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 ended up ahead of two BMW Z4 GT3s, both run by the Vita4One team, with German/Austrian pairing Frank Kechele and Mathias Lauda second and Dutch/Austrian duo Yelmer Buurman and Nicolaus Mayr-Melnhof third. Victory in the Porsche Cup class went to Archie Hamiton and Ben Barker who finished tenth overall with their Konrad Motorsport entry.

Starting from pole position, Makowiecki took the lead ahead of Kechele and Buurman with the two BMWs and from then on, it was a lights-to-flag affair for the Hexis-McLaren, Stef Dusseldorf having taken over the steering wheel after 'Mako' had come in for the mandatory pit stop on lap 30. Eventually, the Dutchman crossed the finish line with a margin of 4.517 seconds over Lauda, who was the second driver in the fastest of the Vita4One-BMWs having taken over from Kechele. Another 0.512 seconds down, Nicolaus Mayr-Melnhof came home third with the other BMW he shared with Yelmer Buurman. Ex-Formula 1 drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Jos Verstappen made their GT3 debut with the Vita4One team's third BMW Z4. They finished seventh."A great way to end the season," said race winner Makowiecki. BMW driver Kechele commented: "I had so much fun, I almost didn't want to come in for the pit stop." His team-mate Buurman added: "The atmosphere during the formation lap with the packed grandstands was just amazing."

Next to the City Challenge GT race, the third and final day of the City Challenge Baku also saw action from the Gymkhana Drift Competition, with victory for Luxemburg's Rohan van Riel, driving a BMW M5 Widebody, ahead of Alex Gräff (BMW M3) and René Partz (Nissan Skyline R33). With his Benetton B197, Dutchman Marijn van Kalmthout came out on top in the City Challenge Grand Prix for powerful single seaters, ahead of Johann Ledermaier and Bernd Herndlhofer, both with Dallara- Renault machines.

Hartmut Beyer, C.E.O. of City Challenge GmbH, hailed the inaugural running of the event in Baku as a great success: "The reception and the feedback we have had here was simply amazing. Everybody was very enthusiastic and with 19,750 spectators, we had an impressive crowd. We definitely are looking forward to coming back next year!"

Niels Hendrix