CSRO's 2022 August CGT3/4 Round #2 Recap...

This past weekend, the Caribbean GT3/4 Championship took to the historical Nürburgring Circuit for its second round of the series. The event saw some major changes to the grid and a major shakeup towards the end of the race.

Qualifying saw the promoted GT4 driver, Trinidadian Declan Daniel taking pole position in his McLaren 720s. Within the twenty minutes, he managed to place eight laps and accomplished a time of 1:56.598. In the second spot was Guyanese Oswyne Wilson in his Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo with a time of 1:56.723, just .125 of a second to Declan's. In third was newcomer South African Morné Du Plooy in his Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo with a time of 1:56.891, some .168 of a second behind Oswyne. In fourth was Guyanese John Greene in his Bentley Continental GT3 with a time of 1:57.030 to place him some .139 of a second behind Morné. And to round off the top five in qualifying was Trinidadian Dominic Charles in his Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo with a time of 1:57.169 to sit him some .139 of a second behind John. See the full results below:

Qualifying Results for Round #2 of the CGT3/4 Championship

It was Guyanese Oswyne Wilson with the whole shot at the race start to take that first position away from Trinidadian Declan Daniel. Declan then came under pressure from Guyanese John Greene as the South African Morné Du Plooy would fall down the order and see sixth position after a horrible start. The race proved to be action-packed and even more surprising towards the end. I'll leave that for you to watch in our Extended Highlights Video below. See the official classification results and our extended highlight video of the event below:

Race Results for Round #2 of the CGT3/4 Championship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xDk9nYzFmw

Extended Race Highlights for Round #2 of the CGT3/4 Championship

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CSRO's Caribbean GT3/4 Championship enters Round #2...

Tonight we go racing for the second time in our Caribbean GT3/4 Championship. Since our last event at the top of the week on the 7th, the competitors have been taking their machines around the infamous Nürburgring. The track is a 150,000-person motorsport complex and is located in Nurburg Germany. Its Gran Prix track was built in 1984 and is 5.148 km (3.199 Miles) in length. It has a total of twelve turns and is currently being used by major organising bodies for various events including the FIA WTCR Race of Germany, DTM and TCR Europe to name a few. It was last used in F1 for the Eifel Gran Prix of 2020 where Max Verstappen claimed the track record with a 1:28.139 in his Red Bull Racing RB16.

CSRO's Caribbean GT3/4 Round #2 Banner

As the week is coming to an end, so marks the end of the competitor's free practice session. The free practice session is where the competitors have access to the race track to test and tune their cars over the course of six-plus days. But it didn't begin without some controversy. There were reports of competitors from Mercedes and Audi, in particular, making complaints to the CSRO's Technical Authority over the Balance of Performance (BOP) of the Bentley Continental GT3. The Authority has since made some changes to the Bentley by adding more restrictions to that manufacturer which seemingly brought the times down even closer to competition.

GT3

Trinidadian Declan Daniel after being promoted up from GT4 managed to place his McLaren 720s GT3 on the top spot with a 1:56.971. He did it in 26 laps with a top speed of 244.24 Km/h. Following some .056 of a second behind was Jamaican Kurt Moss in his Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo with a time of 1:57.027. He managed to do it within a total of 61 laps and 248.97 Km/h. In third is Guyanese John Greene seemingly falling back at the Nürburgring in his Bentley Continental GT3 after CSRO's Technical Authority intervened due to complaints from rivalling teams reaching them earlier in the week. John posted a time of 1:57.069 to sit some .042 of a second behind Kurt Moss. He did the time in a total of 23 Laps and his max speed recorded was 250.18 Km/h which is the fastest speed recorded so far. In the fourth position was Trinidadian Dominic Charles who again did not seem up to par with the rest of the field in his Audi R8 LMS Evo GT3 as he only managed to post a 1:57.188 that sits him some .119 of a second behind John Green. He managed the time within 33 laps and 242.23 Km/h. To round up the top five in GT3 was Guyanese Oswyne Wilson in his Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo with a time of 1:58.309 which sits him some 1.121 seconds behind Dominic Charles. He managed to do it within 38 laps and 248.45 Km/h. Competitor Sean Lee does not plan to compete and as such his time will not be officially recorded.

GT4

Within the GT4 class, there was a very shallow turnout as many of the competitors from Jamaica were not going to be present as they attended their local race meet today. Those who were present managed the following. A newcomer to the CSRO family, South African Morné Du Plooy topped the timing charts in his Alpine A110 GT4 with a time of 2:07.339 as he was placed there for evaluation. He did so within 14 laps and 223.29 Km/h. Guyanese Raul Partab challenged his time and was very close to taking the top spot with a 2:07.486 in his Alpine A110 GT4 Car. That sits him some .147 of a second behind Morné with it being some in some 33 laps and of him reaching a top speed of 223.09 Km/h. In third was Jamaican Jayden Harrison in his Aston Martin Vantage GT4 car with a 2:09.878 that sat him some 2.392 seconds behind Raul in 68 laps and at 224.45 Km/h, clearly the fastest top speed attained in GT4. Rounding up the GT4 classification was Jamaican Jevaughan Edie in his Mercedes AMG GT4 car with a 2:15.177. Edie did not really set a competitive time as he did not plan on competing today as well.

Free Practice Timing Sheet for Round #2 of CGT3/4 Championship

Tonight's event goes live on our YouTube channel (here...) from 6 pm Jamaican time/ 7 pm Easter Caribbean Time (-4UTC).

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CSRO's 2022 August CGT3/4 Round #1 Recap...

On the 7th of August, the CSRO held its inaugural Caribbean GT3/ GT4 round opener at the infamous Daytona International Speedway. The event would be the first for the CSRO in that it would be the first time they would have both classifications run simultaneously in the event. Needless to say, the event was a huge hit which saw it garner two hundred plus views in less than 12 hours of it being live streamed on their YouTube channel (linked here). Small figures for some, but for the region and SIM-Racing only now taking off, it speaks margins.

In qualifying, GT3 saw a familiar face at the top of the charts. Guyanese John Greene in the Bentley Continental GT3 was on top with a blistering 1:45.940, but following close behind by some .063 of a second was Jamaican Nathan Bryan in another Bentley clenching 1:46.003. The third position was not far off as Guyanese Oswyne Wilson in his Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo mustered up a 1:46.020 to sit some .017 of a second behind Nathan. In fourth Jamaican Kurt Moss in another Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo managed a 1:46.056 to sit some .036 behind Oswyne Wilson. Rounding up the top five was Trinidadian Dominic Charles who surprisingly only managed 1:46.210 in his Audi R8 LMS Evo to sit some .154 behind Kurt Moss.

In the GT4 Classification, we saw a latecomer to the championship, Trinidadian Declan Daniel in his Porsche 918 Cayman GT4 Clubsport posted a 1:54.380 to claim pole position. Declan was placed in GT4 as he missed out on the Qualifiers to determine which classification he would belong to for future races. Guyanese Raul Partab would come in the second position with a 1:55.443 in his Alpine A110 GT4 to sit some 1.063 seconds behind Declan Daniel proving that Declan was indeed out of Class. In the third position was Jamaican Sebastian Palmer in his Audi R8 LMS GT4 car with a 1:56.191, some .748 trailing behind Raul. In the Fourth position was Jamaican Rojaun Reid who managed a 1:56.330 in his Alpine A110 GT4 that placed him some .139 of a second behind his countryman Sebastian Palmer. And to round up the top five for GT4 was Jamaican Joshua Brady with a 1:58.270 that would set him some 1.940 seconds behind his countryman Rojaun Reid.

See the full list of qualifying for both classes below:

Qualifying Results for Round #1 of the CGT3/4 Championship

The race would prove to be a very eventful one which started staggered to separate GT3 from GT4 but nearly immediately after the rolling started shifted into full race mode we saw a full course yellow to bring it under the control of the Race Director, Stefan Gajie, once again. During the start, Jamaican's Kurt Moss and Michen Wallace along with Trinidadian Dominic Charles were three wide approaching turn one when Kurt moved from the high side of the banking to the inside line which pushed Dominic Charles off his line and, well, in his words, "...into the shadow realm.". Gt4 did not get the green as the course went full yellow and restarted the rolling start, this time in a single file.

In the second rolling start it would still prove to be tricky getting all cars through turns but this time they survived up to turn three where there was an incident involving Kurt Moss again, Christian Rajnauth, Michen Wallace and Tavar Clarke. In the GT4 Sebastian Palmer would jump into the first position after their start and he would hold on to that until Raul Partab would miss his braking point into turn ten which would push Sebastian off the racing line and into the tyre barrier. Raul would try to wait on Sebastian but Sebastian would spin again coming out of turn 11 as his tyres might have overheated.

The Bentley's proved superior at Daytona, utilising the power under their hoods on the very long bankings but only John Greene was able to utilise the power as he was offered a whole shot opportunity and never looked back. He lead the race from start to finish.

For more on the Full Race Results in both classifications and our Extended Video Highlights, see below:

Race Results for Round #1 of the CGT3/4 Championship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNchoiQ39tg

Extended Race Highlights for Round #1 of the CGT3/4 Championship

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