The 12 hours of Imola were quite the experience for all drivers, especially at the halfway point, when the race was halted and restarted completely. Leading up to that restart, the GT4 team was running in the middle of the pack and the restart reset the amount of laps gained and lost tot he cars around, so technically it was a new chance for the GT4 team to make a move and a difference.

“The issue in the end” Mick Trompke, team owner says, “is that we ran into an open knife with the approach we had, not enough practice, off the pace in a car without a good setup. We could’ve put in more work and in the end we might deserve 13th place to learn, what it means to be successfull in an endurance setting like this. Daytona 24 hours tought us a lot about how to approach those races, but we unfortunately made the same mistakes.”

So what happened?

Leading up to the restart they was already a big problem of pace. Trompke started the race and gained a few positions by being more clean than the drivers around, but the crashing cars quickly gained the positions they lost back. “we were running in 12th to 13th at that point and i thought we were doing okay, but i saw from the times and the way i was letting GT3 cars by, that we were losing quite a considerable amount compared to the other cars. We were running into 58s – 59s at points, while i should’ve tried for 54s to keep the pace to the cars in front up.”

“After the 3 hours, I (Trompke) gave the car to Matei Olteanu, who did a very good job warming up to the track, but messed up a few moments, where we amounted 2 warnings from the Stewards. He was fighting, when he shouldn’t have, he was blocking some GT3 cars and in the future we might have to go deeper into an analysis as to why that happened. HIs times were quicker than mine at points but the moment, when we had a crash or spin cost us good time”

The restart of the race was the result of someone landing on their roof at the 6 hour mark, leading to a red flag, that reset the race to the positions at that point, but the advantage or disadvantage of the teams were gone, due to everyone starting on the same lap again. Muffler Shop had the chance and TIm Edens was ready to show everyone, that the Ginetta was a quick car around Imola. With his times, he approached P10 and when it came time to switch, the team already knew, that they couldn’t keep that pace up.

What marked a very interesting change on track yesterday was, when the rain began to fall 5-4 hours before the end of the race, when Trompke was still in the car. “I’m not a rain master at all, but i was kind of imprisoned in the Ginetta at that point. Fuscos stint wasn’t up yet so i kind of jumped in for Tim Edens, making my 5th hour a difficult one in retrospect. I was losing focus quite a lot and then the rain starts… well what do you do? We pitted early for wets and actually managed to snatch a position, but the rain didn’t stay for long. half an hour to 40 minutes later, the track was not dry, and not wet, so my tyres were running a bit hot… When we switched to slicks again, I was still doing wet-times around the 2 minute mark and that hurt our time in the long run. Then the sun went down and we went overboard. I wasn’t getting any penalties or something like that, but the focus was gone at that point. 2 major spins cost us at least 40-50 seconds so i HAD to end my stint, giving Fusco the car at the 3,5 hour mark”

“Fusco did extremely well” Trompke elaborates further “but a few mistakes here and there got us the Drive through. After Tim Edens stint, which was an absolute beauty to watch and the fastest we could push the Ginetta, he amounted 2 cut warning that came to bite us quite hard at the end of the race. Fusco got his Drive through for getting another cut warning and unfortunately something didn’t quite work out alright and we got a 30 seconds stop and go penalty for being too fast in the pits. So after serving that penalty, we were in last place.”

“Everything at that point was very weird, sometimes we would gain quite a lot and sometimes we would be last again. I guess the night always has something in store for you” 1 hour before the end of the race, rain struck again, but much lighter than expected, Fusco and Mativeri (LAME x Muffler Shop) decided to stay out and hope for good conditions in a few minutes. Trompke says: “Right on time, we filled Fuscos car up with the necessary fuel to end the race and the slicks to end them. We made the best out of that rain segment and got some time for it.” The last 15 minutes of the race were quite the entertainment, when Fusco did his best to secure 13th in the end, instead of staying 14th

What was also very unfortunate was the disqualification of Muffler Shop Racing, the GT3 team that was gunning for the good positions in the first half of the race. Amounting a “stop and go” penalty, Stattin missed the pitbox and reversed to make it back to it, which resulted in a disqualification for the remaining race for driving in the wrong direction.

While everyone under Muffler Shop got into problems on the grid today, it was still a very enjoyable race and with future racies coming up, Muffler Shop has to decide, how to approach the big races and don’t count on just winging it.