What a laptime!!
Another busy weekend for Idola Motorsport's Praga R1T cars at the Donington GP round of Sports Prototype/Zeo Prototype Cup. The weather would play a big part in the results with a combination of blazing sunshine and torrential downpours. Idola would end up with a fantastic podium and fastest lap of the weekend.
A great day testing on Friday saw drivers Rodolfo Gonzalez and Ruben Stanislaus honing their cars alongside our Race Technicians to get the best setup for Sundays race. During the final session an issue developed with Rodolfos car so the Venezualan was having to swap to a different car for Sunday with very little time to acclimatise himself.
It was hotting up already for the 9am qualifying session, and with less than a second covering the top 3 Ruben was to line up on row 2 behind the UWE Praga R1 of Shane Kelly/Jess Hawkins and Graham Charman in his Juno. Rodolfo was on row 3 whilst getting to grips with the spare Idola car.
Race 1 saw Ruben battling straight away for the lead and this led to a race long battle between him, Mike Jenvey, Graham's Juno and the UWE Praga. Ruben was leading for a good chunk of the race, and it went right down to the wire when a last minute safety car closed the pack up. In the end Ruben came in 2nd behind Jenvey but it was so close it could have gone either way up to the chequered flag.
Rodolfo's untested car needed a power cycle on his first flying lap which dropped him well down the pack - but once he got going again had the bit between his teeth and powered his way back towards the front. But this was not to be Rodolfo's race and a coming together with the Norma of Max Windheuser after he rejoined the track, left the Praga stranded in the Redgate gravel trap.
Race 2 saw Ruben starting from row 2 again next to Richard Morris in the Revolution 500. on front row was the UWE Praga and Charman's Juno. With everyone on slicks - the rain started spotting during the formation lap and when the lights went out Ruben quickly took the lead. Rodolfo started in 14th after his race 1 DNF but by the end of lap 1 was up in the top 5 cars after a stunning opening lap. As Ruben started to pull out a lead the dark clouds loomed overhead and within 10 minutes the heavens opened and the rain came down. With Ruben being out front it was him who had to determine the available grip and the decision was made that as the lap times grew and the track slicked up - a change to wets would be prudent. An early safety car was the trigger for Ruben and Rodolfo to come in for wet tyres and the 2 cars were dispatched from the pit lane in double quick time. It was one of those calls which could have gone either way - more rain was forecast but it turned out not to come soon enough and as Ruben dropped down the order to finish 11th.
After Rodolfo's initial surge to the front, his change to wets had a similar effect and he was dropping back to the point where he made the call to change back to slicks. After this he showed a masterclass in driving, with fastest lap after fastest lap - resulting in the quickest lap of the weekend of a 1.25.7 - nearly half a second quicker than anyone else and an astonishing lap for a Praga!!!
To put this into perspective: The British GT Championship lap record was set in a McLaren 720s GT3 in 2020 by the duo of Stewart Proctor / Joe Osbourne in qualifying, with a lap time of 1:26.58. The World Superbike Championship lap record was set in 2022 by Jonathan Rea with a 1.26.23 lap time. Praga R1, Driven by Rodolfo Gonzalez on a drying track on 2 hour old tyres, 1.25.70.
So a weekend of highs and lows for the team - we came away with some great results and lots of experience gained on track. As we prepare for our next Zeo round at Brands Hatch in August - we are also also hatching plans for more exciting races in Europe so stay tuned for news.
