Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals: Egor Orudzhev best in the world after tense second race ends in a dead heat

Leitch/McIntosh win Pro-Am title as Kuppens and Harmsen prevail in Am and LB Cup

Sant’Agata Bolognese/Jerez de la Frontera, 17 November 2024 – Egor Orudzhev claimed a dramatic victory in the Lamborghini World Finals at Jerez de la Frontera, winning the Pro title on a tiebreak and overcoming a drivethrough penalty in the last race of the season.

The Art-Line driver finished fourth in the opening race and won the second encounter, despite having to serve a drivethrough penalty for jumping the start. A subsequent full course yellow speeding investigation briefly cast a shadow over his eventual victory, but Orudzhev came out on top.

Brendon Leitch and Anthony McIntosh (#99 Leipert Motorsport) picked up their first Pro-Am title with a pair of victories, the latter narrowly missing out on a double World Finals triumph in the Am class, as Renaud Kuppens (#2 Boutsen VDS) was crowned. Meanwhile, in the Lamborghini Cup class, Holger Harmsen (#90 GT3 Poland) wrapped up the title in fine style by claiming both wins.

Pro/Pro-Am

Race 1

European Pro champion Amaury Bonduel (#28 BDR Competition by Grupo Prom) took pole position for the opening race and initially held his lead off the rolling start, but his race was over before it even got going as Danny Formal (#101 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti) made contact at turn one, forcing the Belgian out of the race. That gave Hampus Ericsson (#31 Target Racing) the early lead from Pro-Am leader Andy Lee (#114 Flying Lizard Motorsports) with Formal third. The safety car was called as Bonduel’s car was recovered from the gravel trap, with Ericsson maintaining the lead at the restart. Both Formal and Georgi Dimitrov (#43 Iron Lynx) managed to get past Lee, who in turn was leading a train of Pro cars including Loris Cabirou (#130 Ansa Motorsports) and Giorgio Amati (#42 Iron Lynx), while Pro-Am rival Andrea Frassineti (#16 VSR) lurked behind. Formal was the first of the leading runners to make his pit-stop, swapping with Ryan Norman, but the pair were handed a 10-second penalty for their part in the first lap contact, dropping them to 14^th at the end. Ericsson waited until the end of the window to come in and rejoined with a slender lead over Edgar Maloigne. When the window closed, the safety car came out again to retrieve the stricken car of Frassineti who ended up in the turn 12 gravel trap following contact with the #42 Iron Lynx car of Jesse Salamenautio. Ericsson then led from the restart but was forced to do it all again after a multi-car incident cost Slade Stewart the Pro-Am lead in the #114 car. He was collected by Benedetto Strignano (#15 Rexal Villorba Corse) at turn 10, with Paul Levet (#34 Oregon Team) also hit by Sebastian Balthasar (#70 Leipert Motorsport) on exit. That allowed Brendon Leitch (#99 Leipert Motorsport) to take the victory alongside Anthony McIntosh, with Nate Stacy and Nick Persing (#108 WTRAndretti) completing the podium. Maloigne and Dimitrov finished second on the road in Pro but were demoted to third behind Bryson Morris and Cabirou after a 0.687s pit-stop penalty.

Race 2

Bonduel got the best getaway from his second pole position to lead into turn one, as Ericsson slipped back to third behind a fast-starting Orudzhev. The #75 Art-Line driver’s start was judged to be too fast, earning him a jump-start drivethrough penalty which he took just before a full course yellow period was called after Giano Taurino (#188 TR3 Racing) crashed at high-speed at turn six while running inside the top five. With the track declared wet ahead of the start, rain fell briefly during the 50-minute encounter making conditions far from ideal. At the FCY restart, Bonduel continued to lead but Orudzhev then dived past Söderström (#9 Target Racing) under braking for turn two. Due to the timing of the FCY, the pit window was delayed by five minutes, but Bonduel coughed up a handy six-second lead by coming in before the window was opened, requiring a passage through the pits at reduced speed, and dropping to second behind Orudzhev. Ericsson, who was beginning to struggle with his tyres, then fell behind Cabirou (#130 Ansa Motorsports) after taking over from Morris to fourth. Entering the final stages, both Orudzhev and Ericsson were tied on 23 points, with Cabirou and Morris on 22. Orudzhev duly took the race win but had to wait until a further full course yellow investigation was resolved before being confirmed as the World Finals winner from Ericsson [Super Trofeo World Finals countback regulations state that the driver with the fastest lap in race two is declared the winner] and Morris/Cabirou. In Pro-Am, Miloš Pavlović (#33 ASR) led the early stages from John Capestro Dubets (#146 Precision Performance Motorsports) and Leitch. Approaching the pit-stops, Leitch got ahead of Dubets and then moved into the lead of the race as Pavlović swapped with Alessio Ruffini. Leitch then handed over to McIntosh who mixed it with the leading Pro runners inside the top 10, securing a second successive win to wrap up the World Finals in style. Stacy and Persing (#108 WTRAndretti) were second, while last year’s Pro-Am winners Alex Au and Frederik Schandorff (#81 Target Racing) finished third.

Egor Orudzhev (#57 Art-Line), Pro World Finals winner: “When I got the drivethrough penalty, I thought it was all over, but we got really, really lucky with the full course yellow, because if we waited a few seconds longer, we would not have been allowed to enter the pit-lane. It’s just an amazing feeling to win, big thanks to my team Art-Line and my team-mate Shota, without whom I could not have been racing this year.”

Brendon Leitch (#99 Leipert Motorsport) Pro-Am World Finals winner: “Tony brought the thing home and he did an amazing job in the end; he was battling amongst the Pro, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team-mate. Like Tony said yesterday, it’s a lot harder watching than driving and I was so nervous during the race.”

Anthony McIntosh (#99 Leipert Motorsport): “I couldn’t have done this without Brendon, he’s been an amazing co-driver and the team Leipert Motorsport has been incredible. I don’t know if I am living in a dream because someone needs to wake me up!

Am/Lamborghini Cup

Race 1

Stéphane Tribaudini (#66 VSR) dominated qualifying on Saturday morning, taking pole position by over half a second, but lost out to fellow front-row starter Stéphane Lemeret (#27 CMR) on the run towards the first corner. It wasn’t long before the action got a bit too close for comfort as Dominic Starkweather (#147 Precision Performance Motorsports) got tagged at turn four and sent spinning into the gravel trap. His heavily beached car brought out the safety car. Donovan Privitelio (#8 Rexal Villorba Corse) also took a trip through the turn four gravel in avoidance while the unfortunate Garrett Adams (#107 Ansa Motorsports) partially lost his rear wing after getting clipped by Starkweather’s car. Lemeret led away at the restart with Tribaudini in hot pursuit, while Renaud Kuppens (#2 Boutsen VDS) was chased hard by Glenn McGee (#169 WTRAndretti). The latter showed strong pace in the early laps after the restart and nearly got by Kuppens into the final corner with a late lunge to the inside. Kuppens held on but McGee then pulled off a superb overtake on the approach to turn one to take third place. Of the Lamborghini Cup runners, Shota Abkhazava (#75 Art-Line) pitted first but was handed a 30-second post-race penalty for overtaking under safety car conditions and would later drop to sixth. In Am, Anthony McIntosh took over from McGee and took second place from Gillion and looked set to challenge Randazzo for the lead before the safety car was deployed again following a heavy crash for Changwoo Lee (#263 SQDA – GRIT Motorsport) on the exit of turn five. McIntosh kept the pressure on Randazzo at the restart, with four minutes remaining, and made his move on the inside of turn eight. Randazzo fought back at ran deep at turn nine, making contact with McIntosh and forcing the WTRAndretti car wide. Randazzo somehow maintained his lead but was handed a five-second penalty which dropped him to fourth, promoted to third after a 30-second penalty for Andrzej and Adrian Lewandowski for overtaking under yellow flags. Kuppens inherited the win with McIntosh and McGee second. Harmsen won LB Cup from Jon Hirshberg (#186 Forte Racing) and Alfredo Hernandez Ortega (#77 BDR Competition by Grupo Prom).

Race 2

Starting second on the grid but on pole in the Am class, Kuppens entered the second race of the weekend with a four-point margin over McIntosh and McGee, and knew he only needed to finish one place behind to win the title. At the start, Biglieri led off overall pole position and maintained his advantage into the first corner. Further back, Randazzo mis-judged his braking and hit the back of Abkhazava, significantly damaging the front-right of his car and ending both of their respective Am and LB Cup chances. Biglieri, Kuppens and McIntosh ran close together throughout the opening stint, with McIntosh the first of the leading cars to make their pit-stop when the window opened. The opening salvo of the race was full of incident: Haziq Zairel Oh (#205 HZO Fortis Racing Team) brought out a short safety car period after spinning off at turn one, while Anthony Bullock (#112 One Motorsports) had a scary moment exiting turn five when he clipped the rear of Abkhzava and briefly got airborne. That caused a full course yellow, during which both Laurent Hurgon (#13 Schumacher CLRT) and Andrzej Lewandowski (#3 ASR) received 30-second post-race penalties for overtaking under yellow. Having spent three seconds less at the pit-stop, McGee claimed the lead of the race ahead of Kuppens and resisted the Belgian until the chequered flag; Kuppens’ second place was enough to secure the Am Worid Finals title, as Garret Adams (#107 Ansa Motorsports) finished third. Biglieri made his pit-stop at the last moment before handing over to Petar Matić. Unfortunately for the ASR pairing, they ran into alternator issues and finished eighth. That enabled North American LB Cup champion Nick Groat to finish second with Luciano and Donovan Privitelio rounding out the podium finishers in third.

Renaud Kuppens (#2 Boutsen VDS), Am World Finals winner: “Getting the pole position yesterday was really important, I knew that but finally in the race, it proved to be more than good enough. During the race, I was calculating everything, I knew that they [McIntosh and McGee] were faster but when I saw the safety car come out, I thought it was all gone. But even if the race restarted, I was confident I could hang on.”

Holger Harmsen (#90 GT3 Poland), Lamborghini Cup World Finals winner: “It is an unbelievable feeling. Yes, I won the race, but we won this as a team, they pushed me a lot throughout the race and kept me updated on the positions behind me, so it was under control, and it is a fantastic way to end the season.”

Attention now shifts to the 2025 season, which will conclude with the traditional season-closing World Finals at the Misano World Circuit in Italy. The 12^th edition of the Finals will take place on the weekend of 6-9 November.