Last weekend, the competitors of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo took part to the third round of the 2016 European Championship on the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit, in south of France.

It is under very hot conditions that Sarah Bovy and Ben Gersekowski started their race weekend on Friday with one main objective: finally define the right set-up for their car after the Silverstone race where they struggled hard to find a good balance.

"The Huracán Super Trofeo is an amazing car but also a jewel of technology", Sarah said. "The influence of the set-up is therefore determining on our overall performance. As we have no opportunity to test between the races ─ contrary to a lot of our competitors ─, we have to learn during the race weekends and try to find the good set-up, ideally during the free practices, on Fridays. If you add to that the fact that we don't have new tyres to work on the set-up during those free sessions, you will understand how easy it is to take the wrong direction".

"After the end of the first day and the two first sessions, we actually were nowhere. When we finally used new tyres to start the qualifications, the progresses compared to Silverstone were not significant. With Ben and our (new) engineer, we thus decided to start again almost from a blank page between quali 2 and race 1. That was clearly the right decision. The team and mechanics of Leipert Motorsport did a great job to completely modify the set-up and make the car ready for the race".

It is thus with a high motivation and big hopes that Sarah presented her green and orange car on the grid of race 1, starting from 19th position (out of 47 cars). After a great start, Sarah was already in 15th position at the end of the first lap and was fighting to join the top 10 when a gearbox issue obliged her to slow down the pace.

"The car was really good and I was over-motivated to give the wheel back to Ben in P 10 or better. However, with the very hot temperatures, something broke in the gearbox, making it very difficult to use the 6th and then 3nd and 4th gears. I therefore tried to do my best to bring the car back at the end of my stint without loosing positions. Ben then did a great job and managed to keep an excellent pace, notwithstanding our gearbox issues, to finally claim the 8th place in category".

Taking the start of race 2, Ben Gersekowski took a brilliant start, catching no less than nine positions in only one lap. With a car having now a great set-up (and the gearbox issue completely fixed thanks to the mechanic's hard work during the evening), Ben made an excellent stint to bring the car back and pass the wheel to Sarah in 15th position. Notwithstanding a penalty for having left the pitlane a few tents before the end of the minimum required time for driver change, Sarah finally crossed the line within the top 10 of the category, scoring again for the championship.

"All in all, it’s a good week-end, even if we know that with the new set-up we found for the car, together with Leipert Motorsport and our new engineer, we could have claimed a podium in the two races! Anyway, we now know that the car ─ and drivers ─ are able to do it and we have definitely made huge progresses in our understanding of the car. I cannot wait for the next race in Francorchamps. I really thing we will be able to fight for a podium there, at least! This would be the best manner to thank the team, our mechanics, and of course our partners and supporters during my home race.
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Come and join us on 29 and 30 July in Spa Francorchamps, during the 24h of Spa weekend, to live with us a great event!”.

Last week-end, the Super Trofeo Europe was in Silverstone for the second round of the championship. Sarah Bovy and Ben Gersekowski, on the green and orange Huracán #2, were presents and over-motivated after their good debuts in the trofeo, last April in Monza.
 
“I was really looking forward to sitting again in my beastly Huracán this week-end”, Sarah says. “Even more on such a quick and fascinating track, which I know well after having won the 24 hours here earlier this year. Obviously, taming the 620 hp of the Trofeo is always a challenge but I’m well prepared and feel really good in the car.  
Unfortunately, we never found the good set up on that difficult circuit. During the first session, we tried a very aggressive set up. This was a disaster and we came back to something more conventional for the next session. During FP2, the balance was better and the car became more ‘drivable’ but we still missed two seconds ½ . Even if we had ideas on how to improve the car and make it quicker, we had not enough time to test it and thus decided not to make too many changes in view of the qualifications”.
 
Sarah eventually qualified the car for race 1 in 8th position in class (17th out of 45 cars), ahead of the two other cars of the team. Her teammate did almost equally well with the 9th best time in class for race 2.
 
“We should have lower the front of the car and reduce the angle of the rear wing but we had already changed a lot on the general set up and notably on the rear dumpers”, Sarah explains. “We wanted to avoid discovering a completely new balance during the qualifications as the timing is so tight. The ‘lost’ session on Friday morning really cost us a lot. Given the circumstances, I’m not unhappy with my time in qualifications; I fought really hard behind the wheel and it would have been difficult to go faster”.
 
After a first race ruined by a puncture in the last lap and a disappointing 9th place under the chequered flag, Sarah and Ben fought hard in race 2, with notably a lot of overtakings for Sarah during her stint, to eventually cross the line in 7th position and score four additional points for the championship:
 
“I really enjoyed my stint in race 2 as I had to make a few very brave overtakings to gain race positions. I think that certain competitors will need new pants after our fight wheel-to-wheel at more than 200 km/h. More seriously, while I’m happy to leave Silverstone with 6 additional points, I’m frustrated that we could not find the good balance and get a better result. But we have learnt a lot from our mistakes and will definitely do a better job for the preparation of next race in Paul-Ricard. Before that, I will be in Imola this week for the Lamborghini Accademia, where I will discover another part of my job for the Squadra Corse! Can’t wait!”
 
The next race of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo will take place in the Paul-Ricard on 24-25-26 June.

These 23rd and 24th of April, the most famous, prestigious and competitive racing teams and drivers were meeting in Monza for the first round of the 2016 Lamborghini Super Trofeo, the world fastest one-make serie. Leipert Motorsport, Sarah Bovy and Ben Gersekowski were there too: 

"As a driver, it's an amazing feeling to walk across the paddock of the Blancpain GT wearing the official colours of Lamborghini”, says Sarah. “It's even more special in Monza, a legendary track were you can feel and see the "Furious Bull" all around you !"

"My first feeling when I get on the track was that the Huracàn Super Trofeo is definitely not only a gorgeous car; it’s also a phenomenal racing machine! With 620 HP, an engine that never stops pushing and an incredible grip in the fastest corners, the ‘Lambo’ is quicker than most GT3 cars! I was also impressed by the number and the general level of the competitors of the Trofeo, which is really high and qualitative".

A feeling that was confirmed during the qualifications on Saturday morning: 

"With 47 cars, 71 drivers participating to the race, and 15 minutes of qualification each, the exercise was really challenging. Ben took the first part of the quali and struggled to find a clean lap with the right tyre pressure. He qualified 26th of his session. Directly after, it was my shot. I managed to squeeze a 1.49.5 while being slowed down by the traffic in the last sector. With a predictive time in 1.48.6 at the end of the second sector, the top 10 overall for my first quali ever in Super Trofeo was feasible! I eventually had to content myself with the 16th position out of 47 cars. Honestly, even if I expected a better outcome, I’m happy with our pace and I know that we can improve it again with experience".

Unfortunately for the enthusiastic duo, the first race on Saturday afternoon was shortened by a race incident: 

"Ben took a great start, he was fast and gaining position already in his first lap. Unfortunately, he missed his ideal line and took a bit too much curbs in Ascari's chicane. He paid it the hard way and got out of the track. Even if the car was not damaged, the race was over as it was stuck against the wall. It's a small mistake that any driver could have done so I'm not blaming him at all. It's just part of the race". 

On Sunday, the # 2 green and orange Huracan Super Trofeo was ready to fight again. This time, Sarah was behind the wheel for the start of the race: 

"I can tell you it's a completely insane feeling to get on the grid of such a race. I wanted to take a good start to avoid incident in the first chicane and that's what I did. After the first lap, I started filling the gap with a few cars fighting for the top 10 of the race. I realised that I was faster and started overtaking a few of them. My pace was really good and I felt confident in the car. Suddenly two cars crashed just in front of me in Ascari and I miraculously managed to avoid both of them. Right after, the safety car was deployed".

This first safety car of the season was also the opportunity for most of the cars to get in the pits for the mandatory driver change. 

"When I pitted in, I was 13th overall and 5th in class. However, when Ben jumped in the car we encountered an issue to bind the belts. This problem made us losing a lot of time and racing positions as all the cars were very close due to the safety car." 

With 15 seconds lost in the pits, Ben and Sarah lost more than 15 positions on track… but this was not enough to stop their positive mind-set and the wish to show their ambitions! 

"It's true, the weekend was not perfect. But we learned tons of good lessons from that first experience”, notice Sarah. “We eventually managed to finish P17th overall and 9th in class. It means we officially score our two first point in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, this for our very first race! It's still a great feeling even if I’m sure that a podium was possible. On top of that, I managed to get the 8th fastest lap on track during my stint… out of more than 70 drivers. I should thus not be unhappy with my performance."

We are now looking forward to see again the #2 Lamborghini soon on track for the second round of the championship:

“Stay tuned on SquadraCorse.Lamborghini.com and www.SarahBovy.com in view of the next round in Silverstone on May 14 and 15. That will be a great show again!”, Sarah promises ! 

Recently, Sarah was invited by Frank Peterkenne to participate in the Belgian TV Show 'En Terrain Iconnu'. She discovered a complete new sport : the French Boxing ! 

Last weekend, Sarah was racing in Zolder for the final race of BGDC 2015 (Belgian Gentlemen Driver's Cup) with her friends. 
After a very good race with her three team-mates (Patrice Lacroix,Olivier Siegenthaler and Angélique Charlier), Sarah finished the season with another podium in class. 

"I'm very happy to close 2015 on a very good race. 3rd place in category was the best result possible as the other cars in our class was much more powerful. I'm glad for the team who is signing his first podium for this year and for my lady team-mate doing her first podium ever ! Well done Angelique and see you soon on the track !"

​Let's focus on 2016 now... 

La finale des 24h Series se déroulait le week-end dernier en République Tchèque, à Brno. A cette occasion, le team Altran alignait une fois encore ses deux redoutables Peugeot 208 GTi, aussi uniques qu'efficaces. C'était l'occasion pour Sarah de finir la saison en beauté :

« Je n'ai pas beaucoup roulé cette année mais je garderai malgré cela un très bon souvenir du cru 2015 », explique Sarah. « J'ai d'abord découvert le Mugello, qui est un magnifique circuit, j'ai ensuite pris part aux World Series by Renault a Spa au volant de l'impressionnante RS01, avec un beau podium à la clé ; lorsque le Team Altran m'a contacté pour les 12h de Brno, j'étais donc ravie de les retrouver pour finir la saison sur une autre découverte : Brno ».

Pour l'occasion, Sarah retrouvait deux équipiers de choix : Mathieu Sentis et Stephane Vantaja. Après la séance qualificatives du vendredi, les ambitions du trio étaient très claires: la victoire !

« Mathieu a fait un excellent tour en qualif, qui nous a placé deuxièmes de catégorie sur la grille. Lorsque nous avons comparé les temps des trois pilotes, il était évident que nous avions une carte à jouer car nous étions très homogènes et rapides, surtout lors des essais de nuit... ».
Samedi, sur le coup de midi, c'est 50 bolides qui s'élançaient pour le tour d'horloge. La #208 et la #205 du team Altran s'installaient d'emblée, en formation, en tête de leur catégorie, enchaînant les tours rapides.

« Le début de course s'est bien passé mais nous avons vite déchanté lorsque le rythme de nos deux voitures a chuté brusquement: les pneus avaient souffert bien plus que nous l'avions imaginé, malgré des températures très fraîches », raconte Sarah. « Les Seat sont revenues sur nous comme des avions et nous avons perdu la tête de la course ». 

A partir de là, c'est de l'intelligence de course des pilotes et de la stratégie millimétrée de l'équipe que dépendait le succès du joyeux trio.

« Lorsque j'ai pris le volant pour mon premier relais, j'ai du faire preuve de beaucoup de discipline car je devais tenir deux heures avec mes pneus et garder un rythme constant tout en étant rapide, pour éviter la chute de performance. Lorsque Cyrus Ayari (le team manager) m'a annoncé à la radio que j'arrivais à la fin de mon relais et que je pouvais enfin ‘finir’ les pneus, je m'en suis donnée à cœur joie et j'ai aligné les tours rapides ... ».

Une fois ce rythme trouvé, Stephane, Mathieu et Sarah revenaient petit à petit sur la Seat #98 qui alignait deux pilotes aussi rapides que réguliers. C'est également lors des arrêts aux stand que la course allait se jouer.

« J'ai été bluffée par la gestion de course de l'équipe. Chaque ravitaillement, chaque décision, ont été calculés à la seconde près. Les arrêts ont été réalisés aux bons moments, les mécaniciens ont fait un boulot impeccable - je ne me souviens pas avoir vu des changements de plaquettes aussi rapides - et mes équipiers et moi n'avons fait aucune erreur, que ça soit en piste ou dans les changements de pilotes ».

Bref, un scénario idyllique : une équipe soudée et efficace, une concurrence redoutable nous obligeant à attaquer jusqu'à la fin et une magnifique victoire, bien méritée a l'arrivée !
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« Je tiens à remercier Olivier, Cyrus et Eric pour leur support, leur confiance et leur gestion passionnée de leur équipe. Merci également à l'équipe technique qui a été impressionnante tout le long du week-end. Enfin, merci à mon partenaire Oldtimers MM Passion qui m'a permit de prendre part à cette belle aventure ! ».