Big victories for pair of drivers
Riberas claims first Super Cup race, while Eng earns series title.
Alex Riberas won the race, but Philipp Eng clinched the Porsche Super Cup Championship on Sunday.
Eng finished eighth to clinch the season title in his battle with Sven Muller, who finished third at Circuit of the Americas.
It was Riberas’ first career victory in Super Cup, and he narrowly held off Michael Ammermueller after taking the lead on lap 3. Riberas finished the 12-lap race in 30 minutes, 23.341 seconds — 3.3 seconds ahead of Ammermueller.
The Porsche Super Cup is built around promoting drivers to the FIA World Endurance Challenge. This past summer Earl Bamaber, a graduate of the series, was part of the Porsche team that won the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans with Force India F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg.
“By winning the Super Cup, a dream has come true for me,” Eng said. “I hope that in the long term another dream will come true for me as well. To sit in a cockpit as a WEC driver.”
One of two support races for Sunday’s Formula One race, the Porsche race was held under a constant downpour and the safety car had to put in extra work as drivers couldn’t do too much jostling for position with wet conditions.
At least the Porsche race was completed.
Masters Historical racing only made it three laps before a red flag came out for extreme weather. The race was canceled.
Before the cancellation, the race had a pair of yellow flags as drivers spun out on each of the first two laps.
The cars racing in the series were historical model Formula One cars from the 1970s and 1980s.