TEAM Turkey made history last night becoming the first-ever winners of an FIA GT Nations Cup race as the Bapco Bahrain GT Festival came to a spectacular close at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
The victory was marked by a dazzling fireworks display that proved to be a fitting conclusion to an action-packed weekend of GT racing at its finest.
Also yesterday, CMR won the main race in the GT4 International Cup, while the Bryant pair of Oliver and Grahame competing in a 1964 Shelby Cobra posted a fine double in the Bahrain Classic Challenge.
The weekend’s events were organised by BIC in cooperation with SRO Motorsports Group.
The Turkish pair Ayhancan Guven and Salih Yuloc steered their Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the chequered flag after an eventful 27 laps around BIC’s brilliantly illuminated 5.412km desert track.
After starting from pole, Guven and Yuloc claimed first place, 3.311 seconds ahead of the runners-up from Team UK, represented by Christopher Buncombe and Christopher Froggatt driving a Ferrari 488 GT3.
Team Denmark duo of Nicklas Nielsen and Johnny Laursen, who were 4.459s behind the winners in their own Ferrari 488 GT3, finished third.
Russia were classified fourth, China fifth and Italy sixth.
The rest of the final classification, from seventh through 14th, respectively, included Hong Kong, Malaysia, Argentina, Thailand, Japan, Mexico, France and Sweden.
Not classified were Germany, Belgium, Australia and Belarus.
Meanwhile, CMR claimed a fantastic victory under the stars in the first-ever main race of the GT4 International Cup.
Their No 35 Alpine A110 GT4, driven by Pierre Sancinena and Pierre-Alexandre Jean, cinched the chequered flag after 25 laps.
Battle
After starting the race from way back in 18th position, CMR managed to battle to the front and eventually claim a well-deserved win.
They finished the hour-long session with a 5.677s gap ahead of Phoenix Racing’s No 5 Audi R8 LMS GT4, driven by Nicolaj Moller-Madsen and Milan Dontje and starting from pole.
3Y Technology were 9.338s behind, with Enzo Guibbert and Gilles Vannelet competing in a BMW M4 GT4.
Sainteloc Junior Team came fourth, Academy Motorsport Ltd were fifth, and AKKA-ASP Team finished sixth.
The main race marked the end of the season for the participating GT4 teams. It was the first-ever GT4 International Cup, which brought together champions from various GT4 series held across the globe and affiliated with head organisers SRO Motorsports Group.
Elsewhere, Oliver and Grahame Bryant completed a perfect weekend in the Bahrain Classic Challenge.
They won Race Two to complete a fantastic double after also previously topping the timesheets in practice and qualifying.