Weiland wins Coppa Shell, Mattsson dominates Coppa Shell AM

James Weiland continued the splendid run of form that began at Le Mans with a win in Race-1 of the Coppa Shell ahead of the series leader, Tani Hanna. In the Coppa Shell Am, Ingvar Mattson dominated the class, securing an extraordinary second place overall, just 4.2 seconds behind the winner.

Coppa Shell. James Weiland triumphed in the first of the Coppa Shell races with brilliant and effective race pace management. The Rossocorsa driver set himself up for victory in the early stages when, after a good start, he established a small but significant margin over his rivals, whose challenges he easily held off at various points in the race. The Safety Car came on track after a collision at the first turn between Ernst Kirchmayr (Baron Motorsport) and Christian Kinch (Gohm Motorsport) forcing the two to retire. Once proceedings resumed, after eight minutes to clean up the debris, Weiland easily kept Tani Hanna at bay. After his closest rival in the standings had left the scene, the Formula Racing driver preferred not to force the pace and was happy just to keep Fons Scheltema (Kessel Racing) safely in his rearview mirror. The race saw some gripping duels, like the one between Eric Cheung (Formula Racing) and Holger Harmsen (Lueg Sportivo), who finished fifth and sixth respectively, separated at the chequered flag by only six-tenths of a second.

Coppa Shell Am. Ingvar Mattsson won Race-1 with an extraordinary performance, finishing second overall after passing Tani Hanna two turns from the finish. Starting from pole, the Scuderia Autoropa driver executed a perfect race, always among the leaders in the overall standings. In a race with plenty of contacts in the middle of the group, the Swede was joined on the podium by Agata Smolka (Rossocorsa) and 'Alex Fox' (Modena Motors - SLR), who had also closed the debut race in Bahrain in third position. Fourth place went to Dusan Palcr (Scuderia Praha) ahead of 'Boris Gideon' (Formula Racing). The German occupied the podium positions for a long time but dropped back during one of the many duels he fought, finishing just eight-tenths ahead of Matthias Moser (Baron Motorsport).