Scamardi secures the TCR crown of the FFSA TC France series
The absence of Raphaël Fournier meant that Giovanni Scamardi had secured the TCR title even before the FFSA TC France season finale got underway at Circuit Paul Ricard. However, the Belgian driver wanted to finish the season in style and dominated both the qualifying sessions and the first three races of the weekend at the wheel of his CUPRA Leon VZ.
Scamardi seemed set to make a clean sweep with yet another victory in the last race, but in a gracious gesture of thank to SP Compétition handed the first position to his young teammate Tom Pussier, the son of team principal Sylvain, who scored his maiden win.
Race 1 – Scamardi led from the pole, while there was a battle for P2 between Pussier, Franck Salvi and Gilles Chauvin. Salvi overtook Pussier, but in lap two Pussier retook the second place, while Chauvin benefited from the situation and made a move on Salvi. Their cars collided, and Chauvin moved into third, but he was ordered by Race Control to hand the position back. Eventually, Chauvin overtook Salvi again in lap 3. By then, Scamardi had built a healthy margin, while Chauvin closed in on Pussier and passed him in lap 7. Pussier and Salvi were fighting for P3 but made contact in lap 10; Pussier’s CUPRA retired with a broken front suspension, while Salvi spun and continued to finish third. Scamardi won by a margin of 26 seconds ahead of Chauvin.
Race 2 – Scamardi was on pole again as night was falling, but Chauvin from P2 on the grid led at the start; however, this did not last as Scamardi overtook him before the end of the first lap and ran away again. Chauvin lost contact and found himself chased by Pussier who passed him in lap 8. One lap later, the safety car was deployed to recover a car that had stopped on the track, and the race was neutralized until the end with Scamardi, Pussier and Chauvin finishing 1-2-3 for SP Compétition.
Race 3 – Once again, Scamardi sprinted from the pole to lead the field at the start ahead of Pussier; Chauvin, third on the grid, had a slow reflex and dropped behind a few cars of the slower classes, but he soon recovered and in lap 3 passed Salvi for P3. Scamardi took another comfortable win, 23 seconds clear of Pussier, while Salvi retook the third place when he overtook Chauvin in lap 8. Three laps later, Chauvin spun and crashed into a car of the TC class and was then excluded for this.
Race 4 – Fourth start from the pole for Scamardi who led as usual from Pussier. This time, Pussier managed not to lose contact and during the final lap Scamardi let him pass ahead and score his maiden win. Behind the leading pair, Chauvin fought with hillclimbing specialist Maxence Passequet on his maiden TCR appearance in the Optimum Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI. They swapped P3 and P4 several times during the last part of the race, until Chauvin beat Passequet by 1.7 seconds completing another 1-2-3 for SP Compétition.
Championship points
- G. Scamardi, 262 pts; 2. R. Fournier, 186.5; 3. G. Chauvin, 161
Picture: SRO Motorsport
