Pauwels and Day now lead in the silver class going into the final round of Sprint Cup

Joining them within the large forty car entry where of course the fellow AMR powered full season entries of the #270 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed car of Raphael Suzuki and Ricardo Baptista and the #35 Pro entered car from the Walkenhorst Motorsport team for both Mateo Villagomez and Henrique Chaves.

Earlier rain in the test sessions had thankfully passed the circuit by as the grid prepared themselves for the opening hour-long race that would take them into darkness ahead of a more traditional early afternoon slot on Sunday for race two.

Continuing really from where he had left off, saw Pauwels slot his car home eight overall and first in class whilst the #270 car of Suzuki did likewise for the first pole position of the season within bronze with a time worthy of P11 overall whilst Villagomez had to make do with a P21 overall starting position – P11 in class.

Starting off at dusk, the pack was quickly hauled back into line with an early Safety Car with three cars in the gravel. Eventually losing a quarter of the race to the clean-up, the race soon got back up to speed with the #21 car holding a distant class lead over their nearest rivals as the light began to fade heading into the pit window.

Stops over and Day still had work to do to protect their position, whilst the #270 sister car had slunk down the bronze order again into fifth in class as the #35 Walkenhorst was also unable to make up for too much time deficit with Chaves now behind the wheel.

Eventually finishing under the cover of darkness and with transponder issues, the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin had done enough to secure their second class win on the bounce in seventh overall whilst its sister car had to make do with P8 in bronze and the #35 car P11 in Pro.

Going into race two, it was another class pole for the #21 car of Day in P17 overall but with Baptista having to make do with P11 but with Chaves being the best of the AMR powered runners in P7 within their respective classes for this race.

It nearly ended very quickly for Chaves as he drifted wide and through the gravel in the opening sequence of corners but miraculously survived the excursion to race another lap for his efforts but did drop plenty of positions on his recovery.

This time the race quickly settled into something of a rhythm as Day became lead Aston, second in class in P14 with Chaves now just a couple of cars behind him as the pairing raced into the pit stop window in that order. Stops over and it was again just the #21 within the top five of any of the three classes being competed in with Pauwels again holding the class lead.

A late FCY delayed things on track as the race clock went below the final ten minutes as a car within the gravel appeared difficult to remove for the track marshals. Eventually getting back to racing, Pauwels could enjoy a fifteen plus second gap to his class rival behind in the closing laps to secure his and the team’s third, class win of the season. The #35 car would eventually finish P16 overall/P11 in class and the #270 P36 overall/P10 in class.

Championship wise – these results elevate the #21 crew up to first place within the silver class drivers championship, six points clear with just the final two races at Valencia in the season still to go.

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