The Hexis Aston would go onto win the race
There was plenty of drama in the opening race at Nogaro, a race which saw Thomas Accary and Pierre-Brice Mena took their first win of the season in the No.8 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9. In the ninth race of the 2008 FIA GT3 European Championship they led home the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Luca Pirri and Jürgen von Gartzen, with third place going to Michael Petit and Dino Lunardi in the No.13 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT3.
The real drama came behind them; on the fourth lap Ian Khan, in the No.20 Matech Ford GT he shares with Thomas Mutsch , was punted into a spin and out of contention, which looked like being disastrous for the Championship leaders. Their nearest rivals, Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier, were in the top three and chasing a possible victory in the No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3 in the closing stages. But then the Corvette began to smoke heavily and with less than five minutes remaining Ruffier had to pull off.
Given the tight, technical nature of the French circuit, the race was remarkably free of incidents; the only casualty of the opening lap was the No.38 MM-Racing Corvette, which spun out of fifth place and dropped back to eleventh. Apart from the top three, there were close battles all through the field - in fact, the final podium place was only decided in the last two laps when Lunardi managed to outbrake the No.21 Matech Ford GT of Ellis and Mortimer at the end of the back straight.
The result makes the fight for the Drivers' title even closer. Khan and Mutsch remain two points ahead of Peyroles and Ruffier, but having taken a second place and a win in the last two races, Accary and Mena havejumped to third place, just four points further back. Fourth place puts Bradley Ellis only one more point behind.