Gregory Rasse won both opening races of the Lotus Cup Europe 2015 season at Hockenheim last weekend (10-12 April). The Belgian completed a clean sweep of every single session in his Evora as the championship supported the Jim Clark Revival meeting at the German Grand Prix venue.
Rasse outqualified chief rival Jon Walker by three tenths of a second, but in the races his closest challenge came from the similar Exige V6 of Nikolaj Ipsen. Walker closed to within a second of Rasse in race one, but a late puncture dropped him to third place, then he handed his car over to Lee Cunningham for the second encounter, and V6 newcomer Xavier Georges took advantage to finish one place ahead in third.
Reigning champion Jeremy Lourenco finished fifth in both races on his V6 class debut, with Philippe Loup and Nicolas Walker making it seven V6 cars in the top seven on each occasion. Christophe Lisandre and Anthony Fournier each took an eighth place and 2-Eleven victory, whilst Nicolas Ferrer and Christope Laroche shared the open class honours in their four-cylinder Exiges, the former from the back of the grid after engine issues in qualifying. Powerplant troubles also accounted for class champions Dave Harvey and Andrew Wright.
In the Production class, John Rasse emulated his brother by topping every session. Both Rasses top the championship table after John scored a brace of victories ahead of compatriots Philippe van Pevenaeyge and Thierry Hedoin, with James Knight taking third in race two on his return to Lotus racing.
The next round of Lotus Cup Europe will take place at Dijon on 2-3 May.
Lotus Cup Europe standings after two of fifteen rounds
- 1 GREGORY RASSE V6 73
- = JOHN RASSE Production 73
- 3 ANTHONY FOURNIER 2-Eleven 61
- 4 CHRIS LAROCHE Open 60
- = FRANCK LAROCHE Open 60
- = NIKOLAJ IPSEN V6 60
- 7 NICOLAS FERRER Open 59
- 8 CHRISTOPHE LISANDRE 2-Eleven 58
- 9 THIERRY HEDOIN Production 57
- 10 PHILIPPE VANPEVENAEYGE Production 53
Photos courtesy of Yvo Tuk and Mark Anderson
