BossGP at the Red Bull-Ring: Juju Noda's joy and tears

Text and photo: Roman Klemm

In Spielberg, Austria, the BossGP championship completed the third event of the year in front of sensationally occupied stands. At the peak, the audience saw two solo drives by Brazilian ex-F1 pilot Antonio Pizzonia and Austrian Ingo Gerstl in a Toro Rosso F1. The Japanese Girlie-Wonder Juju Noda excelled in the GP2 class.

Saturday: Why ruin a good sport?
The main phenomenon of Saturday was obviously the growing interest of the participants and the audience in BossGP. In qualifying, a very nice field of 18 cars was presented to about 8,000 fans - despite the fact that Ingo Gerstl left his two Toro Rosso-F1s standing in the pits again. There was no doubt about the overall pole position, in a sunny session it was won by Pizzoonia in his Dallara V8, the only car in the "Open" class. Right behind him, in the "Formula" class (read GP2), however, there was a battle for tenths. In front of an army of experienced fighters, the likeable Juju Noda prevailed.
The afternoon race was a clear victory for the car entered by Pizzoni's HS-Engineering team. The Brazilian was never able to outrun his pursuers too much - but this happened mainly thanks to numerous neutralizations, which largely ruined the sports show on the track. However, they did not change anything about the dramatic fight for the championship in the GP2 class, whose main protagonists were the two pilots of the MM International team, Juju Noda and Simone Colombo. The Japanese woman had the Italian "on her back" from the first to the last meter, but with a focused and flawless performance, she deservedly prevailed. There were also interesting battles for positions behind the Japanese woman, one of which even ended in a collision and then almost a fight between Seibold and Fiedler. BossGP is not just fun…
But the joy of the daughter of former F1 driver Hideki Noda lasted only about 5 minutes. The commissioners got away with another crazy modern rule (Juju was not standing exactly in the starting box) and imposed a penalty of 30 seconds on her...
If the self-proclaimed "protectors" of nature don't destroy motorsport, we can do it ourselves.

Result Saturday:
1. Antonio Pizzonia, HS-Dallara WS V8
2. Simone Colombo, MM-Dallara GP2-11
3. Marco Ghiotto, Palladio-Dallara GP2-11
4. Phil Stratford, Palladio-Dallara GP2-11
5. Paul O'Connell, HS-Dallara WS V8
6. Roland Rupprechter, RB-Research-Dallara GP2-05

Sunday: Ingo Gerstl for audience and sponsor
It would really be a shame if Ingo Gerstl didn't show what the fans came to see on "his" track at least on Sunday: the Toro Rosso F1. The Austrian won ahead of Pizzonia. Revenge for the messed-up Saturday also fell to the Nodas. Following Colombo's lap 9 retirement, she won the GP2 class ahead of rival Palladio's Marco Ghiotto and Michael Fischer in Red Rose Racing's older Dallary GP2-05. In the "Lights" class, as on Saturday, Stephan Glaser on the Dallara WS, prepared for him by the Swiss F3 legend Jo Zeller, was ahead of home Eisinger (Ralt) and the German Clausnitzer (Tatuus).

Sunday's result:
1. Ingo Gerstl, TopSpeed-Toro Rosso-F1
2. Antonio Pizzonia, HS-Dallara WS V8
3. Juju Noda, MM-Dallara GP2-11
4. Marco Ghiotto, Palladio-Dallara GP2-11
5. Michael Fischer, Red Rose-Dallara GP2-05
6. Paul O'Connell, HS-Dallara WS V8