Luis Perez Companc finished second in the first round of the GT2 category, in the nr 95 Pecom Racing Ferrari 430 GT2 he shares with Matias Russo, to become the first winner in the new-style Citation Cup for 2009.

All true amateur drivers competing in GT2, G2 and G3 are eligible for the Citation Cup, meaning that four drivers were fighting it out in Silverstone - Perez-Companc, Niarchos, Ashburn and Lagniez.  However, after a fine performance around the challenging Silverstone track, it was Perez-Companc who emerged victorious.

 “This is really incredible, we can't believe it. We classified in 8th yesterday, and started the race 9th, but we were very lucky with the safety car and managed to make it up to third. I tired to keep a good pace. Everything went okay, so it’s good. I'm still learning how to race this car and was impressed with the times I was setting around the track.”

Returning to the FIA GT Championship for this round, AT Racing’s Corvette C5R finished in 19th position overall to win the Citation Cup, the race-within-a-race, for older GT1 cars with harder tyres.  “Brno is a very nice track. We wanted to get a better result, but we had a problem with the gearbox yesterday, but the car still wasn’t working very well, so we were just hoping to finish the race,” Talkanitsa explained.

“Basically I was really happy to survive the first lap," Kaufmann added. "I’m happy for the team. It was Aliaksandr’s first race here  two years ago, so it’s nice to be on the podium in the Citation cup. We did the best that we could with the car.”
 

After three wins for AT Racing in the Citation Cup, Kaufmann is looking forward to his home round in Oschersleben, and hopefully another good race for the Corvette C5R he shares with Aliaksandr Talkanitsa, the driver from Belarus, his just his first international season of racing.

 “Our three Citation Cup wins have really been OK, especially for my team mate Aliaksandr Talkanitsa, who is new to international racing. He is very motivated and he tries to apply everything I explain him to the track… With the difficult weather situation, and our restricted tyre choice in the Citation Cup, we do our best but it is really difficult.  Our main target in Oschersleben is to win the Citation Cup again.  It would be a pleasure for me to be able to compete with the other GT1 cars.  The PK Carsport Corvette C5 was very fast in Oschersleben last year, but our car is the 2003 version, so we cannot expect the same speed.”

The first win in the 2008 Citation Cup, for non-professional drivers in the GT1 category, went to new Austrian team AT Racing, with their Corvette C5R.  Driver Alaiksandr Talkanitsa commented : “This has been a lot of firsts for me: first with the team, first race for me personally, first time in the series and first time at Silverstone. I want to thank Wolfgang Kaufmann, it’s really his win.”

As for Kaufmann, he commented : "I’m happy to be in Silverstone. “It was easy for us to choose the tyres, because we only have rain tyres and slick tyres, no intermediates. We started off on wet tyres, but then it became a bit of a challenge with the grip, so we changed to slicks. It was difficult at the start. I’m happy to finish the race here on the podium.”