Seventh Place in Summer Series Finale

Things looked great early, but once again things fell apart for the team in the second half of the race. In the end the team was able to finish the race in seventh place, marking its best finish in a forgettable three-race Summer Series season.

© 2020 Fischer Motorsport Lap 86: Theis struggled at Imola, spinning multiple times, including one spin at Variante Alta

Mayer qualified the No. 185 Porsche Cayman in P5, making for a bit of a surprise, after the team had struggled to find pace in practice.

As series rules demand, Mayer as the team's Qualifying driver, was also taking on the start and opening stint in the race. Things heated up quickly, as the first full-course caution came out already on lap three, because of a crash in the TCR class field.

After the restart, a three-car battle with Team Heusinkveld and Geodesic unfolded, with the No. 141 Porsche of Geodesic passing Mayer.

Mayer caught up with slower class traffic soon after and lost some time, giving an opportunity for the Heusinkveld machine to run away. Now the situation changed into a three-car battle with Geodesic and the No. 138 Porsche of HJ Motorsports' Giovanni Romano for fifth position.

In the following laps, Mayer kept creeping close to the Geodesic No. 141 Porsche Cayman again and again, but every attempt to complete the pass fell short. The two drivers battled hard for position, but kept it clean, even so when the fight continued after the first round of pit stops.

On lap 35, Mayer finally got past the Geodesic Porsche Cayman of Carlos Vila, outbraking the latter into the Tamburello chicane. The maneuver put Mayer into fourth place with the Heusinkveld team now just over ten seconds away.

"Manuel did a great job during his first double stint. He had really great pace and moved us forward. That pass against Vila was simply fantastic.", team-mate Pascal Theis said of the early stages of the race.

© 2020 Fischer Motorsport Lap 115: Manuel Mayer avoids disaster, as a big crash unfolds directly in front on the restart

For the third stint of the race, the team made its first driver swap and Theis took over from Mayer in the Porsche Cayman GT4. The other Geodesic Porsche Cayman, that had previously been running in P2, was handed a drive-through penalty and thus Theis suddenly found himself running in third position, ready to move up.

However, things didn't go that way for Theis, as he lost control over his car in the final Rivazza corner, spinning into the gras and handing P3 back to the No. 142 Porsche Cayman of Geodesic.

Theis continued to struggle and another spin followed shortly after, at the Variante Alta chicane. This time the car also suffered some front end damage, that would cripple the team for the remainder of the race. Theis now fell back to sixth position.

After completing his double stint, Theis handed the car back over to Mayer, holding sixth position. The Teisendorf, Germany native pushed hard to try to make up the time lost due to the two spins earlier.

But now the problems started to spread for the team and Mayer struggled to keep his focus, spinning twice at Acque Minerale and falling back to seventh place.

© 2020 Fischer Motorsport Lap 124: Battling for sixth place, Mayer and Owen Watts in the No. 117 Porsche Cayman of RSR Esports touch

On lap 124, with less than two hours remaining in the race, Mayer, after battling aggressive slower class traffic on the previous yellow flag restart, battled to defend sixth position against Owen Watts in the No. 117 Porsche Cayman of RSR Esport. Watts got a run on Mayer on the exit of Tamburello and placed himself next to the German on the inside, heading into Villeneuve when the two cars made contact and went off into the gravel.

With the performance of the car compromised and lacking top speed due to some front end damage, the team now focused on saving its car and making it to the finish.

With just under one hour remaining in the race, the team completed its final driver swap of the day and Pascal Theis jumped back behind the steering wheel of the No. 185 Porsche Cayman, knowing there would be need for one more pit stop and a plash and dash for fuel.

At the end, the Frankfurt, Germany driver crossed the finish line in seventh place, earning the team's best result of the IVRA ClubSport Summer Series.