The fight for the inaugural Promoter’s Cup will be decided during the season finale at Jarama as both challengers experience mixed fortunes at Le Mans Bugatti Circuit.
The fight for the inaugural Promoter’s Cup will be decided during the season finale at Jarama as both challengers experienced mixed fortunes at Le Mans Bugatti Circuit last weekend.
The last couple of races featured some fascinating dynamics. Firstly, André Kursim suffered a heart-breaking engine failure at Autodrom Most that left him with zero points to his name, while José Rodrigues scored in every one of four races to leave the Czech Republic with a healthy haul of points.
Then came Zolder and Kursim bounced back in a truly record-breaking fashion, taking four victories, two of which were overall race wins.
At the iconic French venue, both protagonists endured a weekend of ups and downs. Saturday belonged to the Portuguese racer, who won twice on board his Reboconorte MAN.
Kursim, on the other hand, was not satisfied with the day that resulted in a second and a third. “The performance just was not so good and I don’t know why,” said the young German racer. “Partly it was the truck, partly it was me,” he admitted.
Came Sunday and it was Kursim who had the upper hand while Rodrigues found himself struggling – what a difference a day makes.
The 25-year-old in his Team Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz won twice this time out. 
“Today was much better. We’ve got some good points and maybe in Jarama we can win the Cup,” admitted Kursim who is now only 17 points down on Rodrigues and still believes that the overall victory in the first-ever Promoter’s Cup season is on the cards.
For Rodrigues, Sunday was a day to forget. First, in Race 3 he was delayed by a drive-through penalty for overspeeding at the start. In the final race of the meeting, the MAN driver missed out on the podium courtesy of David Jenkins and Shane Brereton and brought his truck home in fourth place.
This was partly due to the fact that the Portuguese racer had to nurse his overheating engine. Overall, the day resulted in third and fourth places for the Rebocorte driver. “I think I was the better driver this weekend. I just didn’t have luck on my side,” said Rodrigues.
The season finale is less than two weeks away now and will take place at Circuito del Jarama, north of Madrid, a venue which is an almost local track for Rodrigues. “Jarama is my home. I’ll fight,” assured the Portuguese racer.