The British squad, which almost missed qualifying altogether, also becomes the sixth different outright pole sitter in as many races in this year’s 24H SERIES, eve in spite of a flurry of hot laps in the closing moments of the session.
“That was a real nail-biter!” explained team manager Mark Lemmer to radiolemans.com’s Andrew Marriott. “We were in a bit of trouble this morning. We had some major fuel system issues, which is often the case when you move around different championships. We also had to schedule in a gearbox and a clutch change, so the guys at Barwell Motorsport have done an incredible job!”
A very tense qualifying session finally ended with the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#93, Edward Lewis Brauner / Stefan Aust / Klaus Bachler / Vincent Kolb / Zeljko Drmic) qualifying 2nd overall, just 0.162s shy of toppling Barwell Motorsport. Behind the A6-Am pole sitter was the GPX Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R (#24, Jean-Pierre Valentini / Benjamin Goethe / Stuart Hall / Jordan Grogor / Nicky Pastorelli), which sneaked onto the second row in the dying seconds of the session, and the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS Evo (#34, Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff / Gustav Edelhoff / Elmar Grimm / Ingo Vogler / Max Edelhoff). So fraught was the action that barely one-tenth of a second covered the trio.
Although among the initial contenders for pole position, the Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) will start 5th overall as the third fastest A6-Pro qualifier. The 24H SERIES Europe standings leader is gunning for both its fifth win of the 2019 season and its first overall 24H SERIES championship.
Despite a hefty crash during private testing on Thursday, the Hofor Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#10, Michael Kroll / Alexander Prinz / Kenneth Heyer / Christiaan Frankenhout / Wim Spinoy) rounds out the A6-Am top three in 6th place.
The Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 (#701, Stephane Cottrell / Philippe Gruau / Nicolas Nobs / Francesc Gutierrez Agüi) will start from pole position in the SPX class, and features Hankook 24H BARCELONA legend Francesc Gutierrez Agüi on the driver line-up. Just behind, both in-class and on the road, will be the True Racing KTM GTX (#216, Johannes Stuck / Ferdinand Stuck / Laura Kraihamer / Sehdi Sarmini) and the Cor Euser Racing MARC II V8 (#717, Cor Euser / Einar Thorsen / Jim Briody / Ricky Coomber / Ryan McLeod).
Fellow ‘Special Prototype’ entrant Nordschleife Racing (#526, Guillaume Roman / Mathieu Sentis / Sebastien Dussolliet / Sebastien Poisson) will start its first race in the bespoke SP4 class with the brand new Ligier JS2 R, albeit from 26th on the grid.
Just over three-tenths of a second separated the 991-class pole sitting Team Webheads Porsche 991-I Cup (#902, Andreas Riedl / Joachim Bölting / JM Littman / Tom Dillmann) from Porsche Lorient Racing (#911, Jean-François Demorge / Mathieu Pontais / Pascal Gibon / Frédéric Ancel), the latter of which goes into the European season finale as the 991-class standings leader. The Raceunion by MRS GT-Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#980, Alex Autumn / Andreas Gülden / Raulino Kreis Jr / Hendrik Von Dannwitz / Jukka Honkavuori) completes the 991 top three.
Already a two-time class winner this year, the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (#50, Martin Kroll / Michael Fischer / Michael Schrey / Thomas Jäger / Michael Bonk) takes GT4-class pole position ahead of the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#1, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Jon Aizpurua / Nicholas Silva), the team’s closest rival in the GT4-class 24H SERIES Europe rankings. The Sorg Rennsport BMW M4 GT4 meanwhile (#451, Olaf Meyer / Björn Simon / Simon Tibbett / Stephan Epp / Torsten Kratz) starts 3rd in-class.
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