The fight for Overall TCE Teams’ honours look set to go down to the wire in 2021, with the top three split by only four points.
Reigning TCE champion Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing, on 75 points, currently holds a one-point advantage over CWS Engineering (#278) courtesy of two back-to-back wins at Circuit Paul Ricard and the Hockenheimring. The Swiss/German team will once again enter two Volkswagen Golf GTIs for the Hankook 24H BARCELONA (#1 and #112), while its British rival has registered its tenured Ginetta G55 for team boss Colin White, who is one point adrift in the Overall TCE Drivers’ standings.
CWS will be joined in the TCX class in Barcelona by series returnee Team ACP - Tangerine Associates (#221). The American outfit last competed in Dubai in 2020, and has entered a BMW M2 CS Racing for Catesby Jones, Ken Goldberg and Jim Norman in Catalonia.
Four points behind in the Overall TCE standings, AC Motorsport (#188) will look to emulate, if not better, the TCR class podiums it scored in Mugello, Paul Ricard and Hockenheim. The Belgian team has confirmed its Audi RS 3 LMS will be piloted by Stéphane Perrin and Mathieu Detry, who are also four points adrift in the Overall TCE Drivers’ standings. The pair will be joined at the Hankook 24H BARCELONA by British Touring Car Championship legend, James Kaye.
Fittingly, at the Hankook 24H BARCELONA, Spanish marque CUPRA will be ably represented in TCR. BBR (#107, Anusorn Asiralertsiri / Chariya Nuya / Kantadhee and Kantasak Kusiri / Tanart Sathienthirakul) makes its first start since the Hankook 24H DUBAI, while Bas Koeten Racing (#125, Bert Mets / Jos and Bob Stevens / Martin van den Berge / Christiaan Frankenhout) makes its first standalone start in the TCE division in three years. Spanish contemporaries RAIL EQUIP BY TOTCAR SPORT (#123, Jorge Belloc Diaz, Jorge Belloc Ruiz and Álvaro Rodríguez Sastre) and RC2 Junior Team by Cabra Racing (#108) have also confirmed entries, the former with a CUPRA TCR, the latter with an updated CUPRA Leon Competición TCR.
TOPCAR Sport (#131) may have had a weekend to forget in Hockenheim, but started its season strongly with TCE victory in Dubai, its second in the series since, ironically, Barcelona in 2019. Series returnee Holmgaard Motorsport (#102, Magnus Holmgaard / Jonas Rasmussen) rounds out the TCE division line-up so far with a Volkswagen Golf GTI.
Overall TCE Teams’ standings
1. Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing (#1, TCR, Volkswagen) – 75 points
2. CWS Engineering (#278, TCX, Ginetta) – 74 points
3. AC Motorsport (#188, TCR, Audi) – 71 points