HOCKENHEIMRING (23 May, 2021) – Overall TCE Teams’ championship contenders Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing and AC Motorsport took the fight for TCE honours down to the wire at the Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING, with the Swiss team ultimately coming out on-top by just four seconds after 12 hours of racing. 

Brake issues late on Saturday for the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stéphane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / Stefan Wieninger) meant the Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#1, Constantin Kletzer / Jasmin Preisig / Emil Heyerdahl) went into yesterday’s overnight intervention in the lead of the TCE division. Split pit stop strategies and strong running throughout the afternoon meant that, following both teams’ final pit stops, the Volkswagen and the Audi were still on the same lap heading in the closing stages. 

Mathieu Detry was scything into Emil Heyerdahl’s lead at a rate of just under a second per lap when the AC Motorsport Audi was forced to make a late-race splash-and-dash with eight minutes left on the clock. Incredibly, two laps later, the #1 Autorama Motorsport Volkswagen also had to pit for fuel, and both TCR cars were separated by less than 10 seconds when they rejoined. 

Ultimately, Heyerdahl was able to secure Autorama Motorsport’s second successive TCE win of the season, albeit by just 4.3 seconds from AC Motorsport. The Swiss team completed 350 laps of the 4.574km Hockenheimring en-route to victory. 

“Oh that was so tough, I can’t describe it!” a relieved Heyerdahl explained to radiolemans.com’s Ben Constanduros. “That was co close, but I’m very happy with that! Massive thanks to Autorama Motorsport [by Wolf-Power Racing]. We are back in the championship lead now. Good race!”

The race had looked set to be a three-way fight for victory with CWS Engineering (#278, Colin White / Jean- François Brunot), the Ginetta G55 GT4 even tangling with the AC Motorsport Audi on-track at one-stage. A late-race scare though saw the Ginetta lose its front right wheel heading out of the hairpin, necessitating a quick wheel hub repair. Undeterred, the British team was still able to secure the final spot on the TCE podium as well as TCX class victory, a result that now leaves CWS Engineering just one point behind Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing in the Overall TCE Teams’ standings. 

Behind CWS Engineering, the Munckhof Racing BMW M4 GTR (#210, Eric van den Munckhof / Marco Poland) finished a solid 4th ahead of the Autorama Motorsport SEAT León Cup Racer V1 DSG (#211, Luigi Stanco / Armando Stanco / Dario Stanco), the latter hacing lost time in the pits with broken bonnet pins. 

The GSR Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR SEQ (#105, Ernesta Globytė / Rokas Kvedaras / Rolandas Salys / Rimvydas Savickas) suffered minor right rear wheel hub damage after a brief brush with the Stadler Motorsport Porsche, as well as an extensive coolant leak. The Lithuanian team recovered to finish 6th overall in TCE and 3rd in the TCR class on its first 24H SERIES event since 2019. 

Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing’s second TCR entry (#112, Rhys Lloyd / Christoph Hurni / Christoph Lenz / Yannick Mettler) had also been in the fight for TCE victory early on, but terminal gearbox issues ended up dropping the Volkswagen out of contention. Following a three-hour pit stop, the Golf was able to finish the race in a classified 7th. 

Endurance racing action continues on 16-17-18 July as the SERIES powered by Hankook travels to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal for the fifth annual Hankook 24H PORTIMAO. After the summer break, CREVENTIC will host the returning Hankook 24H BARCELONA in Spain on 3-4-5 September. Further details regarding the 2021 24H SERIES calendar and championship standings can be found HERE.