Barcelona, Spain (28 September 2025):
HOFOR Racing scorched to a brilliant giant-killing victory in the final round of the Michelin 24H SERIES European Series, the Michelin 24H BARCELONA, on Sunday to seal not only the outright GT3 win but also race success in the GT3-AM class with its Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.

Delivering a stunning performance throughout, the Swiss squad of husband and wife Alexander and Chantal Prinz, her father Michael Kroll, Maximilian Partl and Torsten Kratz achieved milestones with the win – Chantal’s 50th Creventic race and 10 years since the team scored an outright victory.

“It’s the first GT3 race here we won overall, we won again so it’s perfect”, commented Kroll after the chequered flag had fallen, “The team and my co-drivers made this, you really can’t lose with this team. It’s a father, daughter, son-in-law team so it’s one family.”

Kratz added: “Unbelievable, we did not expect this – we hoped for a podium but to be on the very top is unbelievable, it’s very surprising. The car was driving so fast, so easy to handle, the team did a great job the whole week to find the right set-up. I’m speechless.”

Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II cars completed the overall podium at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with HAAS RT’s Matisse Lismont, Ramez Azzam and father and son Peter and Nicolas Guelinckx taking second place, and the PRO win. Third was the GT3-AM Juta Racing car of Nicola Michelon, Lars Viljoen, Arunas Geciauskas, Zhang Yaqi and Gavin Pickering. 

Fourth position was all Proton Huber Competition needed to win the outright Michelin 24H SERIES European Series championship title, the rapid Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) team of Jorg Dreisow, Klaus Bachler, Manuel Lauck and Constantin Dressler also winning the GT3 PRO-AM crown. 

“Unbelievable – I don’t have any words”, said a very emotional Dreisow, who also wins the drivers’ crown with Lauck and Bachler, “It was a hard start to the season, we had a good fightback and it’s just wonderful. For the team effort, they all deserve thanks and I’m just super grateful to have the opportunity to do these kind of races. It’s a wonderful feeling, I cannot say more than that!”

Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport wins the GT3-AM title, the Audi R8 team of Vasily Vladykin, Maksim Kizilov, Andrey Solukovtsev, Sacha Kakad and Alex Arkin Aka pipping Juta Racing’s Audi squad by just two points. 

Victory in the 992 class went the way of Muhlner Motorsport’s Valters Zviedris, Julian Hanses, Martin Rump and Paul Meijer, a fantastic performance race-long, while third position and second in 992-AM for RPM Racing delivered a hard-earned class title to the squad of Tracy Krohn, Niclas Jonsson, Philip Hamprecht and Patrick Huisman.

Venture’s father and son Neville and Christopher Jones, Matthew George and Owen Hizzey won GT4 and the title with its Mercedes. In GTX, victory for the No.701 Vortex of Lionel Amrouche, Philippe Bonnel, Cyril Calmon, Gilles Courtois and Olivier Gomez sealed the title. AsBest Racing’s Cupra TCR DSG of Pia Ohlsson, Junichi Umemoto, Rafal Gieras and Sebastian Schemmann took TCE-TCX spoils.

The Spirit of the Race award for the Michelin 24H BARCELONA was presented to the THRW Racing squad for their sterling efforts all week. After a delay for their Honda Civic Type R (FL5) cars arriving to the track from the USA, the team worked tirelessly and achieved a second place in TCE-TCX.

From pole position on Saturday lunchtime, TFT Racing’s Maro Engel held the lead in the No.28 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO and kept a small gap to the Proton Huber Porsche of Bachler. The first Code 60 of the race came at the 45-minute mark, where strategies first started to take hold.

Through the next few hours and into the early evening, several contenders made their presence felt including the HAAS RT Audi, the HOFOR Mercedes, the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Scuderia Praha and the Juta Racing Audi. For Red Ant Racing, though, their title hopes ended due to suspension problems with the squad’s Mercedes-AMG.

Audis held sway at the top of the overall order by 22.00 local time, Continental Racing now ahead of the Juta and HAAS cars. As the halfway point arrived, Continental remained on top, Alex Arkin Aka at the wheel, with Manuel Lauck second for Proton Huber and the HAAS Audi third with Ramez Azzam.

There was bad news for championship contenders Praha, though, when power steering problems just before the midway point badly impacted the Ferrari 296 and cost an unrecoverable amount of time and laps. 

During the small hours of Sunday morning there were largely no real dramas for the podium challengers. HOFOR Racing solidified its challenge through this period and dreams of a potential outright victory for the GT3-AM team looked increasingly realistic. 

TFT’s Benjamin Paque encountered a strange incident when he ran wide at Turn 13, while carrying out a straightforward pass on a backmarker, and visited the gravel trap. After recovering to the pits, Engel then took over and started to try and claw back laps before handing over to Paque again.

With only three hours to run, Partl led the way for HOFOR by a couple of laps with Viljoen second in Juta’s Audi and the half-distance leading Continental Audi third with Solukovtsev. Proton Huber’s championship hopes stayed on course with the team fourth and HAAS fifth.

Following a Code 60 period with roughly two hours to run, everything worked well for HOFOR and the team ultimately took the chequered flag two laps clear with Alexander Prinz at the wheel. HAAS RT had a gap of almost 90 seconds over the similar Juta Racing Audi. 

Red Camel-Jordans.nl started the race from the 992 pole position as a result of an unfortunate penalty for Ajith Kumar Racing by Red Ant – the latter having to take a five place grid drop when forced to change chassis after an accident in Saturday’s night practice.  

HRT Performance leapt into early contention with James Kellet storming into the lead from fourth on the grid, and Muhlner moved ahead of Red Camel as well before Rik Breukers re-passed Martin Rump. The action was tight throughout the first half of the contest, the lead and podium placings changing back and forth through the varying strategies.

Muhlner, Red Camel, HRT and also SebLajoux Racing remained squarely in the front-running battle through the night, but there was bitter disappointment for 992 championship leaders Red Camel in the early hours of Sunday morning when gearbox problems wrecked their title challenge.

Conversely, everything seemed to be going like clockwork for Muhlner and into the closing hours the team had built a very comfortable margin at the front. With only 90 minutes to go Hanses was six laps clear of the leading 992-AM class HRT car, Kellet back at the wheel, and RPM held third another three laps down with Huisman after making solid progress.

Muhlner ran untroubled to the finish, winning by five laps from the 992-AM class winning entry of HRT featuring Kellet, Steven Gambrell, Jonathan Kearney, Rolando Saca and Igor Sorokin. RPM’s third place overall and second in 992-AM was another four laps shy.

The battle for victory in GTX was almost a race of two halves, the No.974 Vortex 2.0 making the early running and dominating in the hands of Solenn Amrouche. After eight hours, the sister No.701 Vortex took a turn in the lead and after trading first place through the pit-stops into the night, as midnight struck the latter had pulled three laps clear.

Thereafter, the No.701 circulated without much in the way of difficulty and continually increased the already significant advantage over the squad’s No.974 of Yoann Olivar, Arnaud Tsamere, Solenn Amrouche and the doubling-up Olivier Gomez and Lionel Amrouche.

NM Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT4 led its class from pole position in the hands of Brandon Lee Oxley, who built a very healthy lead during the opening laps. Following a couple of rapid Code 60s Venture, which had experienced a glitch with its Mercedes early on, moved ahead with George driving.

The most significant development came six and a half hours in when NM Racing encountered gear problems, costing a lot of time and dropping them out of contention. Venture ultimately claimed victory by some 26 laps from the No.427 Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Damon Surzyshyn, Marc Girard, Thierry Chkondali, Michel Sallenbach and Jordan Mougenot.

Pole starting J-Mec Engineering held the lead of TCE-TCX initially with Kevin Clark at the wheel of its BMW M3 (E46), but Conrad Tox Leveau charged past in the No.111 AsBest Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) and he made the early running – until a brake line issue sent the car into the gravel three quarters of an hour into the race.

J-Mec took over at the front and never looked back throughout the first eight hours, but in hour nine problems with the throttle and engine mounts of the BMW resulted in a lengthy pit visit. Staying in the lead, even though in the pits, due to its massive advantage, the No.102 AsBest Cupra TCR DSG eventually moved into the lead and took control from there.

AsBest looked set for a one-two, with its Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 running second, but with only two hours to go the engine of the Porsche let go. Into the final hour AsBest were still one and two, due to the advantage held, but the No.124 THRW Honda Racing car had enough time to recover the laps needed and take second with Lawrence Hwang, Todd Chiappino, Scott Nicol and Jeremy Lucas. 

Next for the Michelin 24H SERIES will be the start of the 2025/2026 Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy, a three-event campaign which will be begin with the brand new Michelin 12H MALAYSIA at Sepang International Circuit on 5/6 December. Rounds two and three, the Michelin 6H ABU DHABI and the Michelin 24H DUBAI, will follow in January.