BARCELONA (5 September, 2021) – Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing has secured a 1-2 finish in the TCR division at the Hankook 24H BARCELONA, while TCX-class victory for championship rival CWS Engineering has vaulted the British team to the top of the Overall TCE Teams’ standings. 

The lead Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#112, Arunas Geciauskas / Sigitas Ambrazevicius / Vytenis Gulbinas / Paul Sieljes) completed a decisive run at Montmeló to secure the Swiss team’s third successive TCE win of 2021, Arunas Geciauskas driving the #112 Volkswagen across the line to complete 638 laps of the 4.675km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 

In an amazing comeback, the second Autorama Volkswagen (#1, Emil Heyerdahl / Jasmin Preisig / Constantin Kletzer / Roberto Ferri) finished just 41 seconds behind its sister TCR entry, despite a brush from the CP Racing Mercedes sending the #1 Volkswagen into the gravel during the opening hour. 

“We are always battling!” Jasmin Preisig explained to radiolemans.com’s Nick Daman. “To be on the podium with both cars is a great achievement for Autorama, and we’re all very happy.”

Asked how Autorama Motorsport consistently gets its cars to the line in spite of early race dramas, Jasmin jokingly replied, “that’s a secret!”

RAIL EQUIP BY TOTCAR SPORT (#123, Jorge Belloc Diaz / Jorge Belloc Ruiz / Álvaro Rodríguez Sastre) rounded out the overall TCE podium at its home event just ahead of fellow Spanish team, Baporo Motorsport (#151, Manel Lao Gorina / Manel Lao Cornago / Llorenç Fluxà Domene / Llorenç Fluxà Cross). Both teams ran CUPRA TCRs.

Just one lap further back, the CWS Engineering Ginetta G55 (#278, Colin White / Ian Stinton / Jean- François Brunot / Angus Fender) rounded out the TCE top five, securing TCX class victory in the process. The TCE polesitter suffered a bizarre incident six hours into the event when wheel hub failure caused the Ginetta G55, now running on only three wheels, to collect a piece of the run-off kerbing at turn one. 

Having recovered to take its second TCX win of the season, the result now propels CWS Engineering to the top of the Overall TCE Teams’ standings, just one point clear of Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing. 

A full gearbox replacement ended up dropping the Audi RS 3 LMS of TCE title contender AC Motorsport (#188, Stéphane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / James Kaye / Vincent Radermecker) to 6th in TCE, while terminal engine problems side-lined the returning Team ACP - Tangerine Associates BMW M2 CS Racing (#221, Wim Spinoy / Catesby Jones / Jim Norman) after just 180 laps. The Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR meanwhile (#125, Bert Mets / Jos Stevens / Bob Stevens / Martin van den Berge / Christiaan Frankenhout) ended its race in dramatic fashion with a collision against the turn seven tyre barriers. Fortunately, Martin van den Berge walked away uninjured. 

The 2021 24H SERIES powered by Hankook season continues in one month’s time with the second running of the Hankook COPPA FLORIO 12H SICILY at Autodromo Pergusa on 1-2-3 October. Further details can be found HERE.