BRNO (25 May, 2019) – The Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#112, Fabian Danz / Kari-Pekka Laaksonen / Antti Buri) has taken its third win of this year’s 24H TCE SERIES at the Hankook 12H BRNO, despite low grip levels affecting the frontrunners throughout the event. Antti Buri crossed the line to complete 295 laps of the 5.403km Automotodrom Brno.
The Swiss team has now finished every race of this year’s 24H TCE SERIES on the podium, and now holds a nine-point lead in the TCE European Championship standings.
“It’s been a really brilliant season so far,” Kari-Pekka Laaksonen explained to radiolemans.com’s Joe Bradley. “This was a really exciting race, very close between the TCR cars from start to end. Nobody knew who was going to win this. I think we all had problems with tyre wear, and we tried to prolong a few of our stints so we could drive a little longer and save fuel. That is what made the difference today.”
The NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR (#175, Gijs Bessem / Harry Hilders) makes a successful return to the 24H TCE SERIES with 2nd place overall. Fellow CUPRA TCR runners Red Camel-Jordans.nl meanwhile (#101, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers) finished a hard-fought third. The father-son-son driver line-up had led the TCE division comfortably in the opening stages, but couldn’t fully remedy the handling issues that ultimately cost the Dutch team additional time on pitroad.
The Lestrup Racing Team Volkswagen Golf GTi (#110, Stefan Nilsson / Peter Fahlström / Marcus Fluch / Emil Sällberg) continues its strong form in this year’s 24H TCE SERIES with 4th overall in TCE. Admittedly the all-Swedish team benefited from a bizarre incident that saw the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stephane Perrin / Vincent Radermecker / James Kaye) turfed into the barriers on the very last lap of the race. The Audi was still classified 5th.
The Team ABBA Racing BMW M3 V8 GTR (#334, Richard Neary / Sam Neary / Charles Lamb) ended a difficult weekend with SP3-class victory. Despite leading the TCE division outright on Friday afternoon, the British team lost more than an hour to excessive heat and gearbox problems.
Former 24H TCE SERIES champion Synchro Motorsport (#676, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler) took its first A3-class win of the season at the Hankook 12H BRNO with the Honda FK8-Civic Type-R, despite suffering late-race driveshaft failure. The result catapults the British team to the head of the A3-class European Championship standings.
Further back Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M240i Racing Cup (#869, Axel Burghardt / Jurgen Meyer / Nicole Holzer / Martin Kroll) finished 2nd on its A3-class return, while Winkler Tuning BMW E46 123D meanwhile (#666, Michael Winkler / Michael Rienhoff), despite completing only three laps on Friday, drove a clean race to collect the final spot on the A3 podium.
24H SERIES powered by Hankook endurance racing action continues in two months time at the 2019 Hankook 24H PORTIMAO on 5-6-7 July. In a format unique to the 24H SERIES, the Portuguese event will host the fourth round of the 2019 European Championship and will also be an eligible points-paying race for the 2019 Championship of the Continents. One month later, the 24H SERIES heads to Spain for the 21st annual running of the Hankook 24H BARCELONA. Further information on this year’s calendar can be found at www.24hseries.com.
