The Swiss team, which leads the overall 24H TCE SERIES standings after winning three of the last four races, has so far completed 114 laps of the 4.652km Autódromo Internacional do Algarve so far, and runs ahead of the TOPCAR sport by Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR DSG (#131, Ronny Jost / Julien Apotheloz / Kari-Pekka Laaksonen / Antti Buri) in a tight battle for victory.
Further back, the Nordschleife Racing Peugeot 308 Racing Cup TCR (#172, Guillaume Roman / Michel Derue / Michel Sallenbach / Thierry Boyer) holds 3rd, despite starting at the very back of the TCE grid. The French team, a previous TCR-class champion under the ‘Team Altran Peugeot’ banner, heads the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stephane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / James Kaye / Sam Dejonghe), which had taken its first outright TCE pole position of the year on Friday but fell back when dislodged bodywork had to be repaired.
Problems have similarly affected the Red Camel-Jordans.nl CUPRA TCR (#101, Luc Breukers / Klaus Kresnik / Nuno Corvo / Henry Littig). The TCE winners of this year’s Hankook 12H SPA had been running in the top three comfortably only to lose almost 20 minutes repairing the CUPRA’s collapsed left rear suspension.
Impressively, this means the Synchro Motorsport Honda FK8-Civic Type-R (#676, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler / Martin Byford) not only leads the A3-class but also rounds out the overall TCE top five after a run hampered only by loose rear bodywork. Despite losing almost two hours in the pits hunting for a suspected turbo issue, the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M240i Racing Cup (#869, Martin Kroll / Nicole Holzer / Axel Burghardt / Michael Bonk / Markus Fischer) still holds 2nd in the A3 category.
The 2019 Hankook 24H PORTIMAO will continue uninterrupted until the chequered flag is flown on Sunday at 12.00 hrs local time. Live timing and live streaming of the race in HD quality with commentary by radiolemans.com will be available on the series’ website. The streaming will also be uploaded on the series’ Youtube channel. Regular updates will be published on Twitter (@24HSeries), Facebook (24H Series) and Instagram (24H Series). Further information can be found at www.24hseries.com.
