•    Maiden win for Up2Race in only second Michelin 24H SERIES appearance 
•    P4 overall for Saintéloc Junior Team Audi seals overall and GT3 PRO-AM crowns
•    Mühlner Motorsport takes 992 title with victory, HRT are 992-AM champions 
•    CP Motorsport races to emotional double win in GT4 and TCE-TCX 
•    Not Only Motorsport battles adversity to earn TCE-TCX title, Vortex GTX champs

 UP2RACE-PORSCHE GEWINNT MICHELIN 24H BARCELONA; SAINTELOC-AUDI HOLT SICH TITEL IN DEN EUROPEAN SERIES

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain (20 September 2026):
Audi R8 squad Saintéloc Junior Team celebrated a brilliant Michelin 24H SERIES European Series title triumph with a fighting fourth place in the weekend’s Michelin 24H BARCELONA, as a richly deserved first race victory in the championship was taken by impressive Porsche team Up2Race.

As other lead contenders fell by the wayside or encountered insurmountable difficulties, Up2Race crafted an outstanding performance with its Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) EVO to win by a lap with the line-up of Tim Heinemann, Fabio Grosse, Alfred Renauer and Oleksiy Kikireshko. 

“It’s the first 24 hour for the team, so it means a lot”, said a delighted Heinemann, “We are quite new to the GT3 category as a team, so it’s an amazing result for us, the mechanics and Patrick the team boss is super happy. In the night we had super pace, our car was really, really fast, the team did an amazing job on the set-up and, in the end, this is what made the difference today.” 

HAAS RT’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO was impressive in the hands of Storm Gjerdum, Manel Lao Cornargo and father and son Peter and Nicolas Guelinckx, second overall and winning GT3-AM in only the car’s second race. HOFOR Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO completed the overall podium with Chantal and Alexander Prinz, Michael Kroll, Torsten Kratz and Maximilian Partl to win the GT3-AM crown.

Saintéloc, meanwhile, produced a typically strong and professional performance with drivers Pierre Kaffer, Stephane Tribaudini, Elia Erhart, Célia Martin and Michael Doppelmayr. In the fight throughout the 24 hours, the French squad finished fourth overall to win GT3 PRO-AM, take the class title and, most importantly, become Michelin 24H SERIES European Series Champions.

“It’s great to be champion, it’s the second time now that we made it to win the 24H SERIES”, said Kaffer, “It’s awesome, we never expected this before we started this season. Honestly, it was really tough and especially this race was just amazing, how the crew worked. It’s really nice to see how the Creventic series has improved the last couple of years, it’s really nice to be part of Creventic.”

Mühlner Motorsport sealed its third victory of the season in 992 to win the championship, as chief rivals Red Camel-Jordans.nl were forced into retirement just before midnight. The race win for the trio of Martin Rump, Joshua Bednarski and Conrad Tox Leveau was only assured though after a devastating driveshaft failure for the RPM Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992 I) in the last 40 minutes.

CP Motorsport took race victory in both the GT4 and TCE-TCX classes, with its BMW M4 GT4 (G82) and Cupra TCR DSG respectively, and as the sole car in class in GTX this weekend the No.701 Vortex 2.0 sealed a dominant title win. The title in TCE-TCX was won by Not Only Motorsport’s Ligier JS2 R.

Maxime Martin started the race on pole for GetSpeed Team PCX Racing alongside Mikaël Grenier in the Ajith RedAnt Racing entry, and the two Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs were side-by-side to Turn One where Grenier held the outside and took the lead as it became the inside for Turn Two.

Just behind, Jesse Krohn launched perfectly from fourth in the Gamota Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and passed Kaffer’s Audi for third. Those four were soon joined by Heinemann in the Porsche and Jake Hill in the Era Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO – the latter up from 11th on the grid.

Grenier still led before the first Code 60 period at the 75-minute mark, which sparked a flurry of pits activity. With differing strategies already having an impact, Steve Jans then led in the championship topping GetSpeed Team JR286 Mercedes from Aaron Lim Say Joon in the Viper Niza Mercedes.

After two Code 60s in quick succession in hour five, the HAAS BMW began to come into the mix while Up2Race and Viper Niza were also staking their claim to the podium. All took turns in the lead as Saturday evening arrived. 

Fully dark skies were in evidence in hour nine and a dark mood soon fell over the entire GetSpeed squad. First the JR286 car required a replacement gearbox while running fifth. Incredibly, just a short time later, the PCX car was pushed into the pit garage with a wheel bearing problem from sixth.

At midnight local time, half distance, Up2Race led the way by a minute from Viper Niza, with HAAS RT third and then the Saintéloc Audi a couple of laps back, one lap ahead of HOFOR with Ajith RedAnt sixth. The night time phase of the race solidified the performance of the lead challengers, all staying within the first six positions. By day break, Up2Race had an advantage of two laps.

Into the final three hours the Era Ferrari, in the hands of Dwight Merriman, had a spin out of the final corner and slammed heavily into the pitwall which ended the squad’s bid – Merriman was thankfully uninjured. 

With only an hour to run Grosse was on top for Up2Race, but fuel saving, 11 seconds ahead of Alexander Prinz for HOFOR and then Cornago third for HAAS RT. Minutes later HOFOR and HAAS each pitted, Prinz remained in the Mercedes while Storm Gjerdrum climbed into the BMW. 

Grosse then pitted for a quick fuel stop with 50 minutes to go and when he rejoined the track he was a lap ahead of the HAAS RT car. Nothing changed among the top three to the finish, with Saintéloc’s Audi fourth from the Mercedes-AMGs of Ajith RedAnt Racing and Viper Niza.

Championship leaders going into the race, Red Camel-Jordans.nl, began on pole with Rik Breukers taking the start. Julian Hanses, though, in the QMMF by HRT Performance Porsche picked his way through very impressively to rise from fifth to the lead in quick order. James Kellett in HRT’s No.928 car held third initially, before then passing Breukers, with Rump fourth for Mühlner.

Following the first stops at the initial Code 60 period, Leveau led in the Mühlner car with Fabian Danz second for Red Camel. When they each stopped again the No.928 took the lead with Steven Gambrell at the wheel, Mühlner then had a car issue in hour two which put them on the back foot.

All of the main players were there and in contention into Saturday evening but half an hour before midnight, Red Camel’s bid for the 992 crown ended. After a throttle alarm came on Ivo Breukers tried to reset the car but it soon became clear in the pits the problem was terminal.

The No.928 HRT Porsche began to make 992 their own, leading by three laps into the small hours of Sunday morning. In hour 17 though, the squad’s involvement also came to an end after requiring an engine change and this was then followed by a gearbox problem.

RPM Racing had doggedly gone about its business and the No.907 Porsche rose to the top of the pile as a result, even with a problematic driveshaft. Despite issues of their own, including a puncture, Mühlner ate into RPM’s lead and with two hours to go less than 10 seconds separated them. 

Leveau duly passed Patrick Huisman and opened a 35s cushion ahead of the last hour and then, with only 40 minutes to run, the driveshaft on the RPM Porsche cruelly failed. Mühlner therefore took a clear 992 race win from the Van Berlo Motorsport by CP Motorsport car, with the No.888 Seblajoux Racing Porsche victorious in 992-AM in third overall.

There were no surprises during the early running in TCE-TCX as the Ligier of Not Only Motorsport opened a strong lead, but with only an hour elapsed a fire in the engine bay caused Gino Rocchio to pull off track at Turn Three. This caused the first Code 60 of the race and meant Seth Brown in the asBest Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) took the lead.

As more issues befell the Ligier, requiring further unscheduled stops, the fight at the front became an enthralling battle between the Cupra TCR DSG entries of CP Motorsport and Stanco&Tanner Motorsport. Through the early going there was little to choose, although a puncture for the No.112 Cupra in hour six was costly and CP Motorsport did then begin to strengthen its grip. 

Despite losing a huge number of laps with its dramas, the Ligier squad showed superb determination to fight back into the top three and win the class championship. Victory in the race, though, was taken by CP’s father and son Peter and Matthijs Terlouw, Robbin Heijerman and Karel Neleman.

In GT4, CP Motorsport’s BMW was kept honest by the Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport but did ultimately take a dominant win. Johan de Rouw led from the start for CP but after the first couple of pit visits the pendulum swung towards the Porsche. After that, though, de Rouw, Semo Keric, Daaf Steentjes, Patrick Grootscholten and Pieter-Jan Lefevere took control.

As the only GTX class entry at Barcelona, the Vortex of Philippe Bonnel, Julien Boillot, Marc Girard, Thierry Chkondali and Michel Sallenbach took its fourth win of the season and also ended inside the overall top 20.