Ready for action: inaugural Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT in The Netherlands this week (May 30-31)

On Friday and Saturday this week (May 30 and 31), Circuit Park Zandvoort in The Netherlands will be the venue for the inaugural Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT, the third event of this year’s 24H SERIES powered by Hankook. With an entry of 53 cars, the first international endurance race ever to be held at the former Grand Prix circuit in the dunes at the North Sea coast can be declared a huge success already. “We are really honoured with this great interest for the race by teams and drivers,” says Gerrie Willems on behalf of Dutch agency CREVENTIC, promoters and organisers of the event, in co-operation with Dutch National Racing Team (DNRT) and management and staff of Circuit Park Zandvoort. “We have a truly international field with entrants from 26 different nationalities, 18 different car brands and a good mix of GTs and touring cars. We really are looking forward to a fantastic event!”
     

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 appears to be the car of choice in the A6/GT3 class, with no less than five gullwing sports cars set to be run by three different teams. Among them is Swiss outfit, Hofor Racing, the winning team of last year’s 24H BARCELONA. The team has entered two SLS AMG GT3s with an identical line-up, consisting of Barcelona race winners, Michael Kroll, Roland Eggimann, Kenneth Heyer and Christiaan Frankenhout, plus young German Maximilian Buhk, the 2012 FIA GT3 European Champion, last year’s Blancpain Endurance Series champion and the winner of the Spa 24 Hours, as a strong addition. Other SLS AMG GT3s are run by GDL Racing and Car Collection Motorsport. Dutch ex-DTM driver Renger van der Zande is among the drivers in one of the Car Collection cars.Opposition in the A6 class is coming from Scuderia Praha’s Ferrari 458 (including Dutch GT stalwart, Peter Kox), Leipert Motorsport’s Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3 (with Dutch driver, Jeroen Mul, freshly motivated by his pair of Lamborghini Super Trofeo wins last weekend) and the V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette, the car that started on pole position in Dubai this year.
 
The SP2 class includes a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car, an Audi TTRS, a BMW 150 GTR, GC Automobile and Renault Mégane Trophy silhouette cars and three examples of the Australian-built MARC Focus V8 that will be making its debut outside of Australia following its successful premiere in the Bathurst 12 Hours. In the SP3 class, mainly filled with GT4 cars, there will be a Porsche, a Lotus Evora GT4, an Audi R8, a BMW M235i, a Ginetta and a Nissan 370Z backed by the Dutch Nissan importer. As usual, BMW cars fill the majority of the A5 class, but there is competition from a pair of Peugeot 208 GTis run by French team, Altran. The A3T class consists of BMWs and SEAT Supercopa cars while the A2 class is the playing field of Renault Clios and Twingos, Honda Civics, a Peugeot RCZ and a Rover MG ZR. The D1 diesel class is filled with BMWs plus one Volkswagen and one SEAT.
 
First race for Hankook as title sponsor and tyre partner
The inaugural Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT marks the first race for Hankook as the title sponsor and the official tyre partner of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook. “The weather forecast for Friday and Saturday looks quite good. Thursday being a public holiday in The Netherlands and most of Europe, there will be many people in Zandvoort, so we expect a good crowd for the race as well,” Gerrie Willems says. “With our two-day format, successfully run at Mugello, people can enjoy two pre-race starting grid procedures and two race starts. With the German DMV-Touring Car Challenge, we have an attractive support category as well with very impressive sports cars.”
     

Track action for the Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT starts on Friday, May 30, with free practice fom 12.10 till 12.40 hrs, followed by qualifying in two classes from 12.50 till 14.30 hrs. The race starts at 16.00 hrs and the first part ends at 19.00 hrs, after which a parc fermé ruling applies. The re-start of the race is on Saturday, May 31, at 10.00 hrs, with the finish at 19.00 hrs, followed by a prize-giving ceremony for the overall winners. The trophies for all the other classes will be presented during the post-race beach party/prize giving on Saturday evening from 20.00 till 23.00 hrs. The two DMV-TCC races each are held on Friday afternoon from 14.40 till 15.10 hrs and on Saturday morning from 8.30 till 9.00 hrs.

Comprehensive live streaming, expert commentary and updates
Live video streaming and live timing will be available throughout the race at live.24hseries.com. The expert commentary team by Radio Show Limited, the people behind Radio Le Mans, will be present at Zandvoort. There will also be regular updates on Twitter (@24HSeries) and Facebook (24H Series). Further information about the Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT and the other rounds of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook can be found at: www.24hseries.com.