Fontes has challenging Barcelona 24h race but finishes

Spaniard Fontes didn´t meet his goals with his SEAT León Cup Racer fielded by RCA Racing at the 24 hours of Barcelona. Fontes, who teamed up with Vela, Sicart, Carbó and González-Bueno at the 24 hours marathon, had braking-related issues during the race. Two crashes as a result of brake failures knocked the team from winning contention.
The Malaga-born driver Álvaro Fontes couldn´t achieve at 2015 24 hours of Barcelona the same result of 2011. Fontes appeared on the entry list with a RCA Racing SEAT León Cup Racer and Álvaro Vela, Alan Sicart, Jaime Carbó and César González-Bueno as his teammates. They all put together a strong and seasoned driver line-up for honors in A3T class.

Following the free practice session, the RCA Racing-entered car approached Friday´s qualifying session in the afternoon with Fontes and his teammates setting a best lap of 2:05.953, 6th-fastest in class. It was boding well for the race, which was expected to be particularly challenging. They moved up to fourth during the first racing hours in A3T but when Fontes was making his first stint, brakes malfunction caused an off track and the car hit the wall. After one hour, RCA Racing fixed the car but they experienced a difficult night plagued by brake problems again. In the morning, the team suffered another crash, this time with Vela at the wheel. Despite problems, they crossed the finish line 14th-placed in class.

“We are a little disappointed because things didn´t go as smoothly as initially planned. We don´t really meet our goals. Friday´s free practice session went ok. In fact I clocked a time of 2:01.5, the fastest lap during the weekend. But I already noticed something wrong with brakes”, Fontes explained, adding that “during my first stint in the car, the feel over the braking wasn´t that good. And all of a sudden I had no brakes at the end of the straight. I hit the wall and we lost one hour in the pits. Although we tried to have a solid pace, it was impossible. This car has a problem with brake pads or something similar. Night didn´t improve things for us and Vela crashed again in the morning. At least, we finished. But we will be back”.