Debut victory at home for NM Racing Team at Hankook 24H BARCELONA

The NM Racing Team Ginetta G55 GT4 (#215, Nikolay Dmitriev / Maxime Guillemat / Marc de Fulgencio / Ivan Pareras / Nil Montserrat) has won the Hankook 24H BARCELONA. After 643 laps around the 4.655km Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya – a race distance of 2993.16km – team namesake Nil Montserrat took the chequered flag to win the penultimate round of the 2017 24H TCE SERIES powered by Hankook, simultaneously securing SP3-GT4 class victory in the process. Just one lap adrift after a full day of racing, the Team Bleekemolen SEAT Leon TCR (#100, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen / Melvin de Groot / Rene Steenmetz / Michael Bleekemolen) finished in overall second position to take TCR class victory. Third on the road, and second in the TCR category for the MONLAU COMPETICIÓN SEAT Leon TCR (#107, Alvaro Bajo / Alba Cano Ramirez / Jurgen Smet / Jose Manuel Perez Aicart), guaranteed two Spanish teams finished on the overall podium in Barcelona.

The Bas Koeten Racing powered by Kawasaki SEAT Leon TCR (#155, Kristian Jepsen / Jan Sorensen / Martin van den Berge / Anders Fjordbach) would complete the TCR top three by finishing fourth overall, becoming the first of three Bas Koeten Racing entries to finish inside the top six.

Despite contact on the first lap dropping it to the tail of the field – as well as rear suspension failure caused by a collision during the final hour – a strong run from the Red Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT Leon TCR (#303, Ivo Breukers / Rik Breukers / Bert de Heus / JM Littman) meant the Dutch team rounded out the top 10 at the chequered flag. Just ahead in eighth and ninth were the Pit Lane Competizioni Audi RS3 LMS DSG (#122, Zach Arnold / Roberto Ferri / Alberto Vescovi / John Filippì) and the Bonk Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#115, Hermann Bock / Max Partl / Philip Ellis).

Behind the SP3-GT4 winning NM Racing Team Ginetta G55 GT4, the CWS Ginetta G55 GT4 (#178, Colin White / Patrik Mathiesen / Joachim Bölting / Tom Wrigley) finished second in-class in SP3-GT4 despite early accident damage and a fuel pump issue arising late in the race. The British-entered Ginetta would finish just two laps ahead of the EST 1 Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 (#981, Thomas Padovani / Raimo Kulli / Sten Pentus / Keijo Kaasik / Jukka Honkavuori), which led outright in the opening stages before a puncture dropped the Estonian team down the order. The Stratton Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT4 (#237, Stuart Hall / Tom Black / David Tinn / Robin Marriott) also led outright during the opening hours of the Hankook 24H BARCELONA only for electrical issues to drop the British team 25 laps off the leaders on its series debut.
The Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type R (#176, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler / Martin Byford) took a strong A3 victory, despite issues with a failing turbocharger. The MALTI COMPETITION SEAT Leon Supercopa MK2 (#128, Philippe Burel / Victor Fernandes / Jean-Marc Rivet / Bob Arezina) would finish second in-class, while the Team Autosport de Jong BMW E46 330D (#177, Peter Terlouw / Patrick Tieman / Marco de Jong / Karel Neleman / Mark Verhaegh) recovered from lengthy suspension issues to complete the A3 podium.

The Cor Euser Racing BMW 120D (#71, Cor Euser / Jim Briody / Carel Krieger / Stan van Oord) came out on top in A2, despite running last in-class after early delays. The Alders Motorsport Renault Clio Cup III (#180, Lucas Alders / Rob Noy / Stefan Tanner / Eduard Lázaro / Fortia Pares) secured a shock second in-class after long-time leader Spirit Racing (#168 Renault Clio Cup III, Rob Nieman / Eric vd Munckhof / Frank Bedorf / Stan van Oord / Joey van Splunteren) stopped on-track in the closing stages. The class polesitting RECY RACING TEAM meanwhile (#194 BMW 120D, Jan de Vocht / Johan van Loo / Wim Meulders / Thomas Piessens) would comfortably lead the first half of the race in A2 before succumbing to engine issues during the night.

Despite pulling to a smoking stop with less than an hour to go, the DUWO Racing BMW M235i Racing Cup meanwhile (#235, Jean-Marie Dumont / Alexander W. Wetzlich / Nicolas Schmit / Andrey Mukovoz / Stanislav Sidoruk) took a comfortable win in CUP1 over the QSR Racingschool BMW M235i Racing Cup (#154, Jimmy de Breucker / Mario Timmers / Rodrigue Gillion / Emilie Liljeström / Tommy Graberg) after power steering issues dropped the Belgian team 85 laps adrift. This, however, would not affect QSR Racingschool’s lead in the overall CUP1 standings.

With just one round of the 2017 24H TCE SERIES powered by Hankook left to run, QSR Racingschool, MONLAU COMPETICION and CWS are now covered by just three points in the overall Team standings.

In five weeks, the 24H TCE SERIES powered by Hankook heads for its last round with the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, held from 6 to 8 October. That same weekend, CREVENTIC will also host the next round of the 24H PROTO SERIES powered by Hankook with the Hankook 2X6H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, the organiser’s first ever event in America also set to take place in early November at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, USA. Further information can be found at www.24htceseries.com.