TOPCAR Sport takes win, Autorama takes title at the #Hankook 24H BARCELONA
The TOPCAR sport by Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR DSG (#131, Fabian Danz / Julien Apotheloz / Loris Prattes / Antti Buri) has secured its first win of this year’s 24H SERIES powered by Hankook at the 2019 Hankook 24H BARCELONA. The Swiss team led almost unopposed from the third hour onwards, Antti Buri crossing the line to complete 637 laps of the 4.655km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after a scintillating run.
With the Baporo Motorsport CUPRA TCR (#135, Jose Manuel Sapag / Marcelo Rafael Ciarrocchi / Alexandr Artemyev / Alberto Vescovi) finishing 2nd, CUPRA Racing secures a 1-2 finish on home turf in Spain.
“Its always nice to win!” Antti Buri explained to radiolemans.com’s Shea Adam. “The team did a good job and the car was perfect. We kept the pace on all the time, but we also made sure we played it safe. And congratulations to Fabian [Danz]. New champion!”
The Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#112, Marlon Menden / Ralf Henggeler / Jérôme Ogay / Benjamin Leuchter / Yannick Mettler) completed both the TCE and TCR class podiums. The result was enough to secure the Swiss outfit the 24H TCE SERIES Europe Overall Teams’ Championship. Having taken overall victory, Fabian Danz becomes the new 24H TCE SERIES Europe Overall Drivers’ champion.
The TTC Racing SEAT Leon TCR V2 (#103, Daniel Schilliger / Rolf Reding / Fredy Suter / Adrian Spescha) collected an unexpected, though no less deserved, 4th in TCE after the Holmgaard Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#102, Magnus Holmgaard / Jonas Holmgaard / Roy Edland / Rowan Shepherd / Michael Carlsen) suffered suspected brake failure heading into the final hour of the race.
The RTR Projects KTM X-BOW (#224, Jan Krabec / Daniel Skalický / Petr Lisa / Erik Janis / Tomas Miniberger) collected its second class win of the 24H SERIES season in SP3. Further back, and despite suffering accident damage during the night, the Perfection Racing Europe Ginetta G55 (#345, Michael Klostermann / Claus Klostermann / Tommy Laugesen / René Rasmussen) secured 2nd in-class just ahead of the Munckhof Racing BMW M4 GTR (#310, Eric van den Munckhof / Marco Poland / Ted van Vliet / Marcel van Berlo / Glenn van Berlo). The latter had started on the SP3 pole, but lost time to an early gearbox change.
The Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M240i Racing Cup (#869, Martin Kroll / Axel Burghardt / Volker Piepmeyer / Michael Bonk / Michael Fischer) took the A3-class garlands ahead of the Synchro Motorsport Honda FK8-Civic Type-R (#676, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler / Matt Neal), the latter of which controlled the category from the front until gearbox failure struck late on.
The 2019 Hankook 24H BARCELONA marks the end of the European leg of this year’s 24H SERIES powered by Hankook, and the 24H SERIES Continents will be decided at the season-closing Hankook 24H COTA USA on 15-16-17 November at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Further information on this year’s calendar can be found at www.24hseries.com.
