Pista – Herberth Motorsport takes commanding Hankook 24H PORTIMAO 1-2; first overall win in the 24H SERIES since 2021

After a commanding performance, Herberth Motorsport has secured a 1-2 finish at the 2024 Hankook 24H PORTIMAO, the Bavarian team’s first overall win in the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook in close to three years.

Having swapped the lead with its sister car for much of the early going, Herberth Motorsport’s #92 Porsche 992 GT3 R (Max Moritz / Vincent Kolb / Felix Neuhofer / Robert Renauer / Ralf Bohn) eventually stole a march on the #91 entry (Scott Noble / Ralf Bohn / Jason Hart / Ian Loggie) during the night, and eventually took the lead for good at half-distance, opening up a two-lap cushion shortly afterwards.

After 24 hours of uninterrupted racing, the #92 Porsche led its sister entry across the line to secure Herberth Motorsport’s second overall win – and its second 1-2 finish – at the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO. The result also marks the first overall win for the 2017 Overall GT Teams’ ‘Continents’ champion since the Hankook 12H HUNGARY in 2021.

Completing 743 laps of the 4.652km Autódromo Internacional do Algarve en-route to victory, the Bavarian team broke the event’s distance record – 731 laps – set in 2020, also by Herberth Motorsport. Amazingly, with less than one hour of Code 60 caution periods called during the race, the 2024 Hankook 24H PORTIMAO covered one of the highest distances of any event – just over 3,456km – in 24H SERIES history.

Despite nursing a clutch issue for well over half of the event, an issue that forced the French team to bump start its Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II during the pit stops, the Saintéloc Junior Team (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Swen Herberger / Philippe Chatelet) ran both Herberth Porsches hard to finish 3rd overall. This is the second Hankook 24H PORTIMAO in succession at which Doppelmayr, Kaffer, Erhart and Herberger have finished on the overall podium.

In a memorable moment, inspired by an unknown problem for the leading Herberth Porsche in the very closing stages, the top three crossed the line in a Le Mans-style formation finish.

“It was a fantastic weekend for us, and a fantastic race until the last hour when we had an issue. But before that it was, fantastic!” an overjoyed Robert Renauer, celebrating his 50th race with CREVENTIC this weekend, explained to radiolemans.com’s Diana Binks.

“We had some noises coming from the back. We don’t know if it was the driveshaft or something in the suspension or the gearbox, so we told Max [Moritz] that he should reduce the speed, lap-by-lap, and just bring the car home. It was pretty close but in the end we made it!”

Although a terminal engine issue forced the team to retire early, the E2P Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3 R (#90, Pablo Burguera / Antonio Sainero / Álvaro Parente) was still classified 3rd in GT3-Pro/Am at Portimão. The Spanish team thus retains its lead in the GT3-Pro/Am standings ahead of the Saintéloc Junior Team.

Early frontrunners Hofor Racing (#11, Michael Kroll / Chantal Prinz / Alexander Prinz / Maximilian Partl / Kenneth Heyer) and Grove Racing (#10, Stephen Grove / Brenton Grove / Matthew Payne / Garth Tander) sadly did not go the distance. Australia’s Grove Racing was the first to retire during the ninth hour after fuel pump issues and a suspected fluid leak sparked a small fire (the team opted to withdraw the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO on safety grounds). Hofor Racing meanwhile, which, like Grove, ran in the overall top two during the opening hour, was felled by gearbox issues during the night

992
Red Ant Racing completed a perfect weekend at Portimão by finishing 4th and 5th overall on the road and taking a 1-2 finish in the 992 class. Impressively, this replicates the 1st and 2nd places the Belgian team secured at the previous edition in 2022.

A fault-free run brought the #903 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (#903, Ayrton Redant / Yannick Redant / Kobe de Breucker / Lucas Van Eijndhoven) its third class win of the season, strengthening its 992 standings lead in the process. The sister #904 Porsche meanwhile (#904, Brent Verheyen / Peter Guelinckx / Michiel Haverans / Kris Cools) completed a recovery drive to 2nd in-class after losing time to an on-track collision and ABS problems in the early going. The Belgian team also overcame a loose fuel valve during the night.

Red Camel-Jordans.nl (#909, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers / Fabian Danz) secured its first 992 podium of the European season in 3rd. The Dutch team had been running 2nd, within striking distance of the leader, but was forced to change the Porsche’s entire wheel hub when stripped wheel studs prevented the left front wheel from being removed. Red Camel finished five laps behind both Red Ant Racing entries.

After dropping to 10th in 992 early on, and despite nursing starter motor issues throughout the night, Holmgaard Motorsport (#902, Magnus Holmgaard / Martin Vedel Mortensen / Jonas Holmgaard / Stéphane Perrin) completed an impressive recovery drive to finish 5th overall in 992 behind the Orchid Racing Team (#963, Laurent Misbach / Loic Villiger / Frank Villiger / Antoine Leclerc). The latter battled coolant and brake issues throughout the event.

The sister Orchid Racing Team Porsche 992 GT3 CUP (#917, Alexandre Mottet / Antonio Garzon / Jeremy Brodard / Daniel Gillioz) sadly retired with terminal engine issues.

SebLajoux Racing by DUWO Racing (#908, Eric Mouez / Solenn Amrouche / Miguel Moiola / Lauris Nauroy / Gary Terclavers), having held the 992-Am class lead throughout the night, looked set to take class victory in the Algarve, but was shuffled back to 2nd in-class by a wheel mount failure early on Sunday morning.

SebLajoux’s issue meant reigning 992-AM Teams’ champion RPM Racing (#907, Tracy Krohn / Niclas Jönsson / Philip Hamprecht / Patrick Huisman) completed an incredible recovery drive to 9th overall in 992 and 992-Am class victory. The German team lost several hours during the first half of the event, first to a punctured radiator – the result of an on-track run-in with the MRS GT-Racing Porsche – and later a full gearbox change.

MRS GT Racing (#988, Marco Müller / Shaun Thong / Will Langhorne / Terence Tse / Ricardo Costa) rounds out the 992-Am class podium. Twice on Saturday afternoon, the Porsche’s left rear wheel sheared from its mounting, and prolonged wheel hub issues at the same corner thereafter kept bringing the German team back to the box. The team brought out the event’s seventh Code 60 when the car lost its left rear on-track for the fifth and final time, with just over an hour left to run.

GTX, GT4 and TCE
Buggyra ZM Racing (#416, Aliyyah Koloc / David Vršecký / Adam Lacko / Jaroslav Janis) ultimately came out on top of an unpredictable fight for GT4 class victory, one in which each contender hit trouble.

The Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO of long-time class leader – and 24H SERIES debutant – W Autosport (#491, Thierry Chkondali / Marc Girard / Michel Sallenbach / Caryl Fritsché / Thomas Leal) led the GT4 class for well over half of the event, but lost 50 minutes in the garage to a fuel pump issue early on Sunday morning. This put the Buggyra ZM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 into the lead heading into the final four hours, though the Czech-based team had to overcome multiple wishbone failures during the race. The spirited performance netted Buggyra ZM Racing radiolemans.com’s ‘Spirit of the Race’ award.

The GSR Motorsport Ginetta G56 GT4 (#405, Ernesta Globyte / Rokas Kvedaras / Mindaugas Liatukas / Egidijus Gelunas / Aras Kvedaras) was also in GT4 contention early on, and even led the class after the opening four hours. Fuel pressure issues shortly afterwards however, plus driveshaft and diff failure during the night, ended up dropping the Lithuanian team more than an hour behind the class winner. The Ginetta fought back to finish 3rd in-class.

Despite losing time against the barriers early on, the Vortex V8 Vortex 2.0 (#701, Lionel Amrouche / Philippe Bonnel / Gilles Courtois / Lucas Sugliano) finished inside the top 15 and secured GTX class victory. Series returnee PR-V meanwhile (#125, Christian Gloz / Hervé Houdré / Alain Remi / Flavien Remi) impressed with a quiet run to 13th overall, and TCE class victory, with its Peugeot 308 Racing Cup.
After a short break, the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook returns to action on 5-6 July with the Hankook 12H MISANO at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy. CREVENTIC’s 2024 European season will conclude on 13-14-15 September with the 25th edition of the Hankook 24H BARCELONA at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya. Further details can be found at www.24hseries.com/races.