American trio to pilot MRS GT-Racing´s Porsche in Mugello

MRS GT-Racing will be entering the Mugello 12 hours with one Porsche 991 Cup and a very strong and all American driver line-up: Charlie Putman, Charles Espenlaub and Joe Foster.

MRS GT-Racing heads to Italy for the second round of the 24H Series, the Hankook 12h Italy-Mugello taking place at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Tuscany (Italy) on 18-19 March. Lonsee-based team took part in the opening round, the 24 hours of Dubai, last January. There, Lady Luck wasn´t on team´s side and several race incidents hampered the cars of MRS GT-Racing through the race, which took the German squad out of podium contention.

On the boot-shaped peninsula MRS GT-Racing will field one Porsche 991 Cup to be driven by American racers Charlie Putman, Charles Espenlaub and Joe Foster. Driver line-up´s experience with endurance racing together with MRS GT-Racing´s cars reliability will guide the assault throughout the second round of the season. There is a 14-car starting 991 class field at Mugello. Earlier this year, Putman, Espenlaub and Foster were forced into early Dubai retirement when his teammate Dutchman Xavier Maassen was involved in an accident with a rival.

Returning to Mugello brings back good memories for MRS GT-Racing as the whole team delivered a brilliant performance last year. Putman and Espenlaub, teaming up with Germany´s Christian Engelhart, pulled off a stormer of a lap to score pole position in Porsche class. The trio was having a hard-fought battle for win but they retired following a collision.

Free practice and qualifying sessions will take place on Friday morning with the 12-hour race split into two 6-hour heats. The first one is due to start on Friday at 14.00 and then resume at 9.30 on Saturday.

Johan Koning Hemmerling: “It´s such a pleasure to be back at Mugello 12 hours, another round counting towards the 24H Series by Creventic. For sure this championship is growing stronger every year. We will enter the Italian venue with our all American driver line-up and I think we can expect a good result from our Porsche. It was a shame they were forced to retire in Dubai so early into the race but Charlie, Charles and Joe will put in another strong performance in Italy.”