Haegeli by T2 Racing has secured its first win in the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook after a fighting drive at the Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING against MiddleCap racing with Scuderia Praha and Leipert Motorsport.
With all three GT3 contenders going into this afternoon’s restart on the lead lap, the Haegeli by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (#66, Pieder Decurtins / Manuel Lauck / Marc Basseng) made a demon start to immediately take the overall lead ahead of the MiddleCap racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Matúš Výboh / Josef Král / Dennis Waszek), the pair continuing their battle for position across the next few laps.
An early pit stop though for the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo (#10, Brendon Leitch / Tyler Cooke / Fidel Leib / Seb Morris), plus mixed strategies for both the Porsche and the Ferrari, meant the lead continued to swap between all three contenders throughout the afternoon. The die was cast during the final Code 60 though with a perfectly-timed pit stop from Haegeli by T2 Racing heading into the final hour, a call that ultimately secured the German team’s first 24H SERIES win in only its second 24H SERIES outing.
The competition was so tight that Marc Basseng collected the chequered at the end of 384 laps of the 4.574km Hockenheimring just 53 seconds ahead of a hard-charging Josef Král.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” Marc Basseng explained to radiolemans.com’s Ben Constanduros. “It’s our second race with this team and the new car, and now we’ve won! It was really hard, a big challenge, but our strategy was absolutely perfect and we made no mistakes. We had a little bit of luck as well, but in the end, that’s what you need to win a race like this.”
Despite losing time during its penultimate stop for fuel, Leipert Motorsport completed a superb run to finish 3rd on the German team’s first GT3 outing since 2017. Less than one lap back, the CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster / Shane Lewis), which had been running 3rd in the closing stages, was forced to make a final splash-and-dash for fuel just two laps from home. The American team held on to finish a strong 4th.
Audi R8 LMS GT3s finished 5th, 6th and 7th on the road as Rutronik Racing by TECE (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Swen Herberger) led home both the #34 (Gustav Edelhof / Elmar Grimm / Max Edelhoff) and the #88 (Pierre-Yves Paque / Martin Lechmann / Vincent Piemonte / Christian Kranenberg) Car Collection Motorsport entries. The latter had a difficult start to the day with two spins early on, one of which was on the way to the grid.
Bas Koeten Racing took an impressive 1-2 finish in the 991 class, the Dutch team’s solo-entered Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#925, Marcel van Berlo / Glenn van Berlo / Bart van Helden) leading home the ‘sister’ NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Racing Cup car (#991, Harry Hilders / Gijs Bessem / Bas Barenbrug) after a metronimic run. Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors (#955, Fabrizio Broggi / Sergiu Nicolae / Sabino de Castro) had been on course to finish 3rd, but a long pit stop on the cusp of the final hour opened the door for DUWO Racing (#909, Andrey Mukovoz / Stanislav Sidoruk / Sergey Peregudov) to secure the final rostrum spot almost within sight of the flag.
The result means DUWO Racing now leads the Overall GT Teams’ standings with 69 points.
The 9und11 Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup MR (#719, Tim Scheerbarth / Georg Goder / Ralf Oehme / Martin Schlüter) took an impressive GTX-class win on its 24H SERIES debut, despite the Porsche running out of fuel on-track at one stage. Reiter Engineering (#724, Horst Felbermayr Jr. / Eike Angermayr / Nicolai Elghanayan / Mads Siljehaug) actually led the category going into the overnight intervention, but was forced to take a 12-lap penalty to work on the KTM X-BOW GTX overnight. Drivetrain issues continued to plague the German team on Saturday, though the KTM managed to hold off the Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 (#701, Philippe Bonnel / Nicolas Nobs / Bastien Gouret / Arnaud Gomez) for 2nd in GTX.
Having taken its fourth consecutive podium this season in the 24H SERIES, Vortex V8 retains its second place in the Overall GT Teams’ standings, just nine points behind DUWO Racing.
PROsport Racing (#401, Nico Verdonck / Rodrigue Gillion / Kurt Hensen) completed an impressive recovery drive to collect GT4 class honours at Hockenheim, the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 having already ended qualifying in the barriers on Saturday and lost time to a brake issue at the very start of the race later that afternoon. The ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 (#438, Samantha Tan / Chandler Hull / Jon Miller / Nick Wittmer) similarly recovered from its own front left brake disc drama but was later forced to retire with rear-end damage.
Grandstand finish in TCE
Overall TCE Teams’ championship contenders Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing and AC Motorsport took the fight for TCE honours down to the wire at the Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING, with the Swiss team coming out on-top by just four seconds after 12 hours of racing.
Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing and AC Motorsport separated by just four seconds at the chequered flag.
Early TCE contender CWS Engineering loses wheel; still finishes on the podium. GSR Motorsport takes first TCR-class podium on 24H SERIES return.
Brake issues late on Saturday for the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stéphane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / Stefan Wieninger) meant the Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#1, Constantin Kletzer / Jasmin Preisig / Emil Heyerdahl) went into yesterday’s overnight intervention in the lead of the TCE division. Split pit stop strategies and strong running throughout the afternoon meant that, following both teams’ final pit stops, the Volkswagen and the Audi were still on the same lap heading in the closing stages.
Mathieu Detry was scything into Emil Heyerdahl’s lead at a rate of just under a second per lap when the AC Motorsport Audi was forced to make a late-race splash-and-dash with eight minutes left on the clock. Incredibly, two laps later, the #1 Autorama Motorsport Volkswagen also had to pit for fuel, and both TCR cars were separated by less than 10 seconds when they rejoined.
Ultimately, Heyerdahl was able to secure Autorama Motorsport’s second successive TCE win of the season, albeit by just 4.3 seconds from AC Motorsport. The Swiss team completed 350 laps of the 4.574km Hockenheimring en route to victory.
“Oh that was so tough, I can’t describe it!” a relieved Heyerdahl explained to radiolemans.com’s Ben Constanduros. “That was co close, but I’m very happy with that! Massive thanks to Autorama Motorsport [by Wolf-Power Racing]. We are back in the championship lead now. Good race!”
The race had looked set to be a three-way fight for victory with CWS Engineering (#278, Colin White / Jean- François Brunot), the Ginetta G55 GT4 even tangling with the AC Motorsport Audi on-track at one stage. A late-race scare though saw the Ginetta lose its front right wheel heading out of the hairpin, necessitating a quick wheel hub repair. Undeterred, the British team was still able to secure the final spot on the TCE podium as well as TCX class victory, a result that now leaves CWS Engineering just one point behind Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing in the Overall TCE Teams’ standings.
Behind CWS Engineering, the Munckhof Racing BMW M4 GTR (#210, Eric van den Munckhof / Marco Poland) finished a solid 4th ahead of the Autorama Motorsport SEAT León Cup Racer V1 DSG (#211, Luigi Stanco / Armando Stanco / Dario Stanco), the latter having lost time in the pits with broken bonnet pins.
The GSR Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR SEQ (#105, Ernesta Globytė / Rokas Kvedaras / Rolandas Salys / Rimvydas Savickas) suffered minor right rear wheel hub damage after a brief brush with the Stadler Motorsport Porsche, as well as an extensive coolant leak. The Lithuanian team recovered to finish 6th overall in TCE and 3rd in the TCR class on its first 24H SERIES event since 2019.
Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing’s second TCR entry (#112, Rhys Lloyd / Christoph Hurni / Christoph Lenz / Yannick Mettler) had also been in the fight for TCE victory early on, but terminal gearbox issues ended up dropping the Volkswagen out of contention. Following a three-hour pit stop, the Golf was able to finish the race in a classified 7th.
