To popular demand from drivers and teams, the Automotodrom Brno in the Czech Republic is making its comeback on the calendar of the 24H SERIES European Championship powered by Hankook. The challenging track is hosting the third round of the European season, the Hankook 12H BRNO (24-25 May 2019) featuring the 24H GT SERIES and the 24H TCE SERIES, both powered by Hankook. In the best tradition of the race series organised by Dutch agency CREVENTIC, the GT and touring car fields will each have their own separate starting group and prize-giving ceremony. The race will again be split up into two segments with the first three hours to run on Friday and the remainder taking place on Saturday.
In 2015 and 2016, the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook already had a round in Brno, a circuit with a lot of undulation and a venue with a long heritage in motorsport. After all, races were already held at the Masaryk Ring, a street circuit with a length of 29 kilometres near the city of Brno in the 1930s. The current 5.4 kilometres long circuit, a permanent facility, was inaugurated in 1986. “The events we had at Brno in the past were a great success and we are delighted to be coming back,” says Helen Roukens on behalf of CREVENTIC.
Czech team, Scuderia Praha, came out on top in the most recent 24H SERIES event held at Brno and obviously aims at another success in front of its home crowd. In its current structure under the Bohemia Energy Racing with Scuderia Praha moniker, the team has scored back-to-back wins in the first two rounds of the 2019 European Championship at Mugello and Spa-Francorchamps and could make it a triple success with another win at Brno with its Ferrari. However, to do so, it has to overcome the traditionally fierce competition in the A6 class with eight further teams running Audi, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. Four cars are running in the 991 class, six cars have been entered in the GT4 category including a pair of KTM X-Bows run by Czech team RTR Projects, another team aiming at success on home soil.
The TCR class spearheads the TCE division in the field with eight cars entered and Audi, Cupra, SEAT and Volkswagen all represented by customer teams. With Swiss team Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing and Dutch outfit Red Camel-Jordans.nl, the two TCE division winners from the European Championship rounds held at Mugello and Spa-Francorchamps will be on the grid at Brno as well. A pair of BMWs is running in the SP3 class while three entries, two BMWs and one Honda, in the A3 class round out the touring car segment.
On Thursday, 23 May, teams have optional two private test sessions of three hours each to prepare for the event. Official track action starts on Friday, 24 May, with free practice from 9.00-10.30 hrs and qualifying for the TCE division from 11.30-12.15 hrs, followed by GT qualifying from 12.30-13.15 hrs. The first three hours of the race will be held from 16.00-19.00 hrs, after which an intervention under parc fermé rules is in place. The remainder of the race runs on Saturday 25 May from 10.00-19.00 hrs.
Source. Creventic/Photo. Petr Frýba
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