The Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) continues its undefeated streak at the Hankook 12H BRNO with its third consecutive victory at the event. Matteo Malucelli crossed the finishing line to complete 321 laps of the 5.403km Automotodrom Brno, securing not only the team’s hat trick at the event but also its third successive win of the 2019 European Championship, following wins in Mugello and Spa-Francorchamps.
Despite a commanding start to the race on Friday afternoon, cooler temperatures when the race restarted on Saturday morning left the Ferrari scrabbling for grip, allowing the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Robert Renauer) to move ahead. As conditions began to improve, and even despite a small rain shower, the gap would begin to close once again. A slow pit stop for the Herberth Porsche heading into the final hour ultimately allowed the Scuderia Ferrari to reclaim the top spot.
Winning at home for the third time was clearly an emotional moment for Jiří Písařík.
“You don’t know how nervous I was this morning and yesterday,” the Czech driver told radiolemans.com’s Joe Bradley. “Normally you go racing and there are not too many people. When you race at home, you know everybody, and it makes this win so much more special!”
Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha now holds a two-point advantage in the 2019 GT European Championship standings.
Though disappointed, Herberth Motorsport nevertheless walks away with its second consecutive A6-Am victory in the 24H SERIES.
Three laps further back, the CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster) took its first outright podium finish of the 2019 24H SERIES season, a position that had looked set to go to the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#88, Jürgen Häring / Taki Konstantinou / Tim Müller / Markus Winkelhock) only for terminal steering issues to eliminate the Hankook 24H DUBAI winner in the final 20 minutes of the race.
A strong recovery drive for the OLIMP Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo 2019 (#8, Marcin Jedlinski / Mateusz Lisowski / Karol Basz) was rewarded with 4th overall, and 2nd in A6-Pro, while the MDC-Sports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#4, Manuel Zumstein / Adrian Zumstein / Philipp Zumstein) rounded out not only the overall top five but also the A6-Am podium.
The RTR Projects KTM X-BOW GT4 (#224, Tomas Enge / Sergej Pavlovec / Jan Krabec / Eike Angermayr) completed a strong run at Brno in an impressive 11th overall, securing the GT4-class win in the process. Further back, reigning 24H TCE SERIES champions Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport (#50, Martin Kroll / Thomas Jäger / Michael Fischer / Gustav Engljaehringer / Michael Bonk) took its second GT4-class podium of the year with the new BMW M4 GT4. Another reigning series titleholder, 24H GT SERIES European Champion PROsport Performance (#1, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Akhil Rabindra), rounded out the GT4 podium with its new Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4, bolstering its lead in the GT4-class European Championship standings.
The Speed Lover Porsche 991-II Cup (#978, Dominique Bastien / Sven Van Laere) took a sensational win in ‘991’ after passing DUWO Racing (#909, Andrey Mukovoz / Sergey Peregudov / Stanislav Sidoruk) in the closing stages of the race. The Luxembourg team was still able to hold on to 2nd in-class ahead of the first of two Porsche Lorient Racing 991-II Cups (#911, Jean-François Demorge / Gilles Blasco / Lionel Amrouche / Frédéric Ancel), the latter moving to the top of the 991-class European Championship standings in the process.
Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing claims third win of the season
BRNO (25 May, 2019) – The Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#112, Fabian Danz / Kari-Pekka Laaksonen / Antti Buri) has taken its third win of this year’s 24H TCE SERIES at the Hankook 12H BRNO, despite low grip levels affecting the frontrunners throughout the event. Antti Buri crossed the line to complete 295 laps of the 5.403km Automotodrom Brno.
The Swiss team has now finished every race of this year’s 24H TCE SERIES on the podium, and now holds a nine-point lead in the TCE European Championship standings.
“It’s been a really brilliant season so far,” Kari-Pekka Laaksonen explained to radiolemans.com’s Joe Bradley. “This was a really exciting race, very close between the TCR cars from start to end. Nobody knew who was going to win this. I think we all had problems with tyre wear, and we tried to prolong a few of our stints so we could drive a little longer and save fuel. That is what made the difference today.”
The NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR (#175, Gijs Bessem / Harry Hilders) makes a successful return to the 24H TCE SERIES with 2nd place overall. Fellow CUPRA TCR runners Red Camel-Jordans.nl meanwhile (#101, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers) finished a hard-fought third. The father-son-son driver line-up had led the TCE division comfortably in the opening stages, but couldn’t fully remedy the handling issues that ultimately cost the Dutch team additional time on pitroad.
The Lestrup Racing Team Volkswagen Golf GTi (#110, Stefan Nilsson / Peter Fahlström / Marcus Fluch / Emil Sällberg) continues its strong form in this year’s 24H TCE SERIES with 4th overall in TCE. Admittedly the all-Swedish team benefited from a bizarre incident that saw the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stephane Perrin / Vincent Radermecker / James Kaye) turfed into the barriers on the very last lap of the race. The Audi was still classified 5th.
The Team ABBA Racing BMW M3 V8 GTR (#334, Richard Neary / Sam Neary / Charles Lamb) ended a difficult weekend with SP3-class victory. Despite leading the TCE division outright on Friday afternoon, the British team lost more than an hour to excessive heat and gearbox problems.
Former 24H TCE SERIES champion Synchro Motorsport (#676, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler) took its first A3-class win of the season at the Hankook 12H BRNO with the Honda FK8-Civic Type-R, despite suffering late-race driveshaft failure. The result catapults the British team to the head of the A3-class European Championship standings.
Further back Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M240i Racing Cup (#869, Axel Burghardt / Jurgen Meyer / Nicole Holzer / Martin Kroll) finished 2nd on its A3-class return, while Winkler Tuning BMW E46 123D meanwhile (#666, Michael Winkler / Michael Rienhoff), despite completing only three laps on Friday, drove a clean race to collect the final spot on the A3 podium.
24H SERIES powered by Hankook endurance racing action continues in two months time at the 2019 Hankook 24H PORTIMAO on 5-6-7 July. In a format unique to the 24H SERIES, the Portuguese event will host the fourth round of the 2019 European Championship and will also be an eligible points-paying race for the 2019 Championship of the Continents. One month later, the 24H SERIES heads to Spain for the 21st annual running of the Hankook 24H BARCELONA.
Source. Creventic/Photo. Petr Frýba
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