12H Spa: Places of honor for the Swiss 🎥
24H SERIES The Porsche team with Daniel Allemann only escaped victory at the 12 Hours of Spa at the last moment. This time, the Autorama VW team came in second. The decision at the second round of the European 24H Series championship in Spa was only made in the final phase. In the last three minutes of the two-part 12-hour race, [...]
The decision at the second round of the European 24H Series championship in Spa was not made until the final phase. In the final three minutes of the two-part 12-hour race, the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Scuderia Praha prevailed over the Porsche 991 GT3 R of Herberth Motorsport.
With five minutes to go, Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn and Robert Renauer were still in the lead before a problem during the last short refueling stop meant just enough time was lost for the Ferrari with Jiří Písařík, Josef Kral and Matteo Malucelli to pass on the penultimate lap.
Class win for Daniel Allemann
The Czech Ferrari was already ahead after the first part of the race on Good Friday. After a total of 250 laps on the 7.004-kilometer Belgian GP Circuit, Bohn was only 7.8 seconds behind. Daniel Allemann and the two Germans Bohn and Renauer, however, were also pleased afterwards with second place overall and victory in the A6-Am category.
The highlights of the race are shown in the following video:
https://www.facebook.com/24hseries/videos/2424395670917577
Bad luck for Ineichen and Hofor Racing
The Lamborghini Huracan of Grasser Racing with Rolf Ineichen as one of the drivers was also on course for victory or at least a podium finish before a collision with a lapped car made it necessary to repair the suspension. So in the end only 8th place remained.
The Hofor Racing team was not at the start: Before the start of the practice session, they had discovered a break in the chassis of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and then had to pack up without having achieved anything.
Autorama: competition against the clock
The TCE division of the touring cars and GT4 cars also remained contested right up to the chequered flag. For the Autorama Motorsport team, which had won the Dubai 24 Hours and the Mugello 12 Hours, it was a race against time even before the start. After "strange noises" had come from the engine compartment during practice, the nimble crew supported by Wolf-Power Racing changed the power unit of the VW Golf GTI TCR.
Although Fabian Danz, Kristian Jepsen and Jan Sorensen thus missed qualifying, they were on the back row at the start a few hours later and were then able to stage an impressive race to catch up. Within a short time, the trio was fighting for the lead with their strongest opponents and was in second position after the first part of the race.
All's well that ends well
On Saturday, the race developed into a three-way battle with a Cupra and an Audi team, with time penalties and necessary late stops for refueling dramatically increasing the tension towards the end. In the end, the Swiss team was only beaten by 50 seconds. After the victories in Dubai and Mugello, Autorama Motorsport and Fabian Danz, the only driver to have competed in all three races, lead all TCE standings.
The mood among team leader Stefan Tanner and his staff was correspondingly good even after this satisfactory second place.
Stefan Tanner: "What a hell of a race. We had to work really hard. After changing the engine and starting from last place, no one would have thought we'd be running at the front right to the end. We would have given everything at the beginning of the season if we had been told that we would finish on the podium three times in the first three races of the season, two of them at the top!"
The next race of the 24H Series is the 12 Hours of Brno in the Czech Republic on May 24/25.
