24H Series: Duel of the Swiss TCR teams 🎥
AUTORAMA AGAINST TOPCAR At the 24 Hours of Portimão, two TCR teams from Switzerland will duel it out. However, championship leader Fabian Danz, of all people, drops out due to injury. The event in Portugal is the first of two 24-hour races in Europe, hosted by the Dutch agency Creventic and qualifying for both the European (24H SERIES Europe) and [...]
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The event in Portugal is the first of two 24-hour races in Europe hosted by the Dutch agency Creventic and counts for both the European (24H SERIES Europe) and intercontinental championships (24H SERIES Continents). With its climbs, descents and fast, sometimes blind corners, the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve near Portimão is a real challenge for all drivers. It is not for nothing that many driver training sessions and vehicle tests are held on this circuit on the Algarve coast.
Allemann and Rogivue in GT3 sports cars
The GT sports cars and the touring cars will start together, but there will be a separate starting group and a separate podium ceremony for the two divisions. With Daniel Allemann on one of the three Porsche 911 GT3 R from Herberth Motorsport and Nikolaj Rogivue on a Mercedes-AMG GT3, there are only two Swiss on the grid with prospects of the overall winners' podium in the absence of the former champions from Hofor Racing. Allemann has often climbed it as a winner, but Rogivue has never done so.
Injured Fabian Danz must pass
Particularly interesting from a Swiss perspective is the TCE division, in which the TCR cars set the tone. In January, the newly formed Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing team got off to a brilliant start to the season with its VW Golf GTI TCR as the winner. With two further victories at the 12 Hours of Mugello and Brno and second place at the Spa Half Marathon, the team from Wetzikon ZH and Lachen SZ confirmed this success in impressive fashion.
However, the leader in the drivers' standings of both TCE championships is missing in Portugal. Fabian Danz, in the TCE Europe solo at the top of the table and in the TCE Continents together with his Swiss colleagues Yannick Mettler, Jérôme Ogay, Stefan Danner and Marlon Menden, who won in Dubai, has to recover from a broken collarbone. The Bernese suffered the fracture due to a fall during a cycling tour that was actually quite comfortable.
TOPCAR Sport long-distance premiere
Ralf Henggeler, one of the strongest drivers in the Suzuki Swiss Racing Cup in slaloms in 2019, is replacing Danz at Autorama/Wolf not for this reason, however, but because Danz should have been driving in the opposing team TOPCAR Sport by Bas Koeten Racing. With strategic support from the Dutch, the Bern-based team from the ADAC TCR Germany is venturing into endurance racing for the first time. Entered the virtually newly built Cupra TCR vintage 2016, which belongs to the absent Fabian Danz, of all people. Team boss Ronny Jost is now stepping in as a reserve driver.
However, the main part in the race will be taken by Young Driver Julien Apothéloz, Antti Buri and Kari-Pekka Laaksonen. Jost won the 24 Hours of COTA USA in Texas in November 2018 with the two fast Finns, who won here last year.
The chance of another Swiss victory is exactly 50 percent and of a podium finish 100 percent - the only opponents in the otherwise always stronger TCR class are a Peugeot 308 from France and an Audi RS3 from Belgium.
Live on the Internet
The race will start on Saturday at 12 noon. A livestream in HD quality with commentary from the Radio Show Limited team, best known from Radio Le Mans and IMSA Radio, is available on the series' homepage and YouTube channel.
youtube.com/watch?v=vbWoYY7aXtQ
