Ronny Jost: Victory with Cupra TCR in the USA
24H SERIES At the last race of the Intercontinental 24H Series in Texas, the Cupra team with Ronny Jost won the highly competitive TCR classification. Daniel Allemann finished second overall in his Porsche. The 24-hour race on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin/Texas, which was used by Formula 1 four weeks ago, marked the end of the so-called 24H Series. The [...]
The 24-hour race on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin/Texas, which was used by Formula 1 four weeks ago, marked the end of the so-called 24H Series. This is an intercontinental endurance racing series for private and semi-professional teams, organized by the Dutch agency Creventic.
Mercedes ahead of Porsche
Overall victory went to the Black Falcon team, best known from many Nürburgring races, in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. Second place after a long lead, which was wiped out by time penalties, went to the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Herberth Motorsport.
One of the four drivers was Daniel Allemann from Breitenbach. The man from Solothurn won the 12 Hours of Imola and 24 Hours of Barcelona with the East German team in 2018.
A Swiss with three Finns
With eight teams, the class with the two-liter turbo touring cars according to TCR regulations was just as strong as the GT3 classes. The winner was the Cupra TCR from Bas Koeten Racing with the three Finns Antti Buri, Olli Kangas, KP Laaksonen and the Swiss Ronny Jost.
After the Dubai 24 Hours in January and the Silverstone 24 Hours in March, this was the third time that the driver from Bern had competed in the Dutch team. Now the racing driver and team co-owner of TOPCAR Sport in Uetendorf, who is supported by Seat Switzerland, celebrated his greatest success to date on the long distance.
The quartet had to fight hard for victory in their class.
Ronny Jost: "It looked like a simple matter at the beginning. After four hours, we already had a two-lap lead. That made us relatively optimistic until a shock absorber failure occurred."
Successful race to catch up
The reason for this (driving too hard over the kerbs?) could not be ascertained. The fact was that they were two laps behind their equally fast teammates and the other six TCR teams. With an aggressive strategy, Jost and his partners closed the gap and narrowly won the race. They finished eleventh overall.
Ronny Jost: "We didn't get this win for free, we had to do something for it. But that made it all the more fun. The Cupra ran flawlessly right to the finish."
The highlight: Antti Buri was one of Ronny Jost's toughest opponents in TCR sprint races two years ago. They crashed into each other in Oschersleben and didn't like each other very much afterwards.
They sealed their new friendship with victory in the USA and an exuberant celebration until Monday morning...
