Sport: Jost provides the first Cupra lead
TOURING CAR PREMIERE In cold, wet weather, the second endurance race of the 2018 24H Series for touring cars and GT cars took place at Silverstone this weekend. In the process, Ronny Jost provided the first leading laps of a Cupra TCR. Unlike in Dubai in January, the competitors in the 12-hour race for GT and the 24-hour race for touring cars at Silverstone had to [...]
Unlike in Dubai in January, the participants in the 12-hour race for GT and the 24-hour race for touring cars at Silverstone had to deal with lousy weather conditions. Rain and dry phases alternated. In the night to Sunday, the temperature dropped towards zero degrees, and fog caused an interruption of several hours.
On Friday, the GT cars and some prototypes completed their first five hours of racing, and the remaining seven were completed on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. in the field of touring cars that had started over 24 hours. An unusual schedule.
A British Ginetta sports car emerged as the overall winner of the 12-hour race, followed by the pack of fastest GT3 cars. With one of Grasser Racing's proven Lamborghini Huracan, Mark and Rolf Ineichen and their colleagues Perera and Keen finished fourth overall and third in the A6-Pro class.
Adrian Amstutz climbed onto the podium with his three partners in another Lambo as second in the A6-Am class, which Mauro Calamia and Christoph Lenz narrowly missed in fourth place in the second Grasser Lamborghini. They were still the fastest in practice.
Ronny Jost leads in the brand new Cupra TCR
Only 15 touring cars, ten of them from the TCR category, competed over the full marathon distance. Bas Koeten Racing competed with two brand-new Cupra TCRs, while other teams will have to convert their Seat Leon TCRs to the Cupra kit or switch to new cars by April.
After the successful debut in Dubai, Ronny Jost will contest the entire European championship of the 24H TCE Series with the Dutch, as will his Bernese Canton colleague and team partner Fabian Danz. In return, Jost will concentrate on the role of team boss in the ADAC TCR Germany with his father Ruedi with Topcar Sport.
In a tricky weather phase, Jost took the lead of the entire field after four hours and extended it. He thus ensured the world's first leading laps by a driver with a car from the Cupra brand, which evolved from Seat Sport.
Unfortunately, the lead did not bring the desired success. Behind three Seat and one VW Golf, there was only 5th place.
Ronny Jost: "After I handed the Cupra back over, we started having problems with the brakes. During the night, a teammate also slid into the gravel twice. This threw us far back. When you lead a race, you want to win it or at least take a podium place. So I'm all the more pleased about the first leading laps of a Cupra driver - no one can take this away from me!"
Victory for Martin Kroll with a paraplegic teammate
In the other touring car class, Martin Kroll in the BMW 235i Racing Cup of Hofor Racing powered by Bonk Motorsport came to victory with three German and one Austrian colleague.
This performance is impressive in that the Austrian is Gustav Engljähringer, a paraplegic. He can only steer with his left hand and has to operate the brakes and the special BMW automatic gearshift with his right.
As a result, his insertions and removals always take a little longer during the pit stops. The quintet made up for the time lost brilliantly.
