The Volkswagen Golf GTI
claimed its second consecutive victory in the 24H Dubai, opening round of
the 24H TCE Series. It was the car entered by Autorama Motorsport with
Wolf-Power Racing that crossed the line first, having completed 545 laps
and clinching a brilliant 26th position overall out of 74 starters.
Marlon Mendel, Fabian Danz, Yannick Mettler, Stefan Tanner and Jerôme
Ogay shared driving duties and took the lead for the first time halfway
through the race.
For the first twelve hours, the fight for the lead involved three Audi RS
3 LMS cars and the KCMG Honda Civic Type R, until they all ran into
troubles. The AC Motorsport and LMS Racing Audi cars pitted with a fuel
pump failure and a low oil pressure respectively, while the RS 3 LMS
entered by Team Dynamics with WRC Development crashed because of a brake
issue. The Honda took the lead, but soon afterwards lost time for
restarting the engine after a pit stop. Both, the AC Motorsport Audi and
the KCMG Honda were able to recover; the former moved up into the lead
once again but then lost more time after a collision that resulted in a
broken wheel-hub and eventually finished in fifth position; the latter
was running in second place and closing the gap from the leaders when it
suddenly caught fire. Andy Yan who was at the wheel escaped thanks to a
quick intervention from the marshals.
The Autorama Motorsport Golf took the lead for good four hours before the
end, with a comfortable margin ahead of two CUPRA cars. The Bas Koeten
Racing driven by Ronny Jost, Julien Apothéloz, Loek Hartog and Oscar
Graeper finished second, four laps behind the winners. The podium was
completed by the Red Camel-Jordans.nl of Ivo Breukers, Cody Hill, Henry
Littig and Klaus Kresnik three further laps down. The best classified Audi
car was the one entered by TFT/Cogemo/TLRT in fourth position.
The second round of the 24H TCE Series will be the 12H Mugello, on 28/30
March.
24H Dubai – Race results
1st – Autorama Motorsport VW Golf GTI (Menden/Danz/Mettler/Tanner/Ogay),
545 laps
2nd – Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA (Jost/Apothéloz/Hartog/Graeper), 541 laps
3rd – Red Camel-Jordans.nl CUPRA (Breukers/Littig/Hill/Kresnik), 538 laps
4th – TFT/Cogemo/TLRT Audi RS 3 LMS
(Bazaud/Caillon/Morales/Thirion/Rihon), 532 laps
5th – AC Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS (Perrin/Radermecker/Boonen/Magnus), 529
laps
6th – TeamWork Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS (Wong/Hui/Poon/Fung), 512 laps
Photos: 24H Series-Petr
Frýba
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