AC MOTORSPORT TAKES FIRST TCE WIN OF THE YEAR AT HANKOOK 24H SEBRING; AUTORAMA SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS TCE TITLE
AC MOTORSPORT TAKES FIRST TCE WIN OF THE YEAR AT HANKOOK 24H SEBRING; AUTORAMA SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS TCE TITLE
- AC Motorsport overcomes two late-race dramas to secure TCE win.
- Runners-up spot secures Autorama Motorsport its third TCE title.
- Nordschleife Racing takes well-earned TCX-class win.
- Character-building day at the office for CWS Engineering.
SEBRING (21 November, 2021) – AC Motorsport has secured a well-earned, first victory of the season at the Hankook 24H SEBRING ahead of newly crowned Overall TCE Teams’ champion, Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing.
The AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stéphane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / Rik Breukers / Matthew Taskinen) made a storming start from the TCE second row at the very beginning, and despite formidable pressure from both Autorama Motorsport Volkswagens, managed to hold its advantage into the night stages. Come the morning, and even in heavy rain, the Audi and the #1 Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#1, Constantin Kletzer / Emil Heyerdahl / Fabian Danz /Jasmin Preisig / Miklas Born) were still separated by less than two minutes.
En-route to the chequered flag, Mathieu Detry drove the Audi across the line to complete 514 laps of the 6.018-km Sebring International Raceway.
Two separate heart-in-mouth moments threatened to derail AC Motorsport’s run: the first was a spin by Stéphane Perrin while exiting the pits, the second when the Audi crawled to a stop on-track with suspected fuel feed problems shortly after its penultimate refuelling. Despite the Belgian team’s lead dropping to just 26 seconds at one stage, AC Motorsport was able to hold on for a well-earned victory, the team’s first since Dubai last year.
Only 1m 45s behind at the flag, the #1 Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen secured its sixth podium of the season to successfully defend the Overall TCE Teams’ title, the Swiss-German team’s third such accolade in succession. With the result, Constantin Kletzer and Emil Heyerdahl are also confirmed as the new Overall TCE Drivers’ champions.
Such was the pace of the TCE frontrunners, both AC Motorsport and Autorama Motorsport’s #1 VW finished 8th and 9th overall at Sebring.
Despite suffering two separate rear suspension failures, which dropped the Volkswagen a few laps off the division’s leaders, Autorama Motorsport’s #1 Golf GTi TCR DSG (#112, Kari-Pekka Laaksonen / Antti Buri / Roberto Ferri / Fabian Danz / Miklas Born) completed the overall TCE podium.
One place further back on the road, the Nordschleife Racing Ligier JS2 R (#226, Guillaume Roman / Lucca Ayari / Cédric Houot / Michel Sallenbach) took its first TCX-class win of the season, the French teams’ run blighted only by one brush against the wall at three-quarter distance.
Nordschleife’s nearest category rival – CWS Engineering (#278, Colin White / Jean-Francois Brunot / Matt Rivard / Joe Burris / Warren Dexter) – brought its Ginetta home after an exhausting run at the Sebring International Raceway. The G55 suffered front and rear damage early on, necessitating almost four hours of repairs. The following morning, a collision with the Vortex V8 once again sent the Ginetta into the wall, requiring another 3.5-hour rebuild!
An enthralling Hankook 24H SEBRING draws to a close the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook for 2021. CREVENTIC’s endurance racing program will return though in 2022, starting with the 17th running of the Hankook 24H DUBAI on 13-14-15 January and the non-championship Hankook 6H ABU DHABI one week later on 21-22 January. Both events will be held in the United Arab Emirates. European racing action is set to begin with the Hankook 12H MUGELLO at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy on 25-26 March. Further information can be found HERE.