The CWS Ginetta G55 GT4 (#178, Colin White/JT Coupal/Nick Adcock/Patrik Mathiesen) has scored the pole position for the first edition of the 24H MISANO.
Norwegian Patrik Mathiesen lapped the 4.226 kilometre Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in 1:44.326 minutes to start the third of five rounds of the 2017 24H TOURING CAR ENDURANCE SERIES from the top of the field. The CWS Ginetta is one of four SP3-GT4 cars, that are in close contention with the TCR machinery.
Strategy plays an important role as the naturally quicker SP3-GT4 cars run according to minimum reference laptimes, whereas the TCR drivers can go flat out. The MONLAU COMPETICION SEAT LCR TCR V3 DSG (#107, Jurgen Smet/Jose Manuel Perez Aicart/Alba Cano Ramirez/Jaime Font Casas) gave proof for the strong resistance of the TCR teams. Jose Manuel Perez Aicart missed the top spot by a narrow 0.061 second margin.
The Spanish squad had already taken the two pole positions at Silverstone and Magny-Cours earlier this season. Rik Breukers put the Red Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT LCR TCR V3 DSG (#303, Rik Breukers/Ivo Breukers/JM Littman/Dirk Vorländer) into third place overall and into second spot in TCR.
The following two SP3-GT4 teams settled for positions four and five overall. The BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR (#253, Gabriele Tarquini/Antti Buri/Nicola Berutti) will commence its first ever endurance race from fourth on the grid, followed by the Team Africa Le Mans Ginetta G55 GT4 (#555, Emanuele Pirro/Sarel van der Merwe/Jan Lammers/Greg Mills/Graham Vos), that already took part in last week's 12H IMOLA.
The Pit Lane Competizioni Audi RS3 LMS TCR DSG (#122, Zach Arnold/John Filippì/Roberto Ferri/Alberto Vescovi/Ivan Demis Benvenutti) concluded the top three positions in the TCR class with sixth place overall.
The championship leading QSR Racingschool BMW M235i Racing Cup (#154, Jimmy de Breucker/Mario Timmers/Rodrigue Gillion/Bart van Haeren) will start from the back of the grid. Jimmy de Breucker's time was 7.9 seconds slower than Patrick Mathiesen's pole-setting lap. However, the Belgian squad is the sole entrant in the CUP1 class and therefore has good opportunities for a decent score with the championship reaching its halfway point this weekend.
