BBR returned to winning ways in the 24H SERIES after a commanding performance at the 12H HOCKENHEIMRING.
The BBR CUPRA Leon Competición TCR (#159, Chariya Nuya / Kantadhee Kusiri / Kantasak Kusiri / Munkong Sathienthirakul) took this afternoon’s restart at the front of TCE, having pulled one lap clear of its nearest competitors during ‘part one’ on Saturday.
A flawless run thereafter allowed the Thai team to secure its third win of the season and reinforce its place at the top of the TCR Teams’ European standings.
Chariya Nuya took the CUPRA to the chequered flag, completing 350 laps of the 4.574km Hockenheimring in the process. So impressive was its run, BBR finished the 12H HOCKENHEIMRING inside the overall top 10.
“This is a great result,” Munkong Sathienthirakul explained to radiolemans.com’s Peter Snowdon. “We obviously have a good team, we have good drivers, we had a bit of good luck, and everyone worked really hard this weekend. Everything’s just been perfect.”
Following its first series win last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, Holmgaard Motorsport (#102, Magnus Holmgaard / Jonas Holmgaard / Roy Edland / Martin Vedel Mortensen) completed its maiden run with its brand-new CUPRA Leon Competición TCR to finish 2nd overall in TCE, a performance for which the Danish team was awarded radiolemans.com’s Spirit of the Race award.
Two successive TCE podiums means Holmgaard Motorsport is now just six points behind BBR in the TCR Teams’ European standings.
The Lestrup Racing Team made an impressive return to the 24H SERIES at Hockenheim, collecting 3rd and 4th in TCE with its new Audi RS3 LMS TCR (#120, Emil Sällberg / Marcus Fluch / Oliver Söderström / Andreas Bäckman) and its established Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#110, Mats Olsson / Peter Fahlström / Stefan Nilsson / Christian Axelsson) respectively.
Despite losing time on today’s warm-up lap, the Audi, which took overall TCE pole position on Friday, remained in podium contention throughout the event. The Volkswagen meanwhile survived contact with the Vortex 1.0 and the NKPP Performance Porsche to follow its sister car home.
Wimmer Werk Motorsport (#124, Peter Gross / Dominik Haselsteiner / Günther Wiesmeier / Daniel Lemmerhofer), another 24H SERIES returnee at the 12H HOCKENHEIMRING, was classified 5th in TCE, but was unable to reach the chequered flag after the Austrian team’s CUPRA TCR lost drive coming out of the Hairpin 90 minutes from home.
Having lost significant time to a broken wheel bearing yesterday, the GSR Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR SEQ (#105, Ernesta Globytė / Rokas Kvedaras / Mindaugas Liatukas) was in the garage again this afternoon with left rear suspension failure, and had to be recovered from turn one later on with a suspected gearbox gremlin.
The Lithuanian team nevertheless managed to make it to the chequered flag and finished 6th in TCE.
On only its second series start, Xwift Racing (#221, Pieter Denys / Tim de Borle / Steven Dewulf) took its maiden 24H SERIES victory in the TCX class at Hockenheim.
Though the Ligier JS2 R was unable to make the finish after suffering gearbox problems late in the day, the Belgian team had completed enough of the race to be classified 7th. The result means Ligier has now taken three of the last four TCX class wins in the 24H SERIES in 2022.