CWS Engineering has come out on top of a frenetic battle for TCE pole position for this weekend’s 12H HOCKENHEIMRING ahead of title contenders Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing and AC Motorsport.
The AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stéphane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / Stefan Wieninger) was the first of the TCE runners to set a truly blistering lap – a 1m 51.014s – halfway through the division’s dedicated 30-minute qualifying session, although this time was quickly bested by the CWS Engineering Ginetta G55 (#278, Colin White / Jean-François Brunot).
AC Motorsport fell out of contention with 10 minutes of the session left to run, however, when Mathieu Detry beached the Audi in the gravel at turn two, bringing out a brief red flag. The Audi was recovered quickly, but the Belgian team took no further part in TCE qualifying. Detry’s pace was still fastest enough to secure AC Motorsport 3rd on the grid.
That left CWS Engineering and the two Autorama Motorsport Volkswagens as the main challengers for pole position, a 1m 49.819s from CWS eventually putting TCE pole position out of reach. This marks CWS Engineering’s first TCE pole in the 24H SERIES since last year’s 24H DUBAI.
The Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#112, Rhys Lloyd / Christoph Hurni / Christoph Lenz / Yannick Mettler) will start alongside CWS Engineering on the front row courtesy of the Swiss team’s final flying lap, while the sister VW (#1, Constantin Kletzer / Jasmin Preisig / Emil Heyerdahl) will start 4th. The latter currently leads the Overall TCE Teams’ championship standings by just one point.
The GSR Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#105, Ernesta Globytė / Rokas Kvedaras / Rolandas Salys / Rimvydas Savickas) will make its first series start since 2019 from 5th on the grid. An early contender for pole position, Autorama Motorsport SEAT León Cup Racer V1 DSG (#211, Luigi Stanco / Armando Stanco / Dario Stanco) will start 6th ahead of TCX class rival, the Munckhof Racing BMW M4 GTR (#210, Eric van den Munckhof / Marco Poland).
The TOPCAR Sport CUPRA TCR DSG (#131, Ronny Jost / Fabian Danz / Ruedi Jost) was the first of the TCE runners to set a hot lap in the opening moments. Less than a minute after it had done so though, Ronny Jost ground to a halt on-track with suspected clutch problems. The CUPRA took no further part in the session, and will start from the back row of the grid.
