The Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#112, Alberto Vescovi / Roberto Ferri / Miklas Born / Marek Schaller / Benjamin Leuchter) will start from pole position in the TCE division for this weekend’s 16H HOCKENHEIMRING following a scintillating lap from local hero, Benjamin Leuchter.
Leuchter, a former TCE race winner at the 24H DUBAI in 2017, posted a 1m 49.666s around the 4.574km Hockenheimring early in the session, a time that would not be bettered in the closing 15 minutes and a time almost a full second faster than that of the team’s nearest rival, the TOPCAR Sport CUPRA TCR (#131, Fabian Danz / Karen Gaillard / Kai Jordan). Last year’s 24H BARCELONA overall TCE winner will consequently start 2nd.
Incredibly, despite the Swiss-German alliance sealing four wins en-route to the Overall TCE Teams’ championships last year, this weekend marks the first time that Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing has secured a TCE pole position in the 24H SERIES. The result also means that, for the fourth round in succession, a fourth different team representing a fourth different brand will start from TCE pole position in the 24H SERIES in 2020.
The Red Camel-Jordans.nl CUPRA TCR (#101, Ivo Breukers/ Luc Breukers / Steven Liquorish), which took a fighting drive to victory in Monza last time out, will start 3rd, just ahead of the second Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen (#1, Constantin Kletzer / Jasmin Preisig / Christoph Lenz / Rhys Lloyd / Yannick Mettler).
Despite heading the TCR times in the early stages, the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stephane Perrin / Vincent Radermecker/ Mathieu Detry), which started its season with TCE victory in Dubai, slipped down the order during qualifying and will start 5th. Engine-related issues also curtailed the team’s running during free practice.
The Day V Tec BMW 240i (#240, Jan Jaap van Roon / Tim Coronel / Gaby Uljee) claimed TCX pole position and will start 6th overall on its 24H SERIES debut. The Nordschleife Racing Ligier JS2 R meanwhile (#226, Guillaume Roman / Daniel Waszczinski / Michel Sallenbach) is set to start 2nd in-class and 7th on the overall TCE grid, though damage picked up during free practice meant the French team did not take part in qualifying.
The green flag for the inaugural 16H HOCKENHEIMRING is set to drop at 12.00hrs local time tomorrow afternoon. The chequered flag will be flown after the first eight hours at 20.00hrs local time, and after the series’ customary overnight intervention, racing will continue uninterrupted from 12.00 hrs to 20.00 hrs local time on Sunday 6 September.
