24h of Barcelona: First ever endurance victory for HP Racing

Swiss HP Racing team won 24 Hours of Barcelona and achieved their first ever endurance victory. The #2 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 completed 662 laps around the 4.665-km long Grand Prix circuit, 3 more than #10 SLS of Hofor Racing and 13 more than #30 SLS of RAM Racing. Winning team of HP Racing were owner/driver Hari Proczyk and drivers Bernd Schneider, Sean Johnston, Reinhold Renger and Reinhard Kofler. Bernd Schneider crossed finish line with badly damaged car, without front end and with loose bonnet.

Second placed SLS of Hofor Racing was driven by Michael Kroll, Chantal Kroll, Roland Eggimann, Kenneth Heyer and Christiaan Frankenhout. Chantal Kroll’s success made her the recipient of the 2015 Ladies Cup, one of several championships decided in the first season of the FIA sanctioned International Endurance Series.

Drivers of third placed SLS of RAM Racing were Tom Onslow-Cole, Thomas, Paul White and Jeroen Bleekemolen. They led almost one-third of the race until suffering steering problems during the night.

Overall winners and Class A6 podium

Fourth overall and the winner of all-Porsche 997 class was French team Ruffier Racing in the #17 Porsche 991 Cup. Drivers were Paul Lafargue, Dimitri Enjalbert, Gabriel Abergel and Patrice Lafargue. Second was the #56 Classica Motors by RMS (Feller / Nicolaidis / Piergiovanni / Spirgi) and in third place was the #54 Drivex 991 Cup with a lineup of Brazilian stock car drivers (D. Schneider / Farah / Azevedo / Ambrosio / Mauricio). Ruffier Racing’s victory hands them the 997 team championship.

Sixth overall and the best of three SPX class Lamborghini Huracans was #22 Leipert Motorsport driven by Isaac Tutumlu Lopez, Mikko Eskelinen, Vadim Gitlin, Ulrik Roland Pedersen and Marcel Leipert.

The SP2 class of specially prepared endurance cars was won by the #66 ARC Bratislava Porsche 997 Cup S driven by Miro Konopka, Matej Konopka, Zdeno Mikulasko and Miro Hornak. Second was the #164 GC Automobile GC 10 (Amrouche / Varutti / Gaillard / Calmon) and third in SP2 was the #91 MARC Cars Australia MARC-Ford Focus V8 (Kassulke / Gersekowski / Kaye / McLeod).

The GT4 based SP3 class  was won by the #43 APO Sport Porsche 997 Cup GT4 driven by James May, Alex Osborne and Paul May. Second place was the #160 Cor Euser Racing Lotus Evora (Euser /Prewitt / Delnoij).  Third was the #178 CWS 4×4 Ginetta G55 (White / Thomas / Hughes).

The A2 class of small touring cars was won by the #119 Milan Competition Peugeot RCZ of Denis Gibaud, Carlos Antnes Tavares, Jeroe Maudet and Jean-Louis Dauger. Second was the #99 RKC / TGM Honda Civic (T. Gannon / W. Gannon / Coomber / Bentley / Fredriksen) and third was the #108 au2parts/DK Racing Event Renault Clio (Nielsen / Nyboe / Klitgard / Soderhamn / Rytter). The #115 Team K-Reijser Peugeot RCZ led the class for over 20 hours until a heartbreaking late race mechanical problem.

The A3T class was won by the #95 Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat Leon Cup Racer which also won the class team championship. Drivers were Ramzi Moutran, Sami Moutran, Nabil Moutran and Phil Quaife.  Second was the #25 KH7-Monlau Seat Leon Cup Racer (Gutierrez / Sanz) and third the #208 Team Altran Peugeot 208 GTi (Roman / Carlsen / Holmgaard / Rosta).

The #146 Saxon Motorsport BMW 135d GTR took the A5 class win with drivers Nick Barrow, Tom Barrow, Jamie Morrow and Dave Robinson. Second was the #79 DUWO Racing BMW M235i Racing Cup (Dumont / Faber / Engljähringer / Aronov / Pereira). Disabled Swiss driver Gustav Engljähringer accrued points for his usual class, CUP1, clinching that championship. Third in A5 was the #84 Intersport Racing BMW (Radcliffe Hayes / Lindsay / Clarke).

Drivers Igoris Ivanovas, Martynas Giknius, Kestutis Vilkas and Sigitas Ambrazevicius won the D1 diesel class in the #137 Kaukas Volkswagen Golf. Second was the #139 RCM Motorsport Seat Leon TDI (Csuti / Nagy / Elekfy / Kismarty-Gábor). Third in class was the #141 TTC Racing Volkswagen Golf TDI (Schilliger / Kempf / Kresnik).

The 24H Series powered by Hankook now moves on to its final round at the Brno Autodrom in the Czech Republic for the 12H Epilog Brno on 9-10 October.

Photos: 24series.com