Jordi Gené and ‘his ladies’ win the 24H Barcelona
Jordi Gené was arguably the most experienced Touring Car driver at the start of the 24H Barcelona, fourth round of the 24H TCE European Series. And the Cupra Racing test driver did not disappoint the expectations, taking victory at the wheel of a Cupra TCR run jointly by Cupra Racing and Monlau Competición.
To add prominence to the result was the fact that two of the four drivers who formed the team were ladies: Laia Sanz, 18 times World Champion in Woman Trial and Enduro, and Alba Cano Martínez, the reigning TCR class champion of the 24H TCE Series. The winning team was completed by Francesc Gutierrez Agüi whose previous victory in the 24H Barcelona dated back to 1998.
The #108 Cupra completed 621 laps during the 24 hours, finishing in a respectable 15th position overall out of the 49 starters and inflicting a gap of five laps to the second classified, the Baporo Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS shared by Alberto Vescovi, Roberto Ferri and Jaime Font Casas.
The podium was completed by the Red Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT León DSG of Ivo Breukers, Monny Krant, Henry Littig, Bert de Heus and Rik Breukers.
Gijs Bessem, Harry Hilders, Jan Sorensen and Kristian Jepsen had been in contention for the victory in the NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Cupra, but a broken front suspension meant the Imola winners were relegated to a disappointing sixth position. The second Bas Koeten Racing Cupra – the Kawasaki Racing of Bölting-Littman-JL Navarro-PA Navarro – failed to make it to the finish because of an engine failure.
Another non-finisher was the Audi RS3 LMS of Kaye-Cameron-Young-LeBreton-Gamham, entered by MARC Cars Australia that had set pole position in Qualifying.
The next and last round of the 24H TCR European Series will be the 12H Spa-Francorchamps on 13/14 October.
