Racing resumes after 97 days with the 24H Portimão

The 24H Portimão that takes place this weekend will be the first race after 97 days of drought caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; the latest time TCR cars had competed was in TC America’s opening round at the Circuit of the Americas on March 8.
The Portuguese event counts as second round of the 24H Series Continents that kicked off in January with the 24H Dubai, and the opener of the 24H Series Europe.
Seven teams have entered in the TCR class, including the AC Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS that was leading in Dubai when the race was stopped after seven hours due to pouring rain. Stéphane Perrin is the only driver left of that winning team and is joined by his fellow French countrymen Michael Blanchemain and Christophe Hamon, while TCR Scandinavia rookie Hannes Morin completes the quartet.   
Autorama Motorsport by Wolf Power Racing, the 2019 champion in both the Continents and Europe series, fields a couple of Volkswagen Golf GTI cars for Antti Buri/Christoph Lenz/Jerôme Ogay/Kari-Pekka Laaksonen and Roberto Ferri/Yannick Mettler/Jasmin Preisig/Miklas Born.
Other serious contenders are the Red Camel-Jordans CUPRA that Ivo Breukers shares with his sons Rik and Luc, and the Comtoyou Racing Audi driven by the experienced duo of Tom Coronel and Nathanaël Berthon together with the young Nicolas Baert who faces his Touring Car debut before competing in the 2020 TCR Europe Series.

Picture: Creventic