TOPCAR Sport wins the 24H Series’ season opener at Dubai
TOPCAR Sport secured its first win at the 24H Dubai following a race-long battle with reigning Teams’ champion, Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing.
The TOPCAR Sport CUPRA #131 of Fabian Danz, Adrian Spescha, Patrick Sing, Ronny Jost and Benjamin Leuchter took the lead shortly before one-third distance, and despite a momentary power loss on-track during the night, was rarely led thereafter.
“I’m really happy to win this race,” Danz explained “Our car was perfect, has no scratches, and was running so well. But it’s never easy. During the night you do wonder, ‘why am I doing this?’, but it was really worth it! I’m so happy!”
Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing made an impressive start to its title defense by securing the other two podium spots with two Volkswagen Golf GTI cars, #112 driven by Kari-Pekka Laaksonen, Gustavo Xavier, Jasmin Preisig and Miklas Born finishing just ahead of the sister #1 of Emil Heyerdahl, Marlon Menden, Jérôme Ogay and Constantin Kletzer.
Last year’s winner, AC Motorsport, also claimed two top-five positions with its Audi RS 3 LMS cars. A podium contender from the get-go, the #188 (Stéphane Perrin/Philippe Thirion/Sebastien Morales/Mathieu Detry) eventually finished fourth ahead of the #199 (Thierry Chkondali/Maxwell Hanratty/Thomas Kiefer/Mark Wallenwein/Sebastien Lajoux) and the BBR CUPRA #107 (Anusorn Asiralertsiri/Chariya Nuya/Kantadhee Kusiri/Kantasak Kusiri/Tanart Sathienthirakul). The latter stopped with less than an hour left on the clock but had still completed enough laps of to be classified 6th in the TCR class.
The 24H Series will resume for round 2 on 26/27 March, with the 12H Mugello.
24H Dubai – Race
1. TOPCAR Sport #131 (CUPRA DSG), 543 laps
2. Autorama Motorsport #112 (Volkswagen Golf GTI DSG), 1 lap
3. Autorama Motorsport #1 (Volkswagen Golf GTI DSG), 8 laps
4. AC Motorsport #188 (Audi RS 3 LMS DSG), 9 laps
5. AC Motorsport #199 (Audi RS 3 LMS DSG), 15 laps
Championship points
1. TopCar Sport #131, 30 pts; 2. Autorama Motorsport #112, 28 pts; Autorama Motorsport #1, 26 pts
Picture: Creventic
