Schubert Motorsport-BMW Z4 GT3 wins
24H BARCELONA
BARCELONA (September 25th, 2011) – Following its victory in the Dunlop 24H
DUBAI in January and second place in the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps at
the end of July, the German Need for Speed-Team Schubert has won the 24H
BARCELONA. With their BMW Z4 GT3 with starting number 2, Swedes Edward
Sandström and Lars Stugemo, Dane Michael Outzen and German Peter Posavac
led almost for the entire duration of the 24 hours and completed 669 laps at the
4.655 kilometres long Circuit de Catalunya, establishing a new record distance
in the endurance event for GTs, touring cars and 24H specials. After a nice
recovery following an off-track excursion in the second hour of the race,
Hungarian team Bovi Motorsport finished second with their Brokernet
Silversting, driven by Hungarians Kalman Bodis and Istvan Racz, German
Wolfgang Kaufmann and Dutchman Jaap van Lagen. This quartet also won the
SP2 category. Dutch team Equipe Verschuur rounded out the podium with third
place for Tom and Raymond Coronel and Jeroen, Bas and Pieter Schothorst in
the McGregor-Renault Mégane Trophy in spite of a driveshaft change in the
morning hours.
“It is fantastic to add another win to our portfolio”, said Stefan Wendl, team-manager of
the Schubert Motorsport outfit. “Our car ran like clockwork. The only incident we had was
Michael Outzen having to drive through the gravel trap once during the night to avoid a
collision with a car that had got stuck on the track right in front of him. After that, we
had to clean up some gravel, but that was it.” The winning BMW Z4, chassis number
1011, was the car that had already scored a second place at Spa and a third place in the
German VLN endurance championship on the Nordschleife. “With this victory, we now
have three podium finishes from three starts with this car. A big hand also to the drivers,
who raced together in this combination for the first time.”
The best-placed Porsche was the number 5 Besaplast entry (Martin Tschornia, Sebastian
and Roland Asch, Franjo Kovac and Stefanie Halm), winning the 997 class in fourth place
overall, just ahead of two SEAT Leon Supercopa cars that had a nice battle for the class
win in the A3T category. Eventually, the SEAT of the Spanish PCR Sport team ended on
top in its class, with a much publicised class win for reigning MotoGP World Champion
Jorge Lorenzo, who also proved to be very fast on four wheels!
Adding to the overall win and the class victory in A6 for BMW, there were three more
class wins for the German brand. Dutch team JR Motorsport won the A5 class with its
BMW E46 GTR and their compatriots from Bas Koeten Racing victorious in the A4
category with the BMW Z3 M Coupé. The diesel category was also a BMW affair with
Dutch team Marcos Racing International claiming victory after the Belgian Recy Racing
BMW had been in the class lead for most of the race before getting involved in a collision
with the number 46 Team Codony Sport Renault Clio with only half an hour remaining.
The Belgians still finished third in class while the Spanish Codony team brought their
battle-scarred car home to win the A2 category. The SP3 class brought victory for the
Dutch Saker Sportscars factory team on its very first outing.
For the first time, Dutch agency CREVENTIC had been taken on board by the
organisation from the Circuit de Catalunya and the Royal Catalan Automobile Club
(RACC) to contribute with its know-how to the organisation and promotion of the 24-hour
race. This led to a truly international field with teams and drivers from 20 countries being
represented on the grid. “We were happy to support and working with the Spanish
organisers has been a great pleasure for us. With well-known drivers from WTCC, DTM,
Le Mans winners and motorcycle stars on the grid, the profile of the event has certainly
been increased, whilst not forgetting the many amateur drivers, and we hope that we
have been able to add something of the atmosphere from our other events like the
Dunlop 24H DUBAI and the 12H HUNGARY to this race”, says Gerrie Willems on behalf of
CREVENTIC. “Enjoying motorsport together, that is our philosophy, and that is what this
race has been about, too!”
Final classification:
1. Sandström/Outzen/Posavac/Stugemo, BMW Z4 GT3 (Schubert Motorsport), 669 laps
in 24.00:13.555 (winner A6)
2. Bodis/Racz/Kaufmann/Van Lagen, Brokertnet Silversting (Bovi Motorsport), -21 l.
(winner SP2)
3. B. Schothorst/J. Schothorst/R. Coronel/P. Schothorst/T. Coronel, Renault Mégane
Trophy (Equipe Verschuur), -33 l.
4. Kovac/Tschornia/R. Asch/Halm/S. Asch, Porsche 997 Cup (Besaplast Racing Team), 42 l. (winner 997)
5. Lorenzo/Fontes/de los Milagros/Cordús, SEAT Leon Supercopa (PCR Sport), - 42 l.
(winner A3T)
7. Hilders/Poland/Van den Bos/Bogaerts/Van Zweerde, BMW E46 GTR (JR Motorsport), 46 l. (winner A5)
15. Van den Berge/Budding/Gras/Koeten, BMW Z3 M Coupé (Bas Koeten Racing), -82 l.
(winner A4)
18. Van Zoest/Briody/Schulz, BMW 120D (Marcos Racing International), -90 l. (winner
D1)
19. Gutierrez/Codony/Codony/Navarro/Sanz, Renault Clio III RS Copa (Team Codony
Sport), -91 l. (winner A2)
25. Herber/Jeuris/Vetters/Meijer/Meijer, Saker Sportscar GT (Saker Sportscars), -102 l.
(winner SP3)
All results and photographs can be found at http://live.24hseries.com
_________________________________________________________________________________
Note for the editor: For further information, please contact:
Creventic BV
Gerrie Willems
Zandstraat 11 6591DA Gennep
Postbus 40 6590AA Gennep
The Netherlands
Tel. +31 (0)485 471166
Fax: +31 (0)485 471127
E-mail : [email protected]
Web: www.24hseries.com