Schubert-BMW Z4 GT3 op pole voor 24H
BARCELONA
BARCELONA (September 23rd, 2011) – After victory in the Dunlop 24H of Dubai
and second place in the 24H of Spa-Francorchamps, the German Need for
Speed Team Schubert could well add another endurance racing success to its
already very impressive track record this weekend: in qualifying on Friday
night, Edward Sandström put the team’s BMW Z4 GT3 with starting number 2
on pole for the 24H BARCELONA. A last-minute attempt saw Dutch driver
Duncan Huisman (Equipe Verschuur-Renault Mégane Trophy) getting within
0.4 seconds of Sandström’s fastest time, but eventually, the Scandinavian’s lap
time of 1:52.082 minutes at the 4.655 kilometees long Circuit de Catalunya was
enough to secure the best starting grid position. The race will start tomorrow
at 12 noon.
The Schubert team already topped the time sheets in free practice during the
afternoon, but it took a while for the team to get to the fore in qualifying. Half an hour
into the session, Hungarian Istvan Racz drove his Brokernet Silversting to a lap time
of 1:54.032 minutes, with which he topped the time sheets until well after the one
hour mark. With a little bit more than three quarters of an hour remaining, Danish
driver Michael Outzen drove a sequence of three fast laps that saw the SchubertBMW moving up into third, second and first place respectively, but six minutes before
the chequered flag was out, Swede Edward Sandström beat his team-mate’s timeby
seven hundredth of a second.
“Michael was quick already, but I had an almost clear lap, so I could still beat his
time. I only had to pass two cars on my last flying lap, so that gave me the
advantage. The car was perfect, but as we all know, qualifying in an endurance race
doesn’t mean that much. Still, this is a nice result”, said Edward Sandström. With its
outright fastest time, the Schubert-BMW is also fastest in the A6 category, while
Duncan Huisman’s second place overall saw Equipe Verschuur ending up fastest in
the SP2 class. “I did everything I could, but I just wasn’t quick enough on my final lap.
I had a slower car in front of me coming onto the finish straight, which cost me some
time, but it was great fun”, said Duncan Huisman after his last-minute dash.
A big improvement by Roland Asch in the final 30 minutes saw the BesaplastPorsche ending up fourth overall and fastest in the Porsche 997 class. The bestplaced Spanish team and class leaders in A3T is the Sunred-SEAT Leon thanks to a
fastest lap time set by WTCC ace Jordi Gené, putting the car in sixth place overall.
The second-best Spanish team is the PCR Sport SEAT entry with double motorcycle
world champion Jorge Lorenzo in its line-up in ninth place overall and second in
class. All the action from the 24H BARCELONA can be followed at
http://live.24hseries.com
The fastest teams in the various classes:
A6: #2 Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 (Sandström/Outzen/Posavac/Stugemo)
A5: #28 JR Motorsport BMW E46 GTR (Hilders/Van den Bos/Van der
Zweerde/Poland/Bogaerts)
A4: #29 Bas Koeten Racing BMW Z3 (Van den Berge/Gras/Budding/Koeten)
A3T: #1 Move Racing by Sunred SEAT Leon Supercopa (Monje/Gené/Monjé/Viega)
A2: #54 Jet Black Racing Renault Clio (Majgaard/Bollingtoft/Träger/Moller/Bremer)
D1: #64Recy Racing BMW 120D (De Vocht/Heyman/Van Samang/Van Loo/Beckers)
SP2: #10 Equipe Verschuur Renault Mégane Trophy (Braams/Van ‘t
Hoff/Werkman/Abresch/Huisman)
SP3: #18Saker Sportscars Saker GT TDI (Herber/Vetters/Meijer/Jeuris/Meijer)
997: #5 Besaplast Porsche 997 Cup (Kovac/Asch/Asch/Tschornia/Halm)
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