24h Series: Hofor Racing wins 12h of Zandvoort

Swiss team Hofor Racing is the winner of the 12h Zandvoort race, third round of 24h Series, an international endurance series with six races on renown tracks over the world (Dubai, Mugello, Zandvoort, Paul Ricard, Barcelona, Brno). Drivers for winning Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 were Michael Kroll, Roland Eggimann, Kenneth Heyer and Christian Frankenhout.

In two-part race, with three hours running on Friday and rest of the time on Saturday, #10 Hofor’s Mercedes was made 351 laps around 4,3 km long Grand Prix Circuit on Dutch northern coast. The weather for the second segment of the race has been in stark contrast to that of yesterday. After Friday’s rain and wind it has been sunny and pleasant.

British team RAM Racing was again second placed, which is their third runner-up position this season, after Dubai and Mugello. Drivers in RAM Racing’s SLS were Tom Onslow-Cole, Paul White and Thomas Jaeger and they finnished the race just 1,14 minutes after the winners.

Five laps behind the winner, also in Mercedes, was the crew of Austrian team HP Racing – Hari Proczyk, Carsten Tilke, Bernd Schneider and Reinhold Renger. Fourth Mercedes in the row was #67 of GDL Racing, with three Dutch drivers – Tom Coronel, Ivo Breukers and Rik Breukers. Best placed car which is not Mercedes are #4 Ferrari 458 Italia of Scuderia Praha on fifth place, eight laps behind winners.

Sixth overall and first in Class 997, reserved for Porsche cars, are #52 Porsche of Austrian MSG Motorsport with crew Konrad/Wimmer/Rettenbacher/Hauschild. After 337 laps they win just 16 second in front of #20 Porsche of MRS GT-Racing, with crew Putman/Espenlaub/Maassen.

There was a big drama in last laps. Luca Rettenbacher took the race ending stint in the #52 with Charles Espenlaub in #20. They swapped the class lead several times during the final 15 minutes. On the very last lap at Tarzan Corner, with Rettenbacher ahead by a nose, the two touched and spun, both coming to a halt on the spot. Third placed are #62 Porsche of French team Lorient Racing.

Another class winners are Cor Euser Racing with #160 Lotus Evora GT4 in Class SP3, MARC Cars Australia with #91 MARC Focus V8 in Class SP2, Bonk Motorsport with #73 BMW M235i Racing Cup in Class Cup1, Team Altran with #205 Peugeot 208 GTi in Class A5 and Presenza.eu Racing Team with #112 Renault Clio in Class A2.