Racing Team Turkey Wins Barcelona Thriller

Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Louis Deletraz took overall victory in the 4 Hours of Barcelona in the Pro-Am entered Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 Gibson after Deletraz charged back to the lead after a black and orange flag in the final hour.

A strong pass by Deletraz aboard the No. 34 Oreca 07 Gibson with 15 minutes remaining, overtaking Duqueine Team’s Neel Jani, proved crucial for the race victory.

The Swiss driver’s move up the inside of his compatriot at Turn 7 came at the end of a charging comeback drive, fighting back following a late unplanned pitstop.

The TF Sport-entered car looked in command of the opening round of the season until race control ordered the team to replace the car’s tail section with half an hour remaining in the race due to damage.

With the overtake completed, Deletraz remained ahead of Jani and took the checkered flag 2.3 seconds ahead of the No. 30 Oreca, which Jani shared with Nico Pino and Rene Binder.

Francois Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat and Matthieu Vaxiviere finished third, ensuring two out of three cars on the overall podium were Pro-Am entries.

The groundwork for Racing Team Turkey’s victory was laid by a convincing performance from Bronze-rated Yoluc, who consistently ran at the head of the Pro-Am class and kept the gap to the Pro entries ahead limited.

This allowed co-driver Eastwood to pick off both Panis Racing’s Tijmen van der Helm and Cool Racing’s Reshad de Gerus approaching the halfway point and move into third overall.

When race leader James Allen, whose No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca had largely led the race since the early exchanges, was then tagged into the gravel by IDEC Sport’s Laurents Hoerr at halfway, it catapulted the No. 34 car into contention for the overall win.

Eastwood passed Duqueine’s Pino for the lead of the race less than 30 minutes later, with Deletraz maintaining the gap to Jani until his late forced stop.

Cool Racing’s No. 37 Oreca, driven by Alexandre Coigny, Nicolas Lapierre and Malthe Jakobsen finished fourth overall.

Jakobsen completed a late-race pass on the No. 65 Panis Racing car of Job van Uitert to take the position, with the Dutchman coming home in fifth.

IDEC Sport finished sixth, ahead of the No. 47 Cool Racing car, which dropped down the order after a late-race penalty for Jose Maria Lopez triggered by contact with a GTE runner.

The top ten was completed by Algarve Pro Racing, Nielsen Racing and United Autosports’ No. 22 car.

Cool Racing, Proton Competition Take Class Wins

Cool Racing took LMP3 class victory after Racing Spirit of Leman were given a penalty post-race.

The No. 31 Ligier JS P320 Nissan piloted by Antoine Doquin, Jacques Wolff and Michal Fabien came across the line narrowly ahead of the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier driven by Marcos Siebert, Adrien Chila and Alejandro Garcia, but the latter team was declared the winner post-race.

The penalty was the result of Doquin pitting under Full Course Yellow, which is prohibited under sporting regulations newly introduced this season.

The Frenchman initially initially served a drive through penalty and dropped behind Inter Europol Competition’s Wyatt Brichacek, but the Doquin caught and repassed the American driver with 30 minutes to go.

However, stewards argued that because Doquin pitted during an FCY procedure, the stop could not be counted as one of the two mandatory timed pitstops that all LMP3 runners are required to make.

The No. 31 car was given a 105-second penalty as punishment.

Brichacek, Kai Askey and Miguel Cristovao were promoted to second place, while the Racing Spirit of Leman crew was demoted to third to completed the podium.

In GTE, a controlling drive saw Ryan Hardwick, Zach Robichon and Alessio Picariello take the class win for Proton Competition.

The No. 16 Porsche 911 RSR-19 started the race from third, but Hardwick jumped to the class lead when he navigated his way through a chaotic first lap that saw the No. 77 sister Porsche, as well as Aston Martin entries from TF Sport and GMB Motorsport eliminated.

From there, the trio largely controlled the race, with the No. 50 Formula Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Johnny Laursen, Conrad Laursen and Mikkel Mac briefly assuming the lead before finishing second.

The No. 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Martin Berry, Jon Lancaster and Lorcan Hanafin rounded out the class podium after starting the race from pole position.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Barcelona (Amended)