Barwell Holds off Herberth to Win 24H Barcelona

Photo: Petr Fryba/Creventic

Barwell Motorsport won the Hankook 24 Hours of Barcelona on Sunday after a race-long battle with Herberth Motorsport that ended with the two teams separated by just ten seconds.

Dennis Lind teamed up with Barwell regulars Adrian Amstutz, Leo Machitski and Patrick Kujala in the British team’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo to complete 690 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in the final European round of the 24H Series season.

Duelling with Herberth Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 R all through the race, the lead changed 38 times, while Lind crossed the line 10.481 seconds clear of Ralf Bohn despite being very low on fuel towards the end.

Herberth’s car was driven by Bohn, Sven Mueller, Robert Renauer and Daniel Allemann, and was the only other car on the lead lap.

Third place went to GPX Racing, which won the Total 24 Hours of Spa five weeks ago. The Emirati team finished eight laps down with its Porsche, which picked up a left-rear puncture during the final stint. 

Herberth picked up A6-Am class honors with its other Porsche, finishing fourth overall with Klaus Bachler amongst its driver crew.

Car Collection Motorsport’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos switched places in the closing 30 minutes when the No. 88 car received a 60-second time penalty, dropping it to third in A6-Am and sixth overall, while the team’s sister car finished one position higher.

Bohemia Energy Racing with Scuderia Praha’s dominance for most of the year ended abruptly with a tenth place finish on Sunday after a strong of issues overnight.

Jiri Pisarik, Josef Kral and Matteo Malucelli had won the four previous rounds at Mugello, Spa, Brno and Portimao, which was enough to secure the 24H Series Europe drivers’ championship and overall teams’ championship.

Orchid Racing Team’s Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport took a comfortable GT4 win, surviving two separate punctures in the night. 

Battery issues dropped Sorg Rennsport’s BMW M4 GT4 out of contention for the win, but the team still finished second, 11 laps behind.

Top Ten Overall Finish for KTM Concept on Debut

KTM and Reiter Engineering’s new concept GT car finished ninth overall on its debut race appearance, running in the SPX class for nonhomologated cars.

The No. 216 True Racing entry, one of two temporarily-named KTM GTX cars in the race, finished one position ahead of Scuderia Praha after completing 661 laps with Laura Kraihamer, Johannes Stuck, Ferdinand Stuck and Sehdi Sarmini at the wheel.

The other KTM concept finished 27th overall but still managed 593 laps of the Catalan circuit.

Nordschleife Racing, meanwhile, gave the new Ligier JS2 R a successful debut in the SP4 category. The French manufacturer’s new GT car completed 510 laps.

RESULTS: 24H Barcelona

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.