IMSA Performance Wins 24H Barcelona

IMSA LS Group Performance marked its return to endurance sports car racing by winning the Hankook 24H Barcelona.

The No. 76 Porsche 911 GT3 R, spearheaded by Julien Andlauer and co-driven by Gregory Guilvert, Simon Tirman and Laurent Hurgon, started the race from pole position and finished a minute and 37.635 seconds clear of the No. 21 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

The French squad, which took two class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2007 and 2013, set a new distance record for the event by completing 725 laps. The previous record stood at 696.

The HAAS RT crew, consisting of Miika Panu, Mathieu Detry, Max Hofer, Gavin Pickering and Kris Cools, challenged IMSA Performance throughout, but the No. 76 Porsche was able to pull out a lead through the course of the night.

Herberth Motorsport’s No. 91 Porsche, driven by Ralf Bohn, Daniel Allemann, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer and Patrick Kolb recovered from a refueling issue to finish third overall.

Scherer Sport PHX finished fourth, with the overall top five rounded out by the No. 23 Car Collection Porsche of Hash Patel, Ivan Jacoma, Alex Fontana and Yannick Mettler despite losing a lap for failing to fulfil the minimum Am driving time.

Land Motorsport’s No. 6 Audi was the final GT3 entry to be classified ahead of 992-class winners RedCamel-Jordans.nl.

Defending race winners WTM by Rinaldi Racing and their No. 22 Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Georg Weiss, Leonard Weiss, Jochen Krumbach, Torsten Kratz and Isaac Tutumlu Lopez retired before the halfway point with an electrical issue related to the gearbox, while CP Racing saw a GT3-Am class win fall away when a propshaft failure forced the No. 85 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo into retirement with under two hours remaining.

Atlas BX Motorsports enjoyed a dominant run en route to GT4 class victory, with the No. 403 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Steven Cho, Roelof Bruins, Jongkyum Kim, Taekeun Yang and Donggi Noh finishing 26 laps clear of its nearest rival.

Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport’s No. 431 BMW M4 GT4 finished second, with Aliyyah Koloc, David Vrsecky, Adam Lacko, Jaroslav Janis and Jaromir Jirik completing the podium aboard the No. 416 Mercedes.

RESULTS: Hankook 24H Barcelona