TCES Slovakia 24 hour: 8 hour review

Eight hours into the Touring Car Endurance Series Slovakia 24 hour race, here's what's happened so far.

TCR: After starting from pole, the #303 Red Camel-Jordans.nl Seat was expected to be a clear front runner but so far that has not been the case. The fastest lap belongs to the #134 ARC Bratislava by Ferry Monster Seat, and they currently lead the way in class and overall, ahead of the #125 NKPP Seat that sits one lap behind the leaders although the lap times have been very equal through the race. The #303 Seat has drooped away and is two laps behind the leader and again the lap times are very equal so the team aren't making up much ground. The #117 Saxon Motorsport BMW 135 has struggled so far, it's lapping almost eight seconds a lap down on the three Seats and sits fourth and last in class over ten laps behind the leader.

Cup1: The Cup1 class has been split into two groups, the #151 and #153 BMW M235i Cup cars and the #109 Seat Leon and the #123 BMW M3 CSL. The #151 from Sorg Rennsport currently leads the way, a full lap ahead of the #153 Speedlover BMW although the #153 has been lapping quicker in recent laps but there's a lot of ground to make up. The #109 Seat from R H Race Engineering was running fairly competitively although a small fuel tank has caused the team to have to pit more frequently than their rivals have had to. A pit stop that lasted over twenty minutes also cost the team and they're currently eleventh overall and third in class, thirty five laps behind the class leading BMW. The #123 BMW from K&S Motorsport has also struggled, a fastest lap of 2:27.518 compared to a 2:24.651 from the leaders shows the lack of pace that the M3 has, it currently sits thirteenth overall, the last of the cars still running.

A2: Things have been very close in class A2 between the two teammates from presenza.eu Racing Team Clio. The #112 leads the way in class after eight hours but the positions are changing depending on pit stops as the on track pace between the #112 and #212 has been remarkably close. Both cars are currently on the same lap with #112 leading the way from #212 in seventh and eighth respectively. Their only class rivals are the #175 Scantech Racing by Sorg Rennsport Renault Clio of husband and wife pairing, Rickard and Tanja Nilsson, sadly the #175 has struggled and is fourteen laps behind the class leaders in tenth overall.

D1: Class D1 has been very spread out so far. The #195 Red Camel-Jordans.nl Seat Leon only completed thirteen laps before retiring to the pit lane, not to be seen again. That leaves the #197 Dieselpower VW Golf and the #190 Winkler Tuning BMW E46 to battle it out for class honours. Fourteen laps currently covers the pair although their on track place has been pretty close. The #190 BMW leads the way but if they have an overnight problem the Dieselpower Golf will be there to take advantage.