TCES | Slovakiaring 24 hours review

The 2016 Touring Car Endurance Series Slovakiaring 24 hours was a thriller right to the very end. Here's what happened throughout the race.

TCR: Eight hours into the race it looked like the TCR class would be a battle between the #125 NKPP Racing Seat Leon and the #134 ARC Bratislava by Ferry Monster Autosport Seat but overnight the #303 Red Camel-Jordans.nl Seat fought back, setting an overall fastest lap time in the process. Into the final hour and it looked like a fairly secure win for the #330 car but the #134 Seat wasn't going down without a fight and they fought back and took the lead with just twenty minutes remaining. The #134 wouldn't relinquish this lead and ended up winning by 20.949 seconds ahead of the #303 Seat. The #125 car dropped away a bit overnight and came home third in class one lap behind the leaders. The #117 Saxon Motorsport BMW 135D struggled for pace against it's class rivals but the team had a problem free race and were able to bring the car home in fourth, twenty nine laps down on the winners.

Cup1: An enthralling battle in the Cup1 class between the #151 Sorg Rennsport and the #153 Speedlover BMW M235i coupes ultimately came to an end overnight. Thirteen and a half hours into the race and the #151 BMW retired after a crash on track. This left the #153 car to take an untroubled victory a full thirty seven laps ahead of their nearest rivals, the #109 R H Race Engineering Seat Leon. The #109 wasn't too far behind on track pace but it struggled with a small fuel tank that caused them to have pit a lot more regualarly than the other cars. Behind the top two, the #123 K&S Motorsport BMW M3 CSL would come home third in class, over seventy laps down on the leader.

A2: Class A2 provided one of the most entertaining battles throughout the race as cars #112 and #212, both from presenza.eu Racing Team Clio, battled for victory over the course of the twenty four hours. Ultimately victory would go to car #112 by one lap after an issues for car #212 saw them have to pit twice in the final hour. The pair finished sixth and seventh overall. Behind them would be the #175 Scantech Racing by Sorg Rennsport Clio of husband and wife team Rickard and Tanja Nilsson who finished eighth overall, eighteen laps behind the class winners.

D1: Class D1 was incredibly spread out and only one of three cars would make it through the race without major issues. The #195 Seat from Red Camel-Jordans.nl would only complete fifty four minutes of racing before retiring into the pits not to be seen again. Eight and a half hours into the race and the #197 Dieselpower VW Golf would go the same way, this left the #190 Winkler Tuning BMW E46 to take a commanding victory in tenth overall, more than three hundred laps ahead of the competition.

The next round of the Touring Car Endurance Series is the Meppen 12 hours on the 24th of September. With a huge provisional grid, you are not going to want to miss it.

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