24H Series - Barcelona 24hr - 2024

This was our fourth time working the Barcelona 24hr, one of our favourite events of the year.

Herberth took a record-extending fourth win at the Barcelona 24hrs, simultaneously securing the 24H Series overall GT3 Teams’ championship in the process. Having swapped the lead repeatedly with the Saintéloc Junior Team throughout the night, the Herberth Porsche managed to extend its advantage to just over two laps heading into Sunday morning. A couple of on-track clashes aside, the newly-crowned GT3 Teams’ and GT3-AM Teams’ champion ran faultlessly en-route to the chequered flag, extending the event’s ‘GT era’ distance record (2011 to present) from 725 laps to 738 laps of the 4.657km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. After a typically impeccable performance, the Saintéloc Audi R8 came home 2nd overall to secure its second consecutive class win of 2024 and the GT3-PRO/AM Teams’ title. The Poulsen Motorsport BMW M4 eventually emerged on top in a close fight with the Red Camel by Juta Racing Audi R8 for 3rd overall.

2017 Overall GT Teams’ ‘Europe’ champion Hofor Racing, completed a remarkable fightback to finish 5th overall and 2nd in GT3-AM. Suspension failure ended up dropping the Mercedes-AMG GT3 out of the top 30 completely just 60 minutes into the 24-hour event.

The pole-sitting Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S had headed the field by more than 50 seconds during the opening stint, and was still well in the hunt for overall victory at half-distance. Regrettably, the British team lost close to 20 minutes in the pits during the night when the McLaren’s throttle pedal went to the floor. This dropped Optimum Motorsport into the fight for 3rd, from which it would be eliminated, less than 45 minutes from home, with fuel pressure problems. The McLaren was eventually classified 7th.

Despite a late-race collision with the GSR Motorsport Ginetta and an earlier trip into the gravel at turn five, the Juta Racing Audi R8 LMS ended a bruising race 9th overall and on the final step of the GT3-AM podium. Like Hofor Racing, Land Motorsport was forced to battle back from early mechanical problems, on this occasion, a torn alternator belt – to finish 11th. Just 25 minutes in, the Audi R8 LMS had fallen to the tail of the field. Spain’s E2P Racing was sadly forced to retire from a potential top five finish when the Porsche 991.2 GT3 R suffered power steering issues during the night.

Results -

GT3 -

1 - Herberth Motorsport - Noble/Bohn/Hart/Blattner - Porsche 911 GT3R

2 - Sainteloc Jnr Team - Doppelmayr/Kaffer/Erhart/Tribaudini - Audi R8 LMS

3 - Poulsen Motorsport - Poulsen/Poulsen/Nilsson/Klingmann - BMW M4 GT3

GTX -

1 - Vortex V8 - Bonnel/Amrouche/Courtois/Amrouche - Vortex V8

2 - Razoon - Chwist/Loimayr/Drexel/Birch - KTM Crossbow GTX

3 - Vortex V8 - Sugliano/Calmon/Moiola/Fontaine - Vortex V8

992 Porsche -

1 - Redant Racing - Redant/Redant/DeBreucker/Zaenen - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)

2 - QMMF - Al Khelaifi/Al Ali/Al Abdulghani/Hanses - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)