Local success as Scuderia Praha Ferrari wins Hankook 12H EPILOG BRNO
After twelve hours of racing at the Automotodrom Brno, Matteo Malucelli was first across the finish line in the Scuderia Praha Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (#11, Jiri Pisarik/Jaromir Jirik/Matteo Malucelli/Peter Kox) and thus claimed victory in the Hankook 12H EPILOG BRNO, the final round of the 2015 24H SERIES powered by Hankook. In total, the Italian and his team-mates completed 324 laps of the 5.403 kilometres long circuit. They had an advantage of one lap seconds on the Ram Racing Mercedes-Benz. (#30, Tom Onslow-Cole/Paul White/Thomas Jäger). Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 teams also locked out the rest of the top five, with SPS automotive performance (#33, Valentin Pierburg/Lance David Arnold/Alex Müller) in third place, Hofor Racing (#10, Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout/Sebastian Asch/Chantal Kroll/Michael Kroll) fourth and HP Racing (#2, Nico Bastian/Markus Weege/Hubert Haupt/Carsten Tilke) fifth. With this result, Swiss lady racer Chantal Kroll also wrapped up the overall drivers’ title in the 2015 24H SERIES powered by Hankook, having already secured the Ladies’ Cup in the previous round at Barcelona. The Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing team from the United Arab Emirates with brothers Ramzi, Nabil and Sami Moutran and Phil Quaife won the overall teams’ title.
A total of 8,000 spectators attended the first-ever running of the Epilog event, the traditional end-of-season endurance race at the Automotodrom Brno as a round of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook. They got to see a nice battle between the Scuderia Praha Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 and the Ram Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 that went on for the best part of the twelve hours. As a result of different pit stop strategies and slight variations in the lap times achieved by the drivers, the lead changed several times between the two teams, but in the final quarter of the race, the Ferrari appeared to have a slight advantage and remained in front until the chequered flag was out.
Victory in the 997 class went to Austrian team MSG Motorsport that had a largely trouble-free run with its Porsche 991 Cup car (#51, Felix Wimmer/Luca Rettenbacher/Klaus Bachler), the drivers leading leading their class almost throughout the race and finishing eighth overall as the best-placed non-A6 class car. The two MARC Cars Australia entries ran first and second in the SP2 class for most of the race, but some issues in the final two hours allowed the Scuderia Praha’s Ferrari 458 Challenge car (#44, Dusan Palcr/Josef Jakubik/Lubomir Jakubik/Matteo Cressoni) come to the fore and take the class win, doubling up the success for Scuderia Praha in its home race.
In the SPX class, the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan (#22, Isaac Tutumlu Lopez/Vadim Gitlin/Adrian Watt) made it to the finish to score an undisputed class win. BMW factory-backed junior drivers Trent Hindman, Victor Bouveng and Nick Cassidy and their coach Dirk Adorf won the SP3 class with the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M235i Racing Cup car (#174, Trent Hindman/Victor Bouveng/Nick Cassidy/Dirk Adorf). There was more success for BMW with the A5 class win for Czech team Duck Racing with its BMW M3 GTR E46 (#82, Lumír Firla/Daniel Skalicky/Dan Suchy). In class A3T, there was a close fight for class honours between the best of the Team Altran’s two Peugeot 208 GTIs (#205, Mathieu Sentis/Stéphane Ventaja/Sarah Bovy) and the Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing SEAT Leon Cup Racer (#95, Ramzi Moutran/Nabil Moutran/Sami Moutran/Phil Quaife), that saw the Peugeot coming out on top. Last but not least, Presenza.eu Racing Team Switzerland took the A2 class honours with its Renault Clio (#112, Luigi Stanco/Stefan Tanner/Klaus Kresnik).
Feedback from teams and drivers about the Hankook 12H EPILOG BRNO as a round of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook was very positive. “We were very happy with this event as a new addition to our calendar and to see the tradition of the Epilog event at the Automotodrom Brno revived. Co-operation with management and staff of the circuit has been really pleasant and it was a great way to conclude our season,” said Natasha Mark on behalf of CREVENTIC, the Dutch agency that is the promoter and organiser of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook, in co-operation with the Dutch National Racing Team (DNRT). More information about the Hankook 12H EPILOG BRNO and the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook can be found at: www.24hseries.com.
