The 24 Horas de Barcelona de Automovilismo-Trofeo Fermí Vélez will be offering magic and true endurance for the 20th time. In 2018, the event will be having a total of 51 participating teams with 14 different nationalities, which is good proof of its good health and its international popularity. From 7 to 9 September, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will be welcoming familiar faces such as Dakar participant Laia Sanz, who will be repeating the experience next to Francesc Gutiérrez. The Cupra Racing – Monlau Competición drivers will be sharing their vehicle with Jordi Gené and Alba Cano.
After their absence in last year’s 24 Hours, the 24H GT Series will be back with its spectacular vehicles, joining the 24H TCE Series, on the track. The series with the large cylinder capacity vehicles will be divided into the A6 Amateur, A6 Professional and SPX classes. The scoring classes of the diesel and petrol driven touring cars will be TCR, A3, Cup 1, GT4 and SP3.
All of them make up a total of 51 participating teams, coming from 14 different countries: Germany (9), England (9), France (9), Spain (4), Belgium (4), the Netherlands (4), Switzerland (3), Austria (2), Italy (2), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1), Romania (1), Australia (1) and UAE (1). In addition to the 4 Spanish teams, there will be 13 local drivers in the race.
Some of the candidates to take the victory are precisely local teams, considered as top level participants. Cupra Racing – Monlau Competición will be counting on Alba Cano, Laia Sanz, Francesc Gutiérrez and Jordi Gené as their drivers. The several times world champion Laia Sanz, already knows what it means to compete next to Francesc Gutiérrez, as both have shared the vehicle in recent editions. Francesc Gutiérrez, has already several overall victories in his pocket, and the assurance of the experience gathered after participating in all of the staged editions. Alba Cano will be at the wheel of the Cupra TCR DSG as well. She took the title of the 24H TCE Series last year with Monlau Competición and stepped on the third step of the podium in Barcelona. And needless to say that Jordi Gené, a driver with a large racing experience in the world of touring cars, who even participated in the world championship, will be contributing a lot towards the top level of the team.
All eyes will be set on another of the local teams, NM Racing Team, current champion of the event. They will be back in the GT4 class, with a Ginetta G55 GT4 and a crew of very young drivers. Nikolay Dimitrev (Russia) and Maxime Guillemat (France) are two of the drivers who won last year, and this year, they will be changing seats with Lluc Ibáñez, Max Llobet and Xavier Lloveras. The latter is also a member of the Young Driver programme of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Nil Montserrat’s team is, with no doubt, a proof of the talent and the future that young promises have in the world of motorsport.
Monlau Competición will be present with another Cupra TCR DSG and the drivers Jurgen Smet, José Manuel Pérez Aicart, Álvaro Bajo and Ander Vilariño. The first three took the third overall position last year with Alba Cano, and were champions of the event at the end of the season. Ander Vilariño, the new member of the squad, is a driver with a large experience in different modalities, but especially in endurance, as he has already taken 7 European titles, including the European NASCAR.
Baporo Motorsport does not want to miss the date either, with the Italian drivers Alberto Vescovi and Roberto Ferri and Spanish Jaime Font, who has already taken part in several editions of the 24H of Barcelona. They will be at the wheel of an Audi RS3 LMS DSG. We shouldn’t forget that there will be other two local representatives participating with foreign teams. Isaac Tutumlu and Iván Pareras are crew members in the German team Car Collection Motorsport (Audi R8 LMS).
A highlight among the international participants is the leader of the 24 GT Series, PROsport Performance (Germany), with a Mercedes-AMG GT3. Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster and Adam Christodoulou will be scoring towards the A6 Amateur class. The condition of favourites of the 24H TCE Series will be defended by Hofor Racing powered by Bei Bonk Motorsport (Germany), with Martin Kroll, Michael Bonk and Alexander Prinz, at the wheel of a BMW M235i Racing Cup.
During the same weekend and at the same time, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will also be staging the first virtual 24-hour endurance race: the 24H SimRacing.
The admission to experience both races live is free.