The first three hours of the Hankook 24H SILVERSTONE, the first-ever race of Creventic’s new Touring Car Endurance Series (TCES) powered by Hankook, are completed. After a busy starting period, the Team Bleekemolen Seat Leon Cup Racer (#127, Sebastian Bleekemolen/Melvin de Groot/Pim van Riet/Dennis de Borst) tops the 41 car-strong touring car field. Following closely are the 2015 24H SERIES champions, the Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat Leon Cup Racer (#1, Ramzi Moutran/Nabil Moutran/Sami Moutran/Phil Quaife). Behind the two TCR-spec Seats, the JR Motorsport BMW E90 M3 (#102, Martin Lanting/Bob Herber/Steven Liquorish/Christoph Ulrich) comes next as the quickest SP-Touring car. Different car classifications and strategy windows already mix the field. Even a Diesel car led temporarily. Three classes are present in the top ten positions.
With various lead changes and typical touring car battles, the two Seats and the JR Motorsport BMW were already in the spotlights during the starting period. When they entered the pits, Diesel-powered Saxon Motorsport BMW 135D GTR (#117, Nick Barrow/David Robinson/Clint Bardwell/Neil Primrose) took over the lead. Starting driver David Robinson could almost reach the maximum stint length of two hours on one fuel load. Meanwhile, the BMW has fallen back into fifth.
The first hours flew past with blue skies above the 5.980 kilometres Silverstone Circuit. The only inconvenience was a short Code 60 period after the Kinetic Racing Seat Leon Supercopa (#122, Mike Nash/Graham Saul/Abdulaziz Abdulla/Hamad Saeed Al-Asam/Dave Ward) had lost its rear bumper.
The Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing BMW M3 V8 (#246, Richard Neary/Richard Roberts/Charles Lamb/Martin Short) already lies in sixth place. Richard Neary had stormed through the field from the last position of the grid after a broken driveshaft had left the car without a qualifying time.
Class A3 is led by the Team Altran Peugeot 208 GTi (#208, Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Stéphane Ventaja/Bradley Philpot/Sarah Bovy) with seventh place overall. The pole-setting A3 car, the Cor Euser Racing BMW M3 (#71, Cor Euser/Dom Bastien/Craig Wilkins/Tom Webb/Derek Bennett) is already seven laps down.
With its long fuel range, the A2 class leader, the Team K-Rejser Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Thomas Sørensen/Jens Mølgaard), has already reached 13th spot overall.
The JJ Motorsport BMW M235i Racing Cup car (#154, Mark Lemmer/Timur Sardarov/Richard Abra/Mark Poole) has a good lead over its only rival, the DUWO Racing BMW (#235, Jean-Marie Dumont/Alexander W. Wetzlich/Philip Harris/Chris Wilson/Adrian Watt) in the Cup 1 class.
The D1 Diesel class is topped by the RECY RACING TEAM BMW 120D (#194, Jan de Vocht/Johan van Loo/Wim Meulders/Thomas Piessens/Erik Crabbe) in 17th place overall.