- The Portimão event set the tone for an intense 2024 season
- Seven different winners in four races and well-filled starting grids in the opener of the season
Portimão, January 29, 2024. Fifty Porsche took to the beautiful Portimão circuit in the Portuguese Algarve last weekend, and they immediately turned it into a great spectacle during the opener of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe season, with no fewer than seven different winners. However, there is little rest for those drivers and the teams because next weekend they will arrive in Estoril, a former Portuguese F1 circuit. The tone has been set and everyone is looking forward to the remainder of the second season of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe, a season that seems to live up to all expectations.
“We are indeed pleased with this great start to the season, not least on a sporting level,” said Series Manager Lars Plato. “We decided after last year’s season to open the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe to Pro drivers and we indeed saw a lot of drivers this weekend who came to prepare for the international Porsche season, which in beautiful motorsport in the races of the Sport Division resulted. The gentlemen drivers also gave their best in the Club Division, as evidenced by the second race of the weekend, in which we saw Porsche motorsport as it is in the brand's DNA. The Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe has made a good start to its second season, and we will continue to work on this basis for the remainder of our sporting year.”
Ariel Levi leads in points after the first weekend
The Sport Division of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe is reserved for the PRO and PRO-AM drivers at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup – Type 992 - and the first winner of the weekend was the young German Alexander Tauscher in the colors of Proton Huber Competition. He beat the Frenchman Jaubert Mathys (Martinet by Alméras) and the Israeli Ariel Levi, who does it with Team GP Elite. They barely gave each other two seconds at the finish. A little further down the pack, Alexander Reimann was good for victory in the PRO-AM Division, with Jules Grouwels (Team RaceArt) in second and Cengiz Oguzhan (Team GP Elite) in third.
In the second race, Ariel Levi showed that he is one of the riders to beat in this competition, with a convincing victory, ahead of Marco Gilltrap who came all the way from New Zealand (Team GP Elite) and the Frenchman Louis Rousset (Martinet by Almeras). Jules Grouwels was the first in the PRO-AM Division, ahead of Cengiz Oguzhan and the winner of the first appointment, Alexander Reimann (EST1 Racing).
In the general points standings, Ariel Levi is logically the first leader, but be careful, with three weekends and six races to go, anything is of course still possible.
Club Division brings fantastic motorsport
In the Club Division of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe, we not only see the gentlemen drivers in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Type 992), but also various versions of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Of course, they each fought in their class and there was a great battle in Portimão.
In the AM Division, four gentlemen at the front provided very nice motorsport in both races, with the Belgian Nicolas Saelens (Belgium Racing) finishing just seven-hundredths of a second over the British John Ian Loggie (HP Racing International) at the finish line of the first race. left. Philippe Wils (Speedlover) followed close behind and he had less than a second bonus on the number four, the Dutchman Robert Sulma (Proton Huber Competition). Seb Hopkins (Team Parker Racing), Graham King (WDP Racing) and Jules Marien (Team GP Elite) were on the podium in the Cayman Division.
The second race was even more exciting, this time with John Ian Loggie taking revenge on Nicolas Saelens, with a good half second between the two men, while places three and four also exchanged places, with Sulma this time ahead of Wils. Hopkins and King finished first and second again in their Cayman GT4, ahead of Henk van Norel (Snel Motorsport).
Appointment now in barely a week in Estoril for the second round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe 2024.
More information:
