The first round of the Touring Car Endurance Series took place at Silverstone at the weekend when the Hankook 24H Silverstone arrived. Creventic have taken over the running of the event from Britcar Ltd as part of the deal which saw James Tucker hand the championships to Claire Hedley. The Dutch organisers of the 24H series, which includes the Hankook 24H Dubai and the Hankook 24H Barcelona saw it as a chance to put on a race specifically for touring and production cars.
41 cars took the start of the race and TheCheckeredFlag.co.uk had two photographers on site to capture the action. In the first of 4 galleries from the weekend, Nick Smith of The Image Team covers the Friday sessions. Later in the week we will publish galleries of images from the Saturday and Sunday action along with a combined gallery from Paul Davies of Paul Davies Photography who shot the Britcar Prototype Series for us but couldn’t help taking a few photos of the endurance field.
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- BMW was well represented with several generations of 3-series and two of the new M235i Cup cars.
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- The most popular marque was SEAT with the Leon Cup racer forming a large part of the grid.
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- One of a kind in Europe, this Mugen tuend Honda Civic Type-R Saloon may not race again after an accident during the race.
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- The 1-Series was a popular choice, Saxon Motorsport brought their diesel model too.
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- Rogue Motorsport brought two Toyota GT-86s to the track, raced them, then put the number plates back on and drove them home again.
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- Less common was Peugeot but their two 208 GTi race cars from Team Altran were very quick.
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- Touring and Production is a loose term for the Vortex V8, a tube frame BMW 1-Series look alike.
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- The TCR specification SEAT Leon has also been produced with an eye to endurance racing.
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- One of the diesel heroes, there were only four diesel powered cars entered.
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- The older SEAT is the Leon Supercopa. It would have placed high if not for engine troubles during the night.
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- Rogue Motorsport assigned each car its own hashtag, the other was #SpeedyMcRaceCar.
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- Very little is added to a standard BMW 2-Series to make the race car, a roll cage and race seat, plus a little aero and a long range fuel tank are the highlights.
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- Team Altran’s 208s were seriously quick machines, troubling the TCR spec Leons at times.
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- Synchro Motorsport hoped for great things having won their class in the Britcar Endurance race at Silverstone only six days before.
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- The M235i Cup is a turn key solution for endurance racing. It comes ready to go, as MP Motorsports found.
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- Another SEAT Leon machine, many were pushed down the grid after failing ride height checks after qualifying.
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- While Dunlop may have helped to secure the future of the 24 Hours at Silverstone, Creventic’s tyre supplier is Hankook.
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- The all French crewed 208 had more than a little of a factory team about them.
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- The #303 Team Bleekemolen car was a favorite from the start.
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- A proper production car, this converted road going 1-Series struggled with braking in night practice.
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- The SEAT Leon’s signature rear lights and agressive rear aero make for a purposeful race car.
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- With all the custom built race cars, there is still space on the grid for a re-worked 3-Series repmobile.
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- The CIvic saloon chases own a 3-Series saloon during qualifying.
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- Little could trouble the pace of the Leon Cup cars though proving the TCR concept as an endurance racer.
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- An FN2 Honda Civic which was slow but consistent during Friday running.
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- With over 40 cars, traffic sometimes became an issue.
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- Night pit stops allowed even the public to see the cars up close.
All the photographs on this page are credit Nick Smith/TheImageTeam.com.
