New international participation for Team Icer Brakes joining SpeedLover in the 24 hours of Barcelona.
The Spanish-Belgian squad, after a successful joint venture in the GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux, was battling for class lead with two Porsche 996 Cup cars.
Team Icer Brakes participated in the 24 hours of Barcelona, taking place at famous Circuit of Catalunya last weekend.The Spanish team joined Belgian SpeedLover squad once again, as on the GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux in May. Two Porsche 996 Cup cars were fielded for two experienced driver line-up, with Jesus Díez Villarroel, Philippe Richard and Carlos Rivas sharing their first car and Robert Matot, Pierre-Yves Paques, Rene Marin and Jean-Michel Gerome at the wheel of a second unit.
After free practice session, on Friday afternoon, qualifying´ followed with Diez Villarroel's lap of 2:05.456, 4th fastest in class. The second car was 6th fastest posting a time of 2:05.691. On Friday night, drivers used the practice session to get used to nightime conditions.
The race, distinguished by changeable weather conditions, was started at noon and Diez Villarroel, using his experience in races such as 24 hours of Le Mans, 24 hours of Daytona or 24 hours of Spa, made the opening stint. Two hours into the race, the SpeedLover car driven by Diez Villarroel was 6th overall and was leading its class, with the second car not far behind in 5th place.
Unfortunately some problems hit the leading car and, after three hours, Diez Villarroel, Rivas and Richard spent time in box and, later, also SpeedLover had problems with the second car. But when the pit crew fixed problems, and both cars were back on track with competitive lap times. But they couldn´t reach the end as they both were forced to retire.
Diez Villarroel and his teammates retired after eight hours and Matot, Paques, Marin and Gerome, after twenty hours..However the team was happy with the performance on track and when both vehicles were racing, they were posting similar lap times to the final winners and the joint venture proved to be very rewarding.
