TCR Germany @ Sachesenrin
Luca Engstler makes a giant leap

The TCR Germany weekend at the Sachsenring saw Luca Engstler making a giant leap in the standings, as he scored the maximum of points with pole position and two race wins.
These results propelled him on top of the standings, five points ahead of Harald Proczyk and 11 of Niels Langeveld.
In the first race, Engstler took the lead from Mike Halder and Proczyk; behind them, Théo Coicaud and Pascal Eberle were fighting for fourth, while Antti Buri was recovering after starting from 13th. The Finn overtook Eberle for fifth and began fighting with Coicaud. On lap 13, Coicaud, Buri and Eberle made contact, Buri escaped, while Coicaud and Eberle went off and the safety car was deployed. The race resumed for the two final laps, Engstler and Halder were first and second, Proczyk defended third from Buri, while Michelle Halder and Langeveld finished fifth and sixth.
In Race 2 Engstler completed a sensational charge from P10 on the grid. At the start, Langeveld took the lead ahead of Michelle Halder, Proczyk, Max Hesse and Coicaud, but it was Engstler who delivered the show, passing Coicaud and Hesse and then battling with Proczyk. The fight became hotter, as Engstler passed Proczyk and Michelle Halder and was on the tail of Langeveld’s Audi. The two had a fierce battle, but the Dutchman seemed destined to keep the lead.
However, at the end of the penultimate lap, Langeveld was in trouble with his car, lost momentum and dropped to fifth. Engstler found himself in the lead and went to claim his second victory of the weekend; Michelle Halder retained second position, while Eberle benefited from the commotion to pass Proczyk for third.
The season finale will be at Hockenheim on September 22/23, where Engstler, Proczyk and Langeveld will be fighting for the title with 95 points on offer. Mathematically Mike Halder is still in contention, but the gap of 62 points makes his chances purely theoretical.

Photos: ADAC Motorsport-Gruppe C Photography

TCR Scandinavia @ Rudskogen
Kristoffersson is the rain master in Norway

In TCR Scandinavia’s penultimate event at the Norwegian track of Rudskogen, Johan Kristoffersson drove his KMS Volkswagen Golf GTI to a pair of outstanding victories.
The reigning champion, PWR Racing’s Robert Dahlgren, finished on the podium twice - second in Race 1 and third in Race 2 - meaning that Kristofersson was able to stretch his leading margin in the standings to 14 points.
With 55 points still at stake in the finale at Mantorp Park on October 21/22, Andreas Wernersson and Daniel Haglöf are still in contention mathematically, although they are 34 and 50 points behind the leader.
In Race 1, amidst pouring rain, Haglöf made a poor start from pole and dropped to third, behind Dahlgren and Kristoffersson. The trio delivered a thrilling fight, swapping positions several times, until Kristoffersson took the lead on lap 10 and pulled away. Dahlgren and Haglöf retained the second and third positions.
In Race 2, Kristoffersson won again in changeable weather conditions, recovering from fifth on the grid to take the lead from Wernersson with two laps to go.
At the start, Mattias Andersson sprinted from pole position, leading from Wernersson, Ekblom and Kristoffersson. But Andersson was soon passed by his pursuers and dropped to sixth. As the track was starting to dry, Kristoffersson began chasing Wernersson, while behind the leading duo, PWR Racing’s teammates Dahlgren, Philip Morin and Haglöf were comfortably keeping the positions from third to fifth.
With three laps to go, the rain intensified once again and so did the battle between Wernersson and Kristoffersson. They ran abreast for several turns, until Kristoffersson managed to take the lead and went to win his third race of the season.

Photos: Micke Fransson-Teambild.se

TCR UK @ Croft
Taylor sends the title fight down to the wire

The fight for the inaugural TCR UK series’ title is going down to the wire and it will be decided at the last race meeting of the season, at Donington Park on the 13-14 October.
In fact, Pyro Motorsport’s Oliver Taylor with a solid performance at Croft, reduced his gap in the standings from Daniel Lloyd to 31 points, and so reinvigorating the title fight.
In Race 1, WestCoast Racing’s Andreas Bäckman, at the wheel of a Honda Civic for the first time, took his first victory ahead of Taylor and Lloyd.
Bäckman made a clean start from pole position and pulled into the lead ahead of Taylor. Lloyd made a superb start from last on the grid and climbed to fourth, challenging Stewart Lines for a podium position. Lines did his best to resist, but contact was made between the pair, allowing Lloyd to take third and sending Lines into the grass. Lloyd closed down the near-three second gap to Taylor and by lap 10 was on the rear bumper of the Honda; he kept the pressure on Taylor throughout the final five laps, even drawing alongside on the pit straight on lap 11, but Taylor was able to hold on to the position.
Taylor took a lights-to-flag victory in the reverse-grid second race. He started from pole position and led Finlay Crocker and Andreas Bäckman, whilst further back disaster struck for Lloyd at the chicane, as he thumped the kerbs and his car speared off the circuit onto the infield with suspension damage, forcing him out of the race. Crocker, second behind Taylor, took his best-ever TCR result, whilst Andreas Bäckman made it a podium lock-out for Honda in third.

Photos: TCR UK-Matt Sayle

24H TCE Series @ Barcelona
The ladies' Cupra wins the 24H Barcelona

Laia Sanz, 18-time World Champion in Woman Trial and Enduro, and Alba Cano Martínez, the reigning TCR class champion of the 24H TCE Series, claimed an outstanding victory in 24H Barcelona.
The two ladies shared the Cupra car run jointly by CUPRA Racing and Monlau Competición with Cupra Racing test driver Jordi Gené and with Francesc Gutierrez Agüi, whose previous victory in the 24H Barcelona dated back to 1998.
The #108 Cupra completed 621 laps during the 24 hours, finishing in a respectable 15th position overall out of the 49 starters and inflicting a gap of five laps to the second classified car, the Baporo Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS shared by Vescovi-Ferri-Font Casas. The podium was completed by the Red Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT León DSG of Ivo Breukers-Krant-Littig-de Heus-Rik Breukers.
The next and last round of the 24H TCR European Series will be the 12H Spa-Francorchamps on 13/14 October; on the Belgian track the #303 Red Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT and the #175 NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten CUPRA will enjoy a showdown for the title as they are currently separated by two points in the standings: 85 to 83.

Photo: 24H Series-Peter Fryba

IMSA Challenge @ Laguna Seca
Long and Casey take the points lead

Tom Long and Britt Casey jr. won the TCR class of the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge at Laguna Seca in their Compass Racing Audi RS3 LMS. They led 56 of 69 laps to score their fourth victory of the season and took the points lead.
Throughout the race, the winning car faced pressure from the pole-sitting eEuroparts.com Racing Audi of Kenton Koch and Tom O’Gorman and its sister car of Kuno Wittmer and Rodrigo Sales who were leading the standings by four points over Long and Casey.
However, with Wittmer and Sales finishing fifth at Laguna Seca, the positions have swapped in the standings, with Long and Casey now leading by five.
After two hours, the first four cars classified were covered by just 22 seconds: the JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi of Michael Johnson-Stephen Simpson finished second with a gap of 11 seconds, while O’Gorman-Koch and the third Compass Racing car of Pierre Kleinubing-Roy Block followed 21 and 22 seconds behind the winning car.
The series’ final round will be at Road Atlanta for the 2-hour Petit Le Mans on October 12/13.

Photo: IMSA-LAT Images

WTCR
Timo Scheider joins Münnich Motorsport

Timo Scheider will contest the four final events of WTCR, driving one of the three Honda Civic Type R cars run by Münnich Motorsport.
A two-time DTM champion, he will partner Yann Ehrlacher and Esteban Guerrieri, replacing James Thompson.
“It will be a hard challenge for me to join the championship in the middle of the year without any experience,” said Scheider. “But due to the fact that I like new challenges I will give it all to get it done as good as possible. I have no experience of any of the tracks, unfortunately, but I will be supporting my team, having fun, making my first experience with a front-wheel-driven car and finally making my debut in Macau.”