12H Hungary: Series hour 6 notes

Schubert Motorsport leads at halfway point in Hungary

BUDAPEST (October 10th, 2009) Halfway through the second running of the 12H of Hungary at the Hungaroring Grand Prix circuit, the battle out in front remains extremely close. At the six-hour mark, the winning team from last year, German outfit Schubert Motorsport, is leading, its BMW Z4 M Coupe having completed a total distance of 178 laps. However, it is a close call, as the local team Bovi Motorsport is only one lap down with their Brokernet Silversting, a Porsche-powered sports car. Another three laps down is the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup of the Austrian Jetalliance team in third place, leading a throng of four Porsches in third to sixth place.

There have been surprisingly few incidents in the first half of the race. The only "code 60" phase so far occurred in the first hour already, following a collision between the number 37-Lotus Exige Cup 260, entered by the Hungarian GENEX-GFS-Tteam, and the number 36-SEAT Leon Supercopa of the Austrian Strategic Racing team. So far, the Lotus is the only official retirement in the race, the SEAT having taken back to the track after a lengthy repair. Of course, several teams already have lost considerable time in the pits, but have all good hopes of getting their cars back into the race again.

After two hours, the Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 M Coupe overtook the erstwhile leaders, the Bovi Motorsport-team with the Brokernet Silversting. Having already set the fastest time in qualifying, the Hungarian team with their exotic sportscar dominated proceedings in the opening stages of the race. Especially local driver Istvan Racz, referred to by some as the Hungarian equivalent of multiple Le Mans winner Allan McNish (not only because of his size, but also because of his driving style), made his mark with a convincing performance and fast lap times. For the Schubert-team, the only incident to speak of was a slight collision by its Norwegian driver Stian Sørlie, who locked up under braking and collided with Guy Povey in the number 11-Povey Motorsport BMW E46 M3.

-credit: 24hseries.com