The young man from Stuttgart, whom we started supporting as our marketing and sponsor partner in 2018, wrote history in the international long distance race. In only his second year, Laurents Hörr and his team DKR Engineering relegated his competitors to the fringe in the highly competitive class of LMP3 prototypes in the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
The showdown for the overall victory took place on October 27th at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão. Laurents Hörr, his French team mate François Kirmann and their Luxembourg team DKR Engineering started this last race from a promising second position in the points ranking.
It was the final event in a season that offered many highlights such as the legendary victories in Le Mans and Barcelona in front of millions of spectators, plus second places in Le Castellet and Monza and a third place in Portimão just previously.
Nevertheless, tension was still high before this last race of the season. The reason for this was the race in Spa-Francorchamps on September 21st when the team was already in the lead and on the way to winning the championship early – but then everything turned out differently. The race management first decided on a dubious drive through penalty for Laurents Hörr’s team, and then disqualified the team altogether in the night after the race – along with all the other teams on the podium. The reason given was the fastening of the so-called “crash box” which apparently did not meet regulations. None of the three teams on the podium had manipulated their vehicles and yet lost all their points. The fourth placed British team Lanan Racing had not been checked for this issue, and yet, was awarded the victory and the points and took the overall lead. Their vehicle was designed identically to the vehicles on positions 1 to 3.
And thus, the championship fight at the last event of the year was: DKR Engineering versus Lanan Racing. François Kirmann started out with a first strong statement when he brought his car with the identification number 3 to pole position and clearly dominated the two-hours race for most of the time. After Laurents Hörr took over, there was a serious confrontation with Lanan Racing that was punished by the race management handing a 3 minute penalty to the British team.
This cleared the way for Laurents Hörr, although he only managed to advance to the third position due to the stop he had to take for repairs of damage caused by Lanan. In the end, they had their 100 points in the championship, and safely brought home the overall victory.
“I’m overjoyed, and have no words to describe this victory yet,” Laurents Hörr stated directly after the prize ceremony. “Propelled forward by this success, I definitely want to attack in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) next year – we are currently conducting first negotiations, and have received some first offers,” Laurents Hörr continued.
For more information on Laurents Hörr, see: www.laurents-hoerr.de and www.modus-vm.de.
We congratulate Laurents for this overwhelming success. We are delighted with Laurents Hörr’s continued development and that of his team, and will continue to support him in his meteoric rise.
© Image material: Daniel Delien / www.pro-photos-sport.com and Jakob Ebrey Photography
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