Herberth Motorsport confirms full 24H SERIES campaign in 2021
Herberth Motorsport has confirmed it will run at least two Porsche 991 GT3 Rs across the full 24H SERIES powered by Hankook season in 2021, with one Porsche 991-II Cup having also been earmarked for the upcoming Hankook 12H MUGELLO. The Bavarian team, which won the inaugural 24H SERIES Continents Overall GT Teams’ title in 2017 as well as last year’s GT3-PRO championship, competed regularly with one Porsche 991 GT3 R from its debut in 2015 to the latter end of 2018. At the 2019 Hankook 12H MUGELLO (how fitting!), Herberth Motorsport entered two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs for the very first time in the 24H SERIES. Though only one Porsche made it to the chequered flag on that occasion, the team secured an extraordinary four consecutive A6-Am class wins in the four rounds that followed en-route to that year’s A6-Am European championship.
Since then, Herberth Motorsport has regularly competed with two and sometimes three Porsche 991-II Cups in the 24H SERIES, and even ran an HB Racing-entered Ferrari 488 GT3 at the Hankook 12H SPA in 2019.
The 2021 Hankook 12H MUGELLO though is set to be the first time that Herberth Motorsport has entered a Porsche 991-II Cup in the ‘991’ class for a 24H SERIES event. Of course, the Jedenhofen-based outfit is no stranger to Porsche Cup competition: Alfred Herberth’s eponymous team, founded ahead of the ADAC GT Cup in 1996, first entered the Porsche Carrera Cup in 1997 and secured back-to-back teams’ titles in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland in 2006 and 2007 with Dirk Werner and Uwe Alzen respectively.
The Hankook 12H MUGELLO meanwhile has also proven a happy hunting ground for Herberth motorsport over the years: the then-named HB Racing Team Herberth took its first 24H SERIES win at the 2015 edition, and closed out last season with a commanding overall win at the same event. In doing so, Herberth Motorsport became only the second GT team, after Scuderia Praha, to secure more than one victory at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO.
No confirmation has yet been made with regards Herberth Motorsport’s driver line-up for Mugello, though it is anticipated that team principals – and twin brothers – Robert and Alfred Renauer will once be joined in the #91 Porsche 991 GT3 R by long-time teammates Daniel Allemann and Ralf Bohn. Debuting together in 2015, the quartet (or at least three of them) have secured all but four of Herberth’s 19 class and overall wins in the 24H SERIES to-date.
Klaus Bachler, Jürgen Häring, Vincent Kolb, Sven Müller and Wolfgang Triller piloted the sister #92 at what turned out to be a difficult Hankook 24H DUBAI for Herberth Motorsport in 2021: the #91 was crippled after an accident barely two hours into the race, while the #92, with which Sven Müller secured pole position, was eventually retired with terminal gearbox problems. Though Dubai 2021 was Wolfgang Triller’s first start with Herberth in the 24H SERIES, Klaus Bachler took A6-AM victory with the team at both Portimão and Barcelona in 2019, and was joined on the top step at the latter by Vincent Kolb. Jürgen Häring meanwhile claimed overall victory with Herberth at last year’s Hankook 24H PORTIMAO and Hankook 12H MONZA, while Porsche factory driver Sven Müller has entered at least one 24H SERIES race with either Herberth Motorsport or affiliate Manthey Racing every year since 2017.
Herberth Motorsport’s #93 entry in Dubai meanwhile finished a hard-earned 11th following early handling problems. In stark contrast, only one of its four-driver line-up – Steffen Görig, John Loggie, Daniel Lloyd and Antares Au – had raced with Herberth prior to Dubai, Görig having finished 2nd overall with the team at last year’s Hankook 12H MONZA.