TCR / 02 October 2023

Four titles for Civic Type R TCR as Jensen makes more history

The Honda Civic Type R TCR won four more major titles last weekend as Kasper H Jensen and GMB Motorsport rewrote the history books at Jyllands-Ringen.

And with JAS Motorsport Development Driver Philip Lindberg scoring his first series win, it was yet another exceptional weekend for the Arluno-built touring car.

 

TCR Denmark

Kasper H Jensen was the history-maker yet again as he won a fourth-straight title and the second in a row for GMB.

His fifth pole position in a row was also the sixth in seven events in 2023 and was the foundation for a comfortable opening-race win - the 50th of the year for the Civic Type R TCR.

While that did not seal the championship, ninth spot in Race Two did and also confirmed GMB's Teams' title and Honda's Constructors' Championship success. He was second in the season finale.

The Honda Civic Type R TCR - built at JAS headquarters in Arluno, Italy - becomes the first model to win the same TCR title with the same driver in four consecutive years and has also now won 82 major circuit-racing championships globally.

Team-mate Gustav Birch claimed the Under-25s title with a double category victory while Kevin Brandsborg was the class winner in Race Two for TPR Motorsport.

JAS Motorsport Development Driver Philip Lindberg started the reversed-grid second race from pole position and fended off a series of determined attacks from behind to claim his first series win - and the first for the new-for-2023 Civic Type R TCR FL5.

Michelle Halder qualified second in U25s in the second TPR Honda and finished on the category podium twice  while Didrik Esbjug was in the class top six twice for Esbjug Motorsport and Team Bundgas's Kim Konig was twice fourth in the Trophy category.

 

Italian GT Championship

Nova Race duo Luca Magnoni and Andrea Bodellini scored their first win in the Am category of the Sprint Trophy at Mugello aboard their NSX GT3 Evo 22.

Young racer Bodellini was impressive through the opening phase of Sunday's race, passing a number of Pro-Am cars as he climbed from the back of the field into second spot by the driver changes.

Magnoni, who won Am titles in both 2021 and '22 with the NSX, stayed clear of trouble to finish second - erasing memories of spinning out the day before - and was later declared the winner after a number of post-race penalties.

JAS Development Driver Axel Gnos and his co-driver Matteo Greco were two of the stars of the opening race as they recovered from fourth in Pro-Am early on to move into second place by the chequered flag.

Unfortunately an 'incorrect driver change' resulted in a 1.7-second penalty. With numerous safety-car periods in the second half of the race bunching up the field, this dropped the duo from second to fourth in the standings.

Gnos was forced off the road by a rival at the start of Race Two but was fighting back well when he spun out at mid-distance.