Orlowski opens ’24 Touring Car season with GP3F win

The new season of international Electric Touring Car action kicked off this weekend with Schumacher Racing’s Michal Orlowski taking the first honours of 2024 with the victory at the annual GP3F race in France.  The 19th edition of the MRC Longwy promoted race that has become the big season opener in recent years, newly crowned 1:12 World Champion would secure the overall TQ from defending champion Bruno Coelho after topping 3 of the four qualifiers.  A small roll in Q3 on Saturday night, meant the Polish driver would have to wait til Sunday morning to be official declared Top Qualifier, Coelho having taken Q3.  Behind it would be Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker who lined up third ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and the Awesomatix of leading French challenger Lucas Urbain.  In the Mains, A1 would see Orlowski set the fastest lap en route to a winning margin of 1-second over Coelho.  Coelho would try again in A2 but his challenge was short lived as he had a roll over at the end of the straight on his third lap.  In the end Hagberg finished P2 almost a second back as Orlowski claimed the overall win.  Victory in A3 would see Coelho finish runner-up with 2020 GP3F winner Volker completing the podium for the second year running ahead of Hagberg.  In Pro-Stock, it was Tim Benson who took the TQ and win ahead of Adam Izsay and Jan Ratheisky.

Image: MRC Longwy [Facebook]