Pre Qualification for the 8th Season of the RaceDepartment Touring Car Championship went as expected for Löffler and Simons.
Both ended comfortable within the first 25 drivers of the 75 in total at Macau. Giving them a slot in Group 1 of the Championship.
Löffler set a superpole time of 2.28.413 in his BMW and was good for 11th place overall. Simons set a superpole time of 2.28.089 in his Honda and was good for 6th place overall.
Season starts on March 4th at Monza. Running for 3 months were the TBR drivers will do 18 races in 9 rounds.

The Black Rebels had a good result as RDGTC headed to Portugal and Portimao for the 4th and penaultimate round of the championship. Both Jan Wikström and Andreas Hultgren were in division 1 and Jan did a good qualifying once again as he started 8th.  After some great fighting, especially with Tommi Tanskanen, he eventually finished 6th. “I was challenging Tommi and it was obvious that he’s tyres where going off quicker than mine. He pitted a bit earlier than mid race but I stuck to my strategy and continued some laps more.  After the pit stops where sorted I was back in 7’th, some 6 seconds behind Tommi who obviously had gained by pitting early. Slowley I saw the gap decreasing again and with less than 10 laps left it started to shrink really quick, so I knew his tires where gone again. With 2 or 3 laps left I could easily pass [him] out ot of the last corner.”

With that result he moved into the top 10 in the championship on 241 points.

Andreas had it a bit tougher and qualifyed only 17th. He was breifly up to 13th for a while but later dropped to 16th where he finished. “Got a good start and in the first few laps I got up to 13th. But then things started to go wrong for me. I spun Erling around. Then I pitted a little bit earlier to be able to take advantage of better tyres for a couple of laps. That didn’t happen as I came out right infront of the leaders. There was not one car but 5 billion cars which I had to let pass so I lost time instead. With about 10 minuntes to go my tyres were dead and with two laps to go Rob passed me so I finished 16th.”

Andreas climbed to 13th in the standings but only 12 points seperate 11th to 15th so he has to step it up in the final round.

Round 3 of RDGTC took place last Sunday at a rain hit Spa-Francorchamps. Jan Wiktröm and Andreas Hultgren were again in division one and Jan hade another great qualifying and once again started 2nd. It all started of well but after contact with a fellow driver and another “so-so” pitstop he eventually finished 7th. “The race was really hard and challenging, those changing conditions really keep you alert all the time. Once again a bad pit stop strategy from my side lost me some places, but it was a fun race and I’m more than happy with 7’th.”

Andreas had an ok qualifying considering little practice time and started 12th. But it changed pretty fast for Andreas as he got taken for a ride in Les Combes on the opening lap where he got a hit from behind and lost 30 seconds. He fought his way back in a lonely race to finish 14th. “Didn’t get the best passage through Eau Rouge on lap one and had to take the inside line into Les Combes. Then someone thought he had an F1 car with carbon brakes because he missed his mark with a country mile. I got rear ended harder then Jenna Jameson. From there on it was just damage limitation.”

Both drivers will again be in division one for round four at Portimao. Jan is 11th inte the standings on 162 points with Andreas in 14th on 147 points.