Chantal Prinz secures overall victory at 24H of Barcelona
- RACERS
- Sep 30
- 4 min read
HOFOR Racing's Chantal Prinz and her teammates produced one of the most memorable performances with a stellar victory at the 2025 Michelin 24H Series European finale in Barcelona, taking not only the GT3-Am class win but also securing top honours in the overall classification of the 24 Hours of Barcelona.
HOFOR Racing's Chantal Prinz produced one of the most memorable performances of the season with a stellar victory at the 2025 Michelin 24H Series European finale in Barcelona, taking not only the GT3-Am class win but also securing top honours in the overall classification of the 24 Hours of Barcelona, piloting the team's #11 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
For Chantal Prinz, it was a landmark achievement, as the Swiss racer marked her 50th Creventic start with the biggest result of her career, in a fitting celebration of ten years since HOFOR’s last outright triumph.
Alonsgide husband Alexander Prinz, father Michael Kroll, Maximilian Partl and Torsten Kratz, Chantal ran at the top of the GT3-Am class all weekend, with the team's speed evident aso from qualifying, as the squad qualified sixth overall, top of the Am class. In Q1, a 1:41.302 put the #11 Mercedes in the overall lead, before a 1:42.107 in Q2 and a 1:42.502 in Q3, which gained the team a strong start from the third row overall for the demanding 24-hour race at Circuit de Catalunya, one of Creventic's most popular events of the calendar.
The race began on Saturday afternoon, with pole-sitter Maro Engel leading in the TFT Racing Mercedes-AMG. He kept Klaus Bachler’s Proton Huber Competition Porsche and Stéphane Tribaudini’s Saintéloc Junior Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II in check, while Josef Kral (Scuderia Praha Ferrari) and Axcil Jefferies (Into Africa Ferrari) both made strong starts to slot into the top five.
The early stages were disrupted by the first Code 60 at the 45-minute mark, when teams began to split on pit stop strategies. Engel initially stayed out, but when he pitted a lap later, Bachler handed the Porsche to Jörg Dreisow too early, before the 50-minute window, forcing a second stop and shuffling the order.
As the race cycled through multiple Code 60 interruptions, HOFOR Racing steadily worked itself into contention. While the frontrunners swapped places through differing strategies – Audis from HAAS RT, Juta Racing and Continental Motorsport, along with Proton Huber’s Porsche and Praha’s Ferrari – the Swiss squad ran a consistent, precise race. By the six-hour mark, with darkness falling over the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the HOFOR Mercedes was firmly in the fight, joining the lead pack that rotated positions at the sharp end.
At the halfway stage, Audis controlled the race, with the Continental Racing by Simpson entry leading, chased by Juta and HAAS RT. Proton Huber remained strong in second, while HOFOR’s Torsten Kratz was inside the top six. Problems struck some rivals, most notably the Scuderia Praha Ferrari, which dropped out of contention with power steering issues before midnight.
Through the night hours, as many contenders hit trouble or lost pace, HOFOR’s consistency began to pay off. The turning point however came in the early hours of Sunday, when Chantal Prinz and her teammates – husband Alexander Prinz, her father Michael Kroll, alongside Maximilian Partl and Kratz – executed a flawless run of stints.
Their pace remained steady, and the Mercedes proved reliable, and as others hit trouble: the family-run Am squad found itself in the surprising position of fighting for the outright win.
By the final three hours, Maximilian Partl had built a two-lap cushion at the front, before handing to Alexander Prinz to bring the car home. Behind them, Juta Racing’s Audi and HAAS RT’s entry remained in pursuit, but neither could close the gap. A late Code 60 allowed HOFOR to consolidate its position, and when the chequered flag fell on Sunday afternoon, the #11 Mercedes-AMG crossed the line two laps clear to claim a stunning overall and class victory.
For Chantal Prinz, it was an emotional and historic moment: her 50th Creventic race and a family triumph in the most competitive race of the year.
“It’s the first GT3 race here we won overall, we won again so it’s perfect,” said her father Michael Kroll, reflecting on the family effort. “The team and my co-drivers made this, you really can’t lose with this team. It’s a father, daughter, son-in-law team so it’s one family.”
“Unbelievable, we did not expect this – we hoped for a podium but to be on the very top is unbelievable, it’s very surprising", Kratz added.
The podium was completed by HAAS RT’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Matisse Lismont, Ramez Azzam, and the Guelinckx father-son pairing, who claimed the GT3-Pro win, while third overall went to Juta Racing’s Audi, the GT3-Am squad of Michelon, Viljoen, Geciauskas, Yaqi, and Pickering.
For HOFOR Racing and especially Chantal Prinz, the Barcelona victory represents the essence of endurance racing, where consistency and teamwork can result in surprising yet deserved successes over higher-rated Pro outfits. The team had previously secured the 2025 6 Hours of Abu Dhabi and were crowned Creventic Middle East Trophy champions in the GT3 AM class.
