Carmarthen racing driver Rhys Lloyd is set to return to 24-hour racing in Spain with French squad SebLajoux Racing.
Rhys will line up for the second 24-hour race of his season when he tackles the Michelin 24H Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on September 18–20.
Lloyd returns to the cockpit of a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with French outfit SebLajoux Racing, the squad founded by driver Sébastien Lajoux.
The race is widely regarded as the most significant endurance race on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the most physically punishing events on the European calendar.
The Welshman arrives in Spain on the back of a strong year.
In January Rhys stood on the rostrum at the Dubai 24 Hours, finishing third in class in the GT4 category after twenty-four hours of racing in the Middle East. The result was a just reward for Rhys after years of persistence at an event where he had twice previously failed to see the chequered flag.
Seasoned driver Rhys said: “I’m looking forward to taking on my second 24-hour event of the year and second time out with SebLajoux.
“We understand the event will be really tough on the car and the drivers due to the heat and duration. There is also a fiercely competitive entry list with drivers converging on the prestige event from all around the world. This naturally makes it all the more of a challenge.”
Barcelona marks Lloyd’s second outing of the year with the French team. The pairing first came together in March at the Michelin 12H Mugello, the opening round of the 24H Series European Series, where Lloyd shared the team’s Porsche with Frenchman Lionel Amrouche and Switzerland’s Yannick Mettler and came away with a sixth-place finish in class.
Crucially, the Welshman will share the car with exactly the same line-up in Spain — a continuity that counts for a great deal in endurance racing, where a crew’s ability to hand over a car cleanly, drive to a consistent pace and read each other’s feedback can be worth as much as outright speed.
That unchanged trio gives the crew valuable mileage together ahead of the far greater test that Barcelona represents.
Rhys said: “Where Mugello was split across two segments totalling twelve hours, Barcelona demands a full twenty-four — a step up those places entirely different demands on tyre management, fuel strategy, mechanical reliability and driver stamina.”
SebLajoux Racing arrives with pedigree in the category; the squad having finished third overall in the 992 class at Mugello in 2025.
First run in 1998, the 24 Hours of Barcelona, formerly the 24 Horas de Barcelona de Automovilismo – Trofeo Fermí Vélez, has established itself as Spain’s premier endurance event.
Since 2011 it has been co-organised by Dutch promoter Creventic as part of the international 24H Series, a move that brought GT3 machinery and a genuinely global entry to a race already steeped in local history.
Two time Formula One World Drivers’ Champion and multiple Grands Prix winner Fernando Alonso famously competed in the inaugural running.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at Montmeló is one of Europe’s busiest and best-known venues, hosting Formula One and MotoGP alongside its endurance calendar. At 4.657 kilometres with fourteen corners, its combination of long straights and technical sections makes it an all-rounder — but the September date brings searing Catalan heat, and cockpit temperatures over a full day and night of running take a heavy toll on drivers.
Porsche is among the most successful marques in the event’s history, sharing the record for outright manufacturer victories.
The race also serves as the finale of the 24H Series European Series. The championship, run by Creventic, stages long-distance events from six to twenty-four hours at Grand Prix circuits across Europe and the Middle East, and is built to accommodate both professional teams and ambitious amateur crews across GT, touring car and prototype classes.
The 992 categories in which Lloyd competes is a one-make class for Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, producing some of the closest racing on the grid.
Rhys Lloyd has built a varied motorsport career over the years spanning rallying, saloon cars and endurance racing, taking in TCR and Britcar competition along the way. In 2007 he was awarded the Tom Pryce Trophy, presented to the most promising up-and-coming Welsh racing driver and named in memory of the last Welshman to race in Formula One.
Away from the cockpit, Lloyd is a Carmarthen-based businessman and the founder of Dragon Sport, a racing team competing in national endurance and tin-top championships which also runs a driver development scholarship for emerging talent.
The Michelin 24H Barcelona takes place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from 18 to 20 September 2026.
