It is the blue riband, crown jewel event of the 2018 Blancpain GT Endurance Cup season. The 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, at the legendary Circuit de Spa Francorchamps in Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, a course that has been in it's current layout for almost 40 years, but was once some eight miles long, running through the small towns of this French speaking region of Belgium, and including one of the most fearsome turns in all of racing, the Masta kink. This race also marks the 70th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, a race that was once exclusively the domain of touring cars, but since 2001, and more recently, since the introduction of the Blancpain championship in 2011, GT sports cars. This race, is round two of the Intercontinental GT Challenge as well, a championship for GT3 endurance races that runs around the world, and began, back in February at Mount Panorama Bathurst in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.
It is the fourth round of the 2018 Blancpain GT Endurance Cup as well. 63 cars are set to start the motor race. On the pole is the #62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage with Marvin Kirchhofer of Germany, Belgian Maxime Martin (now an Aston Martin factory driver), and Austrian Dominik Baumann sharing the driving chores. There are plenty of other competitive team, car, and driver combinations entered for the Spa 24. This is round four of five in the Endurance Cup. 24 hours. The ultimate endurance test, at one of the world's greatest race tracks.
Tension builds here at Spa. Half of Belgium must be on the starting grid, as we look forward to another fabulous race. Who will win? Coming in, Dries Vanthoor, Alex Riberas, and Christopher Mies lead the championships, including the aggregate championship of Sprint and Endurance. Maxime Martin has pole, as we've mentioned. Martin mentions this is the last 24 hour race of the current Aston Martin V12 Vantage before a new car comes in 2019. Martin inherited pole because Dries Vanthoor;'s time was disallowed due to a pipe in the air intake that was taped instead of clipped. So, the scrutineers reported it to the stewards, and there will be a three minute stop and go penalty for the #1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 of Belgium's Dries Vanthoor, Germany's Christopher Mies, and Spaniard, Alex Riberas.
We look at an enormous grid. 24 hours on the clock. The field is aligned, two by two. The 70th 24 hours of spa is go! Rene Rast takes the lead into Eau Rouge with Maxime Martin second. Rast leads and everyone is cleanly out of Eau rouge as Bentley #7 starts from the pit lane. Kelvin van der Linde and Miguel Molina are next. All kinds of pressure from the traffic. Did Rene Rast jump the start? Romain Dumas incurred two penalties as the cars go towards Piff Paff. The pole sitter needs to control the field before the Belgian flag waved.
Get on with the program. The chase car is chasing, and bails for the pit lane. Very confusing. Audi #1 is serving it's three minute penalty with Christopher Mies at the wheel, going down a lap. Into Pouhon, are the two Mercedes. 21 minutes into the race. There's a long, long, long way to go. There's a battle for position and the #35 Mercedes AMG GT3 is quicker. That's the Pro Cup entry for SMP Racing shared by Russian drivers Denis Bulatov and ex-Formula 1 racer Vitaly Petrov, along with Michael Meadows from England.
Ooh! Some scary stuff with the Nissan making a pass. Alex Buncombe attempts to pass Raffaele Marciello. In doing so, the car gets squirrely. Meanwhile, Maxime Soulet is staring at Alexander Sims in the #99 Rowe Racing BMW M6 GT3. This is the second of the factory 2018 spec Bentley Continental GT3's with the Belgian driver wanting to make a move. Sims goes for it, using the torque of the BMW. Both of these cars are turbo V8 powered but have slightly different configurations. Soulet in the Bentley is far quicker, with superior traction coming to Eau Rouge, lifting wisely.
Sims rides the curbs. The Bentley is looking good right now. Earl Bamber in the #117 KUS Team 75 Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 R passes Gary Paffett. Some good drivers, in top level cars. Paffett, the former DTM champion for Mercedes, is at the wheel of the #84 Mercedes AMG Team Mann Filter Mercedes AMG GT3, sharing with Switzerland's Edoardo Mortara, a longtime DTM campaigner, and Dutchman Renger van der Zande, from IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship fame, who also shared this team's car in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Bamber passes Paffett through Eau Rouge! Holy smokes! That's brave!
Make the move early at La Source. Now, there's a problem, a punctured tire for Matt Griffin in Ferrari #51. The Irishman is sharing the car with Duncan Cameron, a Brit, Lorenzo Bontempelli from Italy, and another Brit, Aaron Scott. We move ahead in the race to 48 minutes in as Rene Rast makes an early pit stop. Maxime Martin will also pit, putting Miguel Molina and Ferrari into the lead. Molina, the rapid Spaniard is driving the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 along with regular co-drivers for SMP Racing, Mikhail Aleshin from Russian, and Davide Rigon from Italy.
The Audi flies through Eau Rouge and R Motorsports takes the lead, with the #62 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which probably has the most glorious engine noise of any car out there. That howling 6.0 liter V12 is unmistakeable. This is the pole winning car, of Maxime Martin from Belgium who's dad and uncle have also competed and won at the 24 Hours of Spa before, back when it was a touring car race. He is sharing with Marvin Kirchhofer of Germany, sports car racing veteran Alex Brundle, son of former Le Mans winner, F1 driver, and current F1 commentator, Martin Brundle, and Austrian Dominik Baumann, who we have seen racing for Lexus in the comparable GT Daytona class in IMSA, which, like Blancpain, uses GT3 spec cars.
We're an hour and 12 minutes into the motor race as Romain Dumas in the #911 Porsche 911 GT3R has Christopher Haase all over him into Les Combes! It's the Porsche veteran, and fastest man up Pikes Peak in the electric Volkswagen this year, vs. the Audi veteran. Haase makes the pass. The picture tells the story that the battles around Spa are amazing. We're two and a half hours in. Now, we fast forward to three hours and 40 minutes into the race. Mikhail Aleshin spins the #72 Ferrari! The right rear Pirelli tire is flat. Aleshin was punted off the road. In replay, we see Christopher Haase, Phil Keen (at the wheel of the #82 GRT Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3), and Luca Stolz (driving the #4 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3), getting all bunched up. The #117 Porsche also tries to pass the #30 Honda Acura NSX GT3, the only one of it's kind in the field. This is the Castrol Honda Racing car, listed in Pro Am.
The #30 car has a stellar lineup including former Formula 1 and Lancia factory FIA World Endurance Championship driver Riccardo Patrese of Italy (starting his first race as a driver in over two decades), Loic Depailler of France, (son of the late, great Formula 1 driver Patrick Depailler, who was killed in a fatal racing crash), IndyCar and sports car veteran Bertrand Baguette from Belgium, and rookie Argentinian driver, Esteban Guerrieri. Oh boy. The Oman Racing Aston Martin has had a clatter into the Armco, look. He runs wide, and Euan McKay crunches the wall! McKay is sharing that #97 Aston Martin V12 Vantage with other Silver rated drivers, Irishman Charlie Eastwood, team and car owner Ahmad Al Harthy of Oman, and fellow Brit, Ross Gunn.
Three hours done and dusted, and we have a full course yellow, obviously for the Aston Martin incident. Pit stop time for the #63 GRT Grasser Lamborghini Huracan GT3. It has it's regular driving trio of Italian's Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli, and Germany's Christian Engelhart, sharing the driving chores here, at Spa. The #29 Land Motorsports Audi R8 has also gotten snookered on this yellow, and so has the Lamborghini. Starting the fourth hour, Bentley #8 takes over thew lead as the #62 Aston Martin is falling down the order.
Still under full course yellow, the Bentley is followed by the #114 Lexus and the #23 Nissan. Bentley #8 is Maxime Soulet, the Belgian, sharing with Vincent Abril of Monaco, and Andy Soucek of Spain. That car is being followed by the #114 Emil Frey Lexus RC F GT3, for Monagasque sports car veteran and former Le Mans winner Stephane Ortelli, Markus Palttala of Finland, and Norbert Siedler from Austria. This is the sister car to the most recent winner on the Blancpain Endurance Cup circuit.
Next up is the second of the two Bob Neville run Nissan GT-R's for GT Sport Motul Team RJN. Alex Buncombe and Matt Parry from England, share with another fast Spanish racer, Lucas Ordonez. Oh boy! Flat left rear tire for the #58 McLaren 650S. Ben Barnicoat at the controls, and we see some more argy bargy as the #63 Lamborghini slams into the back of the McLaren at the Bus Stop chicane! All kinds of damage needs to be fixed, going up on the dollies and into the garage. #63 was just mentioned not too long ago and was one of the favorites. Now, we are five hours and 20 minutes in, still in daylight as Phillip Eng challenges Jesse Krohn. Two BMW M6's fight each other. It's a battle of the two BMW teams, Rowe Racing vs. Walkenhorst Motorsports. Eng in car #34, Krohn in #99 for Rowe, the second of their two entries. Commentators David Addison, Bruce Jones, and Bob Varsha are putting us right in the middle of the action.
Press the fast forward on your DVR again, folks. We are six hours and fifteen minutes in now, and there's a full course yellow for fixing the track. A half hour later, we are back to green flag racing, six hours and 45 minutes in. Nissan #23 with Matt Parry is demoted by Jules Gounon. The Frenchman, son of former Formula 1 and sports car driver Jean Marc Gounon, shares the Bentley with Brit Steven Kane, and new factory Bentley Boy, South African hot shoe, Jordan Pepper, who replaces the legendary Guy Smith, Le Mans winner in 2003 with Bentley, now happily retired from driving a race car.
The #117 Porsche is trying to go for it through Eau Rouge, and Laurens Vanthoor makes the pass on his competitor, but he's getting squeezed! Six hours and 42 minutes gone, and Romain Dumas is side by side with Laurens Vanthoor! What did I say about the squeeze play? It happened, there. It's still happening! Dumas and Vanthoor are side by side up over the top of Raidillon! Yikes! This is intense battling, and Vanthoor did a sterling job of driving, but it seems Dumas has all but left him behind to pick up the scraps. We have completed 160 laps approaching hour nine. 161 laps with the #8 Bentley leading over BMW's #34 and #98. Four Nissan is fourth. Bentley #8 is stopping early and heading for the garage.
Full course yellow again, at nine hours and 32 minutes. In Eau Rouge, the #114 Lexus RC F GT3 has a major crash! Stephane Ortelli has clouted the barrier, hard! The winner of the 1998 24 Hours of Le mans, and also, the 2003 version of this race, won't win at Spa again this year. The wreckage is cleaned up, but it's game over for Ortelli and team mates Palttala and Siedler. Now, in hour eleven, we restart. Timo Bernhard almost gets turned around by Alexander Sims! It's more action between Porsche #117 and BMW #98. Oh, by the way, Sims is sharing the first Rowe BMW with Ricky Collard from England, son of British Touring Car Championship BMW racer Rob Collard, the aforementioned Jesse Krohn of Finland, and Germany's Marco Wittman, a veteran of BMW's DTM efforts.
We have another full course yellow at Raidillon! Boom! The #666 Lamborghini is off the road. Bernd Schneider isn't stopping. Schneider is the #175 SunEnergy1 HTP Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 of team owner Kenny Habul from Australia (racing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge after being in the GT Daytona class in IMSA for a number of years). Schneider and Habul are joined in this automobile, by German Mercedes ace Thomas Jager, and Austrian, Martin Konrad, who could very well be the son of former sports car racer, Franz Konrad.
Now, in hour eleven, we restart, and Timo Bernhard nearly gets turned around by Alexander Sims! We have another full course yellow at Raidillon. Boom! The #666 Lamborghini is off the road. Bernd Schneider in the #175 Mercedes, isn't stopping. Now, we are under a red flag. This is a massive incident. The car spins, drags it's nose around, and it's a green Ferrari or something that it's crashed into. it's hard to tell. After two hours of red flag conditions, we have passed the halfway mark in the 2018 24 Hours of Spa, and we're back under green. BMW #34 is in the lead, with the #4 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3 of Yelmer Buurman in second.
It is hard to tell which of the green Rinaldi Racing Ferrari's were involved in the incident. #333 is shared by Alexander Matschull of Germany, Rinat Salikhov of Russia, Daniel Keilwitz of Germany, and South African gentleman driver, David Perel. The gap will remain roughly the same as Daniel Juncadella is third, Frederic Vervisch is fourth. So, it's a battle between Sainteloc Audi and one of the AKKA ASP Mercedes'. Juncadella is sharing with Raffaele Marciello of Italy, and the experienced Frenchman, Tristan Vautier.
Laurens Vandoor has lots of work to do, as Kelvin van der Linde runs fastest lap, and here comes Jules Gounon in the #7 Bentley with the #99 BMW M6 GT3 right on his deck lid! Matt Parry goes by Laurens Vanthoor and Vanthoor gets him back! Now, Daniel Juncadella has been passed by Vanthoor as well. He's on a charge. But, 15 minutes before halfway at the 11 hour and 45 minute mark, Vanthoor spins! He lost a dive plane off the nose in the downhill! That's Fangnes, also known as the Piff Paff. More carnage! Hour 13 and Jules Syzkoviac has been shunted, bang!, into the wall! He's banked up his ankles. We have damaged Armco barriers, so there's another red flag.
Let's hope Syzkoviac, the Dutchman, isn't hurt. He was sharing car #90 with Nico Bastian of Germany, Jack Manchester of England, and another German, Fabian Schiller. We've restarted inside the final ten hours, at fifteen hours and 18 minutes. BMW #34 for Walkenhorst Racing leads the #7 Bentley, the #23 Nissan, the #2 Belgian Audi Club WRT Audi, and the #29 Land Motorsports Audi. Audi #2 is shared by Robin Frijns from Holland, Nico Muller of Switzerland, and Germany's Rene Rast, a star factory driver for Audi. Behind them is the #29 Land Motorsports Audi. Christopher Haase passes Yelmer Buurman.
Fast forward and skip ahead on your DVR to eighteen hours and eleven minutes. Steve Kane has his hands full with the #34 BMW M6 GT3 of Phillip Eng. Kane lays rubber down, and is side by side with Eng on the front straight! Eng makes the pass into Eau Rouge! Good stuff! Whoops! Audi #17 is crunched, and so is the #8 Bentley with a left front puncture at 18 hours and 23 minutes. Also, Porsche #117 has made contact! There's a massive shunt with the Audi slamming into the Bentley, and the Porsche has to take evasive action! Ouch! That's a dramatic crash! Up, over, and down upon the bonnet! The pit crew is checking the radiator.
BMW #34, for Walkenhorst, is in the lane, in sixth place overall. The #99 BMW is now leading and we fast forward to 18 hours and 43 minutes. Phillip Eng forces the issue with Kelvin van der Linde for fourth in the overall. Eighteen hours and 55 minutes, and the Bernhard KUS Team 75 Porsche, is out. Game over for #117. Oh my! Speaking of game over, Bentley #8 grinds to a halt at Eau Rouge. Andy Soucek says that Vanthoor was trying to overtake a lapped car, and got wrecked by the lapped car, with Maxime Soulet driving, and he flew! He became the unintentional stunt pilot! No gearbox pressure after the shunt.
Jules Gounon is second overall right now, so Bentley has some good fortune. Bentley #7 is in the garage at 19 hours and 40 minutes. Now, we fast forward to just two hours, 39 minutes, and change, left. Plot your own pit strategy. One hour to go now. Land Motorsports pits, and they have little chance to be able to overhaul Audi #25. That's the Sainteloc entry of Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock, and Frederic Vervisch, the defending champions of this race. BMW is leading. Kelvin van der Linde will stay in the car to the end. No joker pit stops. It's a mandatory stop at 72 seconds duration from pit in to pit out. Frederic Vervisch tries to get by the BMW. Alexander Sims is trying to get by.
Jules Gounon is second overall right now, so Bentley has some good fortune. Bentley #7 us ub tge garage at 19 houyrs and 40 minutes. Now, we fast foerward to just two hours and 39 minutes and change, left. Olot your own pit strategy. One hour to go now, Land motorsports pits, and they have little chance to be able to overhaul audi #25. BVMW is leading. Kelvin van der Linde will stay in the car to the end. No joker pit stops. It's a mandatory stop at 72 seconds from pit in to pit out.
Frederic Vervisch tries to get by the BMW. Alexander Sims is trying to overtake Frederic Vervisch. Race leader, car #34 is in the pit lane for it's final stop. Phillip Eng will stay in the car to the end of this motor race. The #29 Land Motorsports Audi with Kelvin van der Linde at the wheel of it, is fourth overall, with just 47 minutes left to go.
The #4 Black Falcon Mercedes pits for the final time, and was in the lead briefly before BMW #34 goes back into the lead. Alexander Sims in the #99 BMW M6 GT3 is trying to catch up. BMW has charged overnight. The race has been incredible. We are coming to the end of the race. Pro Am class honors are set to go the way of the #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3. Alexander Matschull will be the driver to take the victory! The #77 Barwell Lamborghini will win in the Am class, with the winning drivers, Richard Abra from England, Adrian Amstutz of Switzerland, Patrick Kuala of Finland, and Russia's Leo Machitski. In the Silver Cup, the #12 Ombra Racing Lamborghini beats the similar car, #78, the sister Barwell Racing machine. Ombra's drivers are Italian Alex Frassineti, Kang Ling from China, Romain Monti from France, and Italian Andrea Rizzoli.
Five minutes to go. Walkenhorst is poised to celebrate! It's Walkenhorst Motorsport and BMW taking the win with Phillip Eng, Christian Krognes, and Tom Blomqvist! Rowe Racing and BMW score a second place finish, and Land Motorsport will finish third on the podium with the van der Linde brothers and Jeffrey Schmidt. Henry Walkenhorst is hugging his team, happier than he's probab ly ever been in his racing career! 511 laps completed by the winners. Tom Blomqvist, christian krognes, and Phiullip Eng are your winners. BMW was excellenet especially in the second half of the race. This is Phillip Eng's second Spa 24 Hours triumph. The winning drivers at Walkenhorst are being congratulated by their team mates. Phillip Eng wants a cold drink to celebrate.
The trophies are presented to Christian Krognes, Phillip Eng, and Tom Blomqvist, including the monster size trophy that is the Role of Honor. A 1-2 for BMW at Spa! BMW extends their streak as the winningest make at the 24 Hours of Spa! Once more, the winners.
Overall/Pro: #34 Blomqvist/Eng/Krognes BMW M6 GT3
Silver: #12 Frassineti/Ling/Monti/Rizzoli Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Pro Am: #333 Keilwitz/Mattschull/Perel/Salikhov Ferrari 488 GT3
Am: #77 Abra/Amstutz/Kujala/Machitski Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Another edition of the Spa 24 Hours comes to a close. The next event in the Intercontinental GT Challenge will happen soon, and that is the 10 Hours of Suzuka, a new race at the Suzuka circuit in Suzuka, Japan, scheduled for the end of August, while the Blancpain Endurance Cup has one final round to be run, a three hour race at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, right at the end of September. So, we'll see you then, and look forward to covering both races. For now, so long from Spa Francorchamps, and the majestic backdrop of the Ardennes forest.
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