Meeting the winners from the 2020 24 Hours of Spa

Some very happy, relieved, Porsche drivers, win the 24 Hours of Spa.  Remember the names Laurens Vanthoor, Nick Tandy, and Earl Bamber, who have teamed for, and won some of the biggest sports car races on the planet, and now, they add a victory at the 24 Hours of Spa, the world's biggest race for GT3 cars, to their CV.  Their names, will be engraved on the legendary trophy that is the symbol for winning this race, the Coupe du Roi.  Tandy, from England, Vanthoor, from Belgium, and Bamber, from New Zealand.

In Pro Am Cup, Barwell Motorsports from England, take one of their Lamborghini Huracan GT3's to victory.  Congratulations to Sandy Mitchell, Rob & Ricky Collard (father & son), and Leo Machitski, on achieving the Pro Am class win!  Mitchell, and the Collard's are from England, and Leo Machitski, from Russia  The Silver Cup, for Silver rated drivers, drivers who race, but also have other occupations, other livelihoods, or who are making a comeback to racing after years away, was won by Gabriele Piana, Michele Beretta, Sergey Afanasiev, and Hubert Haupt, driving a Mercedes AMG GT3 for Haupt Racing Team.

The Am Cup, strictly for amateur drivers, was won by the #108 CMR Bentley Continental GT3 in the hands of three Frenchmen, and a Belgian.  Congratulations to Clement Mateu, perfume magnate Romano Ricci, Stephane Tribaudini, and experienced Belgian GT racer, Stephane Lemeret.  So, we look, in full, at the class winners and overall winners.

Overall/Pro: #99 Vanthoor/Tandy/Bamber     Rowe Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (991.II)

Pro Am: #77 Mitchell/Collard Jr./Collard/Machitski  Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3

Silver Cup: #5 Piana/Beretta/Afanasiev/Haupt  Haupt Racing Team Mercedes AMG GT3

Am Cup: #108 Mateu/Ricci/Tribaudini/Lemeret  CMR Bentley Continental GT3

So, the greatest GT3 race in the world, the 24 Hours of Spa, is over for another year.  Rowe Racing, with two different makes, and two different driver lineups, has now won two of the world's biggest GT sports car races with the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring and the 24 Hours of Spa, in the same year.  This race counts for the Intercontinental GT Challenge but also for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.  There is now one more IGTC race left to run this season.  We will see you, at the beginning of November, at the Kyalami circuit, in South Africa, for the Kyalami 9 Hours, a race that was revived last year, and has become a fixture of the IGTC schedule.

It is still slated to go ahead in December in spite of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic.  So, hopefully, it stays on the schedule, and rounds out this season of fabulous racing we have seen in 2020 in the Intercontinental GT Challenge.  We will see you, in South Africa.  For right now, from Spa Francorchamps, in the pine forests of the Ardennes in Belgium, it is au revoir, and goodbye.  Thanks for your company, for being with us all the way, through the odyssey of the 24 Hours of Spa.  

We hope to see you, next year, for another thrilling edition of the 24 Hours of Spa, at it's traditional, late July date, as well, which will start the 2021 IGTC odyssey.  Looking forward to the next edition.  For now, so long, everybody.  Take care.