Dennis Lind runs third and is three seconds clear of David Pittard who is taking chunks out of third place. Mercedes’ top running car is seventh, the #88 AKKA ASP car which has had a penalty and is now having to push ahead of the Nicklas Nielsen driven Ferrari, the AF Corse #52 entry I believe. In the mist, it can appear that someone somewhere has dealt with a locked brake, but then you look back over and go, “oh, that’s only the mist on the road. No worries.” Recently, we haven’t had penalties or messages from the clerk of the course. We’ll have to see.
It is good that we have a dry track right now. A little contact up Kemmel straight and into Les Combes. That was a close shave through the haze. Again, in the hazy darkness, it is hard to see which car is which. We find a battle between Charlie Eastwood in the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin vs. the #7 Toksport WRT Mercedes in the hands of Marvin Dienst. Marvin Dienst is trying to find a gap and he is within 7/10ths of a second of Dienst in 22nd spot. The Mercedes catches up in the chicane, but the Aston Martin is the car that has the oomph even though the Mercedes has enough grunt as well.
Dienst is part of a Silver rated driver lineup. The weather isn’t as misty through places like Stavelot and Blanchimont on the far end of the circuit. Of course, these turns have different names now. Yours truly is trying hard to stick with the classic names. The final corner has changed profiles over the years. Spa is an incredible circuit, and the pictures just don’t do it justice. Spa, the Nurburgring, Suzuka, they have a gradient change. Charlie Eastwood is being caught up by the Mercedes, flinging chunks of tire off the car. Charlie Eastwood is being monstered by the Mercedes through Brussels and Speaker’s Corner. The wind has kicked up again blowing the mist around. These cars and drivers are evenly matched. The camera angle is bang on to see the chunks of rubber, the marbles, that have been discarded on the side of the road.
Red hot tires have those chunks of rubber all over them and it is like driving on ice or glass. Now we can see the junk that appears offline. Mirko Bortolotti is absolutely pulling away from Dries Vanthoor. The Orange 1 FFF Racing Team are bish bash boshing it right now as the Lamborghini V10 is absolutely screaming away. What a beautiful sound. The car clattering over the curbs. The last two laps, last year, Nick Tandy, in bad weather, there was a box of rocks in that transmission. It was unbelievable! You can hear the chattering of the gearbox and the differential. We know the Bentley has been running neatly and tidily. Nelson Panciatici is 19th overall, second in the Silver Cup class behind the Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes with Marvin Dienst next up. CMR, stands for Classic & Modern Racing in the #107 Bentley.
That’s the White/Jean/Panciatici/De Pauw entry. #222 is also in the fight in Silver Cup, the Team Allied Racing Porsche 911 GT3R for Lars Kern, Bastian Buus, Julien Apotheloz, and Arno Santamato, so, a German, a Dane, a Swiss, and a Frenchman on that driver’s strength. Santamato was a late addition to that team. Bastian Buus is a strong driver in European GT4. Rik Breukers continues to lead Silver Cup for Mad Panda Motorsports as someone runs over a bit of grass that has gotten onto the circuit. That’s grass spraying all over the road, look.
Ah yes. Marvin Dienst… uh um… has been given the black and white warning flag for disrespecting track limits. It might be dark, but it’s like Santa Claus when you’re a kid. He is watching you. The marshals are watching you. Hundreds of Santa Clauses. The #69 Ram Racing Mercedes is racing one of the Porsche’s into Eau Rouge. Who will be brave? Schiller goes in and is offline. He was trying to sell the Porsche driver a dummy. Breukers is being hounded now by the #25 Audi of Patric Niederhauser. Manuel Lauck, the Am class leader is trying hard to stay out of this battle. Lauck at the controls of the #166 Haegeli by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Lauck shares that car of course with Dennis Busch, Pieder Decurtins, and Marc Basseng.
How much of a gap will Niederhauser be able to eke out over Breukers? Maybe it is the reverse? Ah. Never mind. Niederhauser grabs ninth place. Pit stop time for the #38 Jota McLaren of Rob Bell in eighth overall with Raffaele Marciello ahead. David Pittard is losing time to Dennis Lind and Nicklas Nielsen is actually the next one in the order. What a sharp corner the La Source hairpin is. Jordan Pepper is now driving the Inception McLaren, 49th in the overall. Pepper is a former Bentley Boy. He did so well with Bentley especially at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, his home circuit.
Lamborghini #63 pits from the lead of the motor race. Mirko Bortolotti out, and a driver change underway. It will likely be Andrea Caldarelli who is next into the car and yes, he’s down and away. They have one bullet in the gun right now and the #19 Lamborghini is still in the garage having dropped like a stone to 50th in the overall. Dinamic Motorsport have the #54 Porsche 911 GT3R in the pit lane as well. Some of the teams have already used their mandatory technical stops to change brakes as the #107 CMR Bentley is set for a pit stop and they have run well especially with drivers like Nelson Panciatici and Stuart White.
The pit crew is getting ready but have to stay behind the white line. Here is the Bentley now. Tires are changed and fuel is added along with the driver change. Panciatici is a very experienced sports car driver. Stuart White is a teenager who is in his first endurance race running in open wheel cars. So this is his first race in a GT or endurance car of any kind. Did Phil Keen have trouble with the electrics for a while? He has had a lot of trouble this weekend after a last-minute deal. He does not want to let the team down. The #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari is running decently after Francesco Zollo had a few spins in the daylight hours yesterday. Tim Kohmann, the German is currently driving, and is languishing down in 47th place.
Dries Vanthoor is now the leader of the race. Marco Mapelli has fallen to seventh having taken over the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini. Audi Sport Team WRT run 1-2. Vanthoor’s team-mate, Dennis Lind, is now second at the wheel of the team’s sister car, the #37. Mist laden clouds continue to hang over Spa Francorchamps in this pitch-dark night. Constant track conditions are easier for drivers as they understand how everything works. Drivers want consistency. Staying awake all the way through won’t work. You need sleep. Rik Breukers in the lane now from tenth spot, in the Silver Cup class leading #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.
Fuel, tires, and a driver change, and who will get into the car? We shall see. The #666 VS Racing Lamborghini is in the lane too. The VS in VS Racing is former sports car and Formula 1 and IndyCar driver, Italian Vincenzo Sospiri, who runs the operation. Yuki Nemoto of Japan is driving sharing with Martin Rump of Estonia, Glen van Berlo from Holland and Baptiste Moulin of France. Nemoto is 31st in the overall. AF Corse pits their Ferrari, too. The track has been wet and slippery in the last turn. Dries Vanthoor leads Dennis Lind, but we don’t know the gap. Pit stop for Sky Tempesta Racing including a driver change for the #93. Eddie Cheever III. should be at the wheel now. No fuel spillage or overflow from the Ferrari.
We await to see where Dennis Lind is, as he ought to be second behind the Lamborghini. We saw the VS Racing Lamborghini and the Mad Panda Mercedes. Vincenzo Sospiri is telling his team, his pit crew, not to make any more mistakes because the marshals were giving them a warning. The Lamborghini is cockeyed in the lane. Nemoto trapped poor old Mad Panda in the lane and maybe the two teams had a discussion and said, “let’s not have this misunderstanding again”, or the marshals have doled out a penalty. Pit stop time for Audi Sport Team WRT car #32 which has to trundle down from the F1 pit lane to the endurance side of the lane.
Drive through penalty doled out to #69 for disrespecting track limits, our pals in the Ram Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 that we’ve seen throughout this race so far. It’s been hours since Race Director Alain Adam has issued a penalty. It looks like it was from that grass being sprayed out from the rear of the car. That team is running way down in 35th place. Pit stop time now for the #4 Haupt Racing Team BWT Mercedes AMG GT3, Maro Engel at the wheel of it. Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, and Vincent Abril, what a great driver trio. Engel is tenth overall.
Fourth place man Dennis Lind has the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8 stopped on the road. That’s right at the bottom of the heritage/endurance pit lane. Check that. That is on the way into the pit lane, look. Oh man! He’s switched that car off and pulled over to the side of the road and maybe he has run out of fuel! Deary me. This is not good. Lind is going to drop like a stone. He was jolly lucky not to get hit in the pit lane there either. Aye yaye yaye yaye. Option 1. Nope. Option 2. Nope. Option 3. Nope. Dries Vanthoor has now dropped to third place with Marco Mapelli in the lead and Raffaelle Marciello running second.
The mist has cleared out and we see a gorgeous moon hanging here in Belgium. A golden moon on a crisp night and poor old David Pittard has spun off the road and the car has steam spewing off the front. Hot engine on wet grass. No tell tale skid marks, not far away from the pit lane. The car is steaming and it could possibly have had the radiator go bang. Pittard just couldn’t get over into the lane, but the 2018 race winning team might be out. Oh, deary me! It’s a double whammy for Walkenhorst Motorsports as the #35 sister car is being retired. Game over for Timo Glock, Martin Tomczyk, and Thomas Neubauer, with the race not even half done yet, and these chaps are headed for the bench.
Thomas Neubauer steps out of the car, being hugged by the team. He must be absolutely crushed. Horrible moments for Walkenhorst Motorsports. Contact with another car created damage that can’t be fixed, and the team is down the order. The sister car’s motor just blew itself to bits. It just isn’t their year at Spa. No team deserves this. A double retirement is crushing for the team. Terrible news. But they will be back. When you lose one car, you might lose another. Yes, the #34 car, the engine has indeed gone ka-blammo. Wow. Unreal.
David Pittard is desperately trying to turn the car off or crank it over to get it back to the lane. No incident, but as I said, the Walkenhorst boys are understandably shaken by these events. Let’s not write off #34 yet. They could still, in fairness, make it back to the lane and maybe get the car repaired. So, the sister car is not out yet, but one bullet has indeed been used up. Let’s run down the top ten places at the moment. Marco Mapelli and Lamborghini lead this motor race ahead of Dries Vanthoor in the Audi. Ross Gunn has the Aston Martin in third place. Nicklas Nielsen is the best Ferrari campaigner right now followed by Daniel Juncadella, the Spaniard at the wheel of the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes.
Dennis Lind has the #37 Audi in sixth spot after the pit mishap. Rob Bell is next in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren followed by Patric Niederhauser in the Audi, with two Porsche’s bringing up the back half of the top ten with Matt Campbell aboard the #22 GPX Martini car and Dennis Olsen at the wheel of the #3 Schnabl Engineering entry. Well, well, well. As we ride aboard with Marco Mapelli, that spooky layer of mist has returned to Spa Francorchamps. Is this palace of speed haunted by ghosts? It’s not Halloween yet, mate. We’re not out here trick or treating looking for sweets. We are in fact in the middle of one of the best motor races of the year.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow. Full Course Yellow. What for? Ah. No guesses. Clear up the Walkenhorst BMW. It has been sitting there, dead stick for a wee while. The recovery vehicle is on course trying to rescue the BMW. Rotten luck for Walkenhorst Motorsports, the team who won this motor race in 2018. David Pittard is out of the car. He’s fine but will have to work the brakes and steering while being towed to safety. Drivers are trundling around in second gear. Good to see that the warning lights have augmented or replaced flags. That was a quick recover for the BMW as it is pushed through the gap in the wall. So frustrating.
He could have had the car break on him at the exit of Blanchimont but could not get there. He had to pull over on the grass. He could’ve gone right into the pits, showered, gotten changed, and had a bite to eat at the very least. What feedback can I give to the next driver? What can I get for information to the team? Walkenhorst Motorsports even had a third car entered for this race, the #36 entry, which had to withdraw. So, now, they have no cars left. Gut wrenching for the Walkenhorst organization. Meanwhile, the #32 Audi just pitted from second, and the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin is in pit lane. #188, Marvin Kirchhofer, he is leading Pro Am and is 19th overall.
The long shot towards pit entry shows no cars ready to come in yet. But, action will start in the lane soon as the teams extract fuel from the pipes, draining it out to save time and save messes and fire risks. Daniel Juncadella pits the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes to the lane for a splash and a dash. They are working their way back up through the field. Maybe thar was a stop and go penalty but they’ve served one already, that team has. That is their 12th stop after the leading #63 Lamborghini has pitted ten times. We should be back to green flag racing very soon. The cars if they could speak (like in the Pixar “Cars” movies for instance), they’d say, “I’m not made for this! You are restricting me to this stupid speed limit when I want to go fast!”
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