Safety car in this lap. If you’re not caught up to the queue, catch up. Keep heat in the tires and the brakes. That’s the plan. Felipe Fraga, Maro Engel, Marco Mapelli, and Rob Bell, are some of the drivers we have in the leading cars now. Mapelli is the third driver in car #63. Robin Frijns leading and Daniel Juncadella in second have not pitted in this most recent stint. Frijns has a long queue of cars, that will be chasing him down like a pack of hungry wolves. Now, the SRO has devised a hybrid system on these yellow flag procedures which is a hybrid between the Code 60 idea we see in the Nurburgring Langstrecke, or the Creventic 24 Hour Series, and the American style we see in several championships in the states, of sending out the safety car to gather the field up.
Safety car lights are off. This is about safety, and it applies to everyone. You gain or lose under a safety car. We are ready to go back to racing. Frijns drops the hammer, and we are back to racing at Spa. Frijns, Juncadella, Fraga, Engel, and Mapelli, the top five. The top four still one pit stop behind in the sequence and we have lapped cars. Marco Mapelli is being monstered by Rob Bell right now. Mapelli is going through on the job training right now to see how the leaders are going to behave. Juncadella has loads of traffic between himself and Frijns. Mapelli and Bell are fighting hard. The Kessel Racing Ferrari is pinged for speeding in the pit lane and must serve a drive through penalty. You’ve just heard it, directly from Race Director Alain Adam.
When you get the lemons on the slot machine, that’s all you can earn. No mas. No money. The glare is starting to affect the drivers. You can clean the windscreen but don’t smear it. You have four windscreen tear off’s but use those judiciously throughout the motor race. Not all at once. That’s the idea. Maro Engel tries to race with and pass Daniel Juncadella, but Juncadella slams the door in his face. Not now, sunshine. Not now. This scrap is not for position but through the final turn it is like a Mercedes AMG one-make championship as many of those cars are present in the final corner, the final sector of the track.
Engel chases Fraga. Did Rob Bell go by Marco Mapelli? Hard to tell. No pass there. Bell stays behind and a little argy bargy and some tire rub. Engel had already dispatched of Fraga promoting himself to third. Car #27 incurs another track limits violation and a drive through penalty is the result. Mapelli is on the tail of a backmarker Mercedes. Pit stops coming up in ten minutes. This is a mega sized traffic jam. Frijns leads still. Bell has dropped behind Felipe Fraga and needs to clear him. One of the Ram Racing Mercedes drivers is in a pickle right now. This is Sam De Haan of England in the #69 which is their entry in Pro Am Cup. Fabian Schiller drove this car earlier and Rob and Ricky Collard, father and son, are also on the driver’s strength.
De Haan is being eaten alive by the professional drivers who are in a battle of their own. Congestion is troubling. Very troubling. Easy to make contact if a driver is not careful. They run offline at Blanchimont. Marco Mapelli has indeed passed Felipe Fraga for fourth spot. This is for the presumptive race lead. It is congestion central in here. The top five sees Audi, Mercedes, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Mercedes. Then, six through ten is McLaren, Ferrari, Audi, BMW, Mercedes. The three other cars in the top five are 14, 17, and 19 seconds in-arrears of the leader, respectively.
No worries. Don’t make unforced errors on track or in the pit lane. Mapelli wants to redress what he lost in the pit lane. Pit lane losses are not mano e mano battles. Avoiding crucial mistakes is huge. Jota Sport will have to carry the flag for McLaren. That is what they want but they must be in the picture. The sister McLaren for Inception Racing is in a different category. Another drive through penalty for car #87, another of the AKKA ASP Mercedes cars. This is the car being shared by Simon Gachet of France, Konstantin Tereschenko of Russia, Petru Umbrarescu from Romania. Someone made an error, but we don’t know which driver it was. Still, it is a costly penalty for that Silver Cup automobile in AKKA ASP’s stable.Dutchman Robin Frijns extends his lead in this motor race to ten seconds. Marco Mapelli is closing up fast. Frijns has had traffic work to his advantage.
Juncadella and Engel are losing time to Frijns and being caught by Mapelli and Rob Bell as well. Robin Frijns is building a significant lead. The top three are to pit soon, in a matter of moments, while both Mapelli and Bell are on an entirely different strategy plan. We also see one of the Pro class AF Corse Ferrari’s sneaking it’s way into the fold here with Nicklas Nielsen at the controls of the #51 car. He is sharing with Come Ledogar and Alessandro Pier Guidi. So, a Dane, a Frenchman, and an Italian all in that trio. Mapelli and Bell are seventh and eighth and they could pounce since many cars ahead need to hit the pit lane.
Matt Campbell has worked his way to the top ten aboard the #22 GPX Martini Racing Porsche he shares with his Porsche factory teammate co-drivers Matthieu Jaminet (a.k.a. “Jam Jam”), and Earl Bamber (known as “Bam Bam”). Another international lineup with an Aussie, a Frenchman, and a Kiwi (a New Zealander). Interesting to see the #22 car with it’s iconic colors moving up the field. More drive through penalties to come for disrespecting track limits and this time it is #99, the Attempto Racing Audi, feeling the wrath of the stewards. This is the car shared by Fabien Lavergne of France, Alex Aka of Germany, and Max Hofer from Austria.
We saw Hofer in strife in this car, earlier in the race. The car is at the bottom of the top 20 in 18th overall. Track limits are being rigidly adhered to. Why on earth are the drivers not running within the track boundaries. Another penalty, that makes more sense, for the #56 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R for causing a collision. Not sure who is at the wheel of that car, but they know they have a penalty to serve. Get to the lane, take your medicine, and get back on the track. That is veteran Porsche ace Romain Dumas, a man who has won many races. What a surprise! That car has been languishing down the order in 53rd spot.
Sir Jackie Stewart when he raced in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, there was gravel and grass. Nowadays, there are asphalt runoff areas. The evolution of racing has replaced these with asphalt runoff spaces. This makes it much easier for drivers to abuse “track limits” because they don’t have a gravel trap to be buried in up to their axles. The edge of the track was defined as the edge. There was no margin for error. But the newer tracks and newly configured old tracks are safer than they used to be. Progress is great but it has allowed improper habits that, as they say, old habits die hard. There’s frustration about track limits but if drivers walk away unscathed from a crash, they are worth it.
Marco Mapelli is closing fast on Maro Engel now. Target acquired or so it appears. The gap is a second and a half, and Mapelli has been afforded a great opportunity and taken advantage of it. He has indeed done the old switcheroo on Maro Engel. Maro Engel must pit in six minutes. Do you want to force the issue? Yes. Rob Bell is steaming up behind Engel. Take the opportunity and force the issue. Don’t abuse track limits or have contact with another car because you will find a cut tire or bodywork damage and time loss due to pitting to fix it. That’s the difference between winning and losing. Frijns and Juncadella come to the lane while Engel is going to have some leeway and a little more room and time to stay on track.
Mapelli has much fresher tires than the Mercedes does. The Mercedes’ tires, those Pirelli P Zero’s are going to be knackered. Mapelli has a run down the hill through Eau Rouge but he thinks better of it. The top speeds of these cars, the Lamborghini and Mercedes are pretty much equal. Rob Bell is still behind. Pit stop time for Daniel Juncadella. This is the heritage pit lane, the one they’ve used for sports car races in the past. Maro Engel is set to come in as well, but Rob Bell is ready to pounce. He is looking, probing, trying to find a way ‘round. Through Blanchimont and then climb back up the hill. Another track limits penalty for the #25 Audi of Finlay Hutchinson.
Marco Mapelli moves to the lead of this motor race and Rob Bell moves to second as in the lane is the #4 Mercedes for service and there will be a driver change too by the look of it. Nope. What am I talking about? It is a driver change instead for Audi #37, the WRT car, which Robin Frijns handed over to Dennis Lind for this next stint. The Danish driver is at the wheel now. So, no driver change, for the Mercedes and slick tires going on. Mapelli still has Bell all over him like a cheap suit and the McLaren could be acting as a parachute for that Lamborghini, slowing it down, kind of like a dragster and how it stops at the shutdown area of the quarter mile.
Benjamin Goethe gets passed by the #107 CMR Bentley. Not sure who is at the wheel of that car now. Bentley news as we speak and that is, they were handed a drive through penalty and served it. However, that has caused the car to plummet to 35th in the overall with South African Stuart White at the controls. The CMR Bentley dropped out of the top 20. Jens Lieberhauser in 46th place, is instructed to serve a drive through penalty which will only put the #10 Boutsen Ginion Racing BMW M6 GT3 farther down the list. A drive through penalty for track limits. Good grief! Just stay in the track limits, mates. But the conditions, in all fairness, are getting more difficult.
North/northeast is the direction, and the sun is going to set in the west. So, these chaps just are not going to be able to see because the windscreens are also dirty. Dirty windscreen, you don’t notice it because you are looking straight ahead. With a clear windscreen, that can really help. Benjamin Goethe in the Gulf liveried Audi, the classic, iconic baby blue and orange of Gulf Oil, is the next car to go another lap down. Sheldon van der Linde has the fastest speed through the traps at Eau Rouge in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 at 248 kilometers an hour. 247 clicks for Stuart White in the CMR Bentley and the range decreases slightly.
Ross Gunn in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage is pulling 246 K’s and both Charlie Eastwood in the #188 Garage 59 Aston and Jens Liberhauser in the much beleaguered #10 Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3, are running 245 kilometers an hour. That is a small range, but up from Eau Rouge to Raidillon they are clocking 153-155 miles an hour. The front engine monsters are ruling the roost right now. The front engine monsters are pressing hard and the mid/rear engine cars are still in the fight too. These GT3 cars are very compliant. Through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, these cars are giving their drivers the opportunities to do what they must, drive.
Mapelli uses traffic to his advantage and poor old Rob Bell are going to have to be patient. Through Fangnes (Piff Paff), into Courbe Paul Frere, and then into Campus corner (Stavelot), the battle is on in earnest. Lift and coast, that is all you have to do, but Benjamin Goethe is not willing to let Rob Bell pass as the leader is disappearing. Bell finally moves ‘round Goethe thinking, “would you move over, you clown!” Do racing with cars in your battle and not cars in another class of drivers. On the Kemmel straight, Goethe is pushing. But Bell just needs to ignore the Silver Cup Audi.
Unlike other 24-hour races where there are truly different classes of cars, here at Spa, every car out there is a GT3 car. I cannot emphasize this enough, ladies and gentlemen. The equalizer here is driving talent. Everyone has the same equipment depending on the manufacturer they are signed up to run with. BMW, Audi, Bentley, McLaren, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and so on. It all comes down, really and truly, to what the driver’s do. Niklas Nielsen, in the Ferrari, 3.1 seconds behind Rob Bell, and Timo Glock in the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW M6 GT3.
OK. OK. Hit me in the face with a pie. I was wrong. Timo Glock is in this race sharing the #35 BMW M6 GT3 for Walkenhorst Motorsports with countryman Martin Tomczyk, also of Germany (former DTM champion), and Frenchman (with a German sounding name, so he must be from Alsace and Strasbourg probably), Thomas Neubauer. Glock is very comfortable with the BMW. The M6 is a proven commodity. It has won here at Spa a couple times with both Walkenhorst and Rowe Racing. Timo Glock is a cool operator, the former Formula 1 driver.
Pull the gears, accelerate, get on the brakes, down the gears, turn, get the lock off, grab the gears up again and go for it. This track is amazing, but it is like a rollercoaster. This place is an awesome track but to the drivers, it must be daunting. When you transition at Eau Rouge from left to right, all you can see is sky. Oh dear. Another track limits penalty, this time for the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. This is the car from North America, from the United States, being shared by American Russell Ward, Mikael Grenier from Canada, and Philip Ellis who I believe holds a dual citizenship in both England and Germany but he races under a British license.
This is costly for the team that won in GT Daytona in IMSA at the Rolex 24 at Daytona earlier this year. Ross Gunn in the Aston Martin, meanwhile, has set the fastest first sector time of anyone. Holy cow! He’s motoring! Aston Martin has the performance on the Kemmel straight. Matt Campbell is chasing Nicklas Nielsen, but that gorgeous Martini liveried #22 GPX Porsche, Campbell has Dries Vanthoor in the Audi, right on his six. Vanthoor at the controls of the #32 Team WRT Audi R8 that he shares with fellow Belgian Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde from South Africa.
Mea culpa. I have not talked about Dries Vanthoor and company. This #32 Audi is the very car that started close to stone last on the grid. They were 54th in the running order when this race got underway. They were the favorites going into the qualifying session. Matt Campbell is being monstered by Dries Vanthoor. The #70 Inception Racing McLaren is in the way. It is serving as a pick right now. The Milroy/Iribe/Madsen/Pepper entry is holding up the faster cars. Not sure who is in that car. The McLaren cut across the Audi and then, Matt Campbell found his opportunity. However, Dries Vanthoor is balked. He just cannot find a way around the Inception McLaren and now, he does. The McLaren does the smart thing.
This is the ebb and flow of traffic. Ollie Milroy allows the faster cars to move in. Milroy is in the top five in Pro-Am. They’ve done the hard yards at WRT to move up. This is a team that has won the 24 Hours of Spa before. Matt Campbell is hounding Nicklas Nielsen in the Ferrari and he has lost a place to Timo Glock as well. This shows qualifying for a 24-hour race is not the be all end all. There are boatloads of time to make up places, but you really must go for it from the drop of the green flag. We keep harping on it and beating a dead horse. But it is true. You must endure for 24 hours but run the race like a flat-out sprint. This happens in a shorter endurance race too. I must apologize, readers. I just have not found the time to write about the other shorter endurance events for GT World Challenge Europe in a long time and I shall do my best and make it up to everyone when time permits.
Marco Mapelli still leads but he will have to use whatever strength that Lamborghini must pass the Bentley, the CMR car that keeps tripping him up, and keep ahead of the pursuer being the McLaren, the #38 Jota car. It’s like the line from the “Smokey & The Bandit” film, the first one, “I’m in high-speed pursuit of a maniac!” Well, no racer is a maniac. Not implying that at all. But it is true that it is every driver for himself and his team. That’s how racing is. How’s my singing voice? Not too good. Marco Mapelli’s birthday is today. He will turn 34 at the stroke of midnight. Maybe we will have to give him a Happy Birthday rendition.
We will hear from our night commentators later with Bruce Jones, Charlie Butler-Henderson, and Ben Constanduros overnight. There are a few people with birthday’s racing today. In 2019, Marco Mapelli won both the SRO Europe endurance and sprint championships, as we check the leaders in other classes right now. In the Silver Cup, it is the #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. Ezequiel Perez Companc of Argentina is the man driving now. He shares that race car with Ricardo Sanchez of Mexico, Patrick Kujala of Finland, and Rik Breukers from Holland. So, an international lineup to be sure. Two from Latin America and two from Europe. We don’t know why the team is called Mad Panda Motorsports.
That’s a car you cannot look away from. Don’t tell people how you came up with the name Mad Panda. Keep that a secret. Now, we see another class leading car which appears to be an AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Alessio Rovera, the Italian, who we just saw racing at Monza in the FIA World Endurance Championship, last weekend. It is Alessio Rovera leading Pro-Am in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 just ahead of Matteo Cressoni in another Ferrari separated by seven seconds. Top three for Ferrari’s in that class. Ferrari lock out the Pro Am Cup. Have not seen that in a while.
Drive through penalty for the #69 Ram Racing Mercedes, and you guessed it. Abusing track limits is the call. What an advantage it would be to get through the 24 hours without being called for track limits and dropping by the wayside. I mean, you are given four warning before they park you in the lane to serve a penalty anyway. We aren’t even four hours into the race. This rubs salt in the wounds of Ram Racing who are 51st in the overall. You can’t quibble with that. Jeez. We watch the #18 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R circulating ‘round Spa in the hands of Alexandre Imperatori, the Swiss driver.
Again, Imperatori is sharing with Edoardo Liberati and Josh Burdon, in an international lineup. A Swiss, an Italian, and an Australian are steering that German motorcar. Imperatori runs 2.2 seconds behind Maximilian Gotz in the Mercedes. We have a long, long, long way to go. We feel as if we’ve done 20 hours already! Sheesh! Imperatori is from Switzerland and has been racing with KCMG from Hong Kong for a long time. He has run in NLS and in GT World Challenge Asia, a series yours truly has sadly not covered before. Just no time to do so. Timo Glock, meanwhile, has been eating chunks out of the margin to Rob Bell and now the massive size of the BMW M6 GT3 is right in Bell’s rearview camera!
You know that Glock is going to want a piece of the McLaren driver. Bell has Marco Mapelli ahead of him as we go uphill on the return leg through Blanchimont, flat as a kipper through there. Timo Glock is pushing and hard at that in third spot. Rob Bell will drive defensively to counter the straight-line performance of the BMW. Glock raced in DTM for a long, long time and of course everything has now changed in DTM because they too, just like SRO Europe and all the SRO championships, run GT3 spec cars. Glock ran in the true touring car iteration of DTM. Glock is driving well and the BMW and the Mercedes both have the ability to let a driver drive the car very well.
Marco Mapelli is Glock’s target if he can get past Rob Bell. Mapelli has back markers through Speaker’s corner. By and large you want respect from other drivers unless of course you know someone has a grudge against you. The Mercedes has gone to pit lane as we now see Niklas Nielsen in the #51 Ferrari joining this battle. He has been in Ferrari Challenge where he’s won including in the World Final. He is now a Ferrari factory driver. Nielsen could be a part of this battle soon. Just 18 minutes to go in the fourth hour of the race. 77 laps completed, 335 miles.
As we said, Nielsen has won championships in Ferrari Challenge and is now a factory driver for The Prancing Horse. Drive through penalty call on the radio assigned to the #166 Haegell by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. This is the car I affectionately call “The Jelly Donut racer” because the paint scheme of yellow on the outside and a bright red stripe, makes it look like either a raspberry custard or a jelly donut. That car is being shared by a ¾ German lineup along with a Swiss driver. The Swiss driver is Pieder Decurtins, and his three German co-drivers are Dennis Busch, Manuel Lauck (who we have seen in a number of sports car racing championships), and the veteran Marc Basseng.
Bell under pressure through Bruxelles and Speakers as Glock continues to chase Rob Bell. Glock is surely harrying Bell right now. Marco Mapelli, our race leader, has opened a gap of 3.1 seconds over Bell as he continues to have his hands full with Glock in that BMW which is adorned in the official BMW M colors. White, with blue, red, and purple stripes. Check that. Those aren’t really the official BMW colors. Walkenhorst has gone with a white base graphic with blue and gold or copper stripes. Glock has to get the drive off Courbe Paul Frere and then through Blanchimnt. He does not have enough speed. Through the final turn, Rob Bell runs wide but gets off the turn well. Maybe Glock was surprised by Bell and he is wide into La Source and down the hill up through Eau Rouge.
Timo Glock has a run through Eau Rouge and uphill over Raidillon. Bell is keeping Glock honest. That’s for dead sure. Through Les Combes, watch the curb on the outside. Glock is really going for it. Bruxelles is an odd corner because you change up your apexes or you make it into a constant arc. Through Speaker’s corner, the car wants to run over the curb. Into Pouhon, Bell almost understeers into the turn. Glock is right on his six now. The BMW can use the curb more generously than the McLaren and Glock is within shouting distance. Rob Bell does not have much left in the locker. Glock can bide his time and not do anything rash.
He should go in and get a good exit off La Source. Nicklas Nielsen will glue himself to the boot of the BMW and we have lapped traffic ahead. Brilliant. Ugh. An endurance driver’s worst nightmare, but a constant. The McLaren is slipperier and smaller than the Bentley ahead which is a giant of a car just like the BMW. Aerodynamically it is nowhere near as efficient. Nicklas Nielsen is right on Timo Glock’s six right now. Glock was slow in La Source, but he has positioned himself to move in for a pass in Eau Rouge and Raidillon and now to Les Combes. Harem scare ‘em stuff through there, look. Timo Glock has to be frustrated with getting trapped behind the McLaren.
But the lapped traffic is going to dictate how this scrap shakes out. Brendon Iribe is now in the Inception Racing McLaren, the #70 car. Iribe, the American, is the founder of Occulus which a gaming and sim racing virtual reality device you wear if you are playing sim racing games. The second place McLaren is indeed under serious threat from the BMW. Rob Bell tries the inside of Brendon Iribe. The two McLaren’s are right there but Rob Bell slides wide and allows the McLaren for Incpetion to go by and Iribe is now being absolutely thrashed by Tim Glock in the BMW. Brendon, are your virtual reality gaming glasses not working? Look behind you, sunshine.
Nicklas Nielsen is gifted a boost from fourth to second because of Iribe in the lapped McLaren becoming nothing more than a mobile chicane. The crazy part is the bloke who suffered in that exchange is the only other McLaren in the field, (well, driving the only other McLaren in the field), and so the two cars from the same brand, offered no favors and no sympathy or empathy to each other. Oy vey! Nicklas Nielsen in the meantime is dealing with Iribe on his own accord now. Three more cars get pinged for track limits and must serve drive through penalties. #22, the GPX Martini Porsche. #911, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche, and I am not sure who the third car was.
That #911 car is a fixture in the Creventic 24 Hour Series. Herberth Motorsports are at any rate. That car is being shared by Antares Au of Turkey, Daniel Allemann of Switzerland, and German brothers Alfred and Robert Renauer. Matt Campbell has also been pinged. Meanwhile Brendon Iribe continues holding up Nicklas Nielsen. In replay, Rob Bell tries to pass Iribe, and then, into the final corner, Rob Bell is over the curb, and then something happened to Rob Bell on the exit of the chicane. More track limits abuse calls. That’s Matteo Cressoni in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari. Glock inside Iribe, Nielsen gets past in one fell swoop. Iribe was having a good old time racing the leaders, but if there’s two cars for one brand instead of more, you just need to live with it.
In the meantime, you know who is on a Saturday cruise? It’s Marco Mapelli in the leading #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini. He leads Nicklas Nielsen by 8.7 seconds. All the ruckus that played out behind him has been manna from heaven. Two Italian cars run 1-2. Lamborghini vs. Ferrari and then BMW and McLaren. German cars have historically dominated this race since the GT3 era began in 2010 and 2011, so for the last decade or so. We have seen Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and BMW all win here. But right now it is surely a dominating performance for the Italians with a Lamborghini and Ferrari 1-2.
Animal lovers will have a field day. The raging bull leads the prancing horse. McLaren, as ironic as this sounds adopted an animal in their heyday with their founder the late, great racing driver and car constructor, Bruce McLaren, using a kiwi bird. It is flightless bird though, like an emu or an ostrich. We will go with that until told otherwise. Meanwhile, back to the racing and we see a drive through penalty in real time, 50 kilometers per hour from 23rd place. Down he goes down the longest pit lane in all of motorsports on the inside of La Source before the heritage pit lane where the sports cars pit. This is technically the racetrack at 25 miles an hour.
Matteo Cressoni at the wheel of the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo. That is an agonizing amount of time to waste. We have eight minutes or so before the pit window opens, and four minutes left in this hour before beginning another one. We look at the #188 Aston Martin for Garage 59 and the driver currently, is Charlie Eastwood from Northern Ireland. The same hometown and birthplace are our mate calling this motor race, Mr. John Watson, five-time Formula 1 race winner and for a time, also an endurance sports car racer in the heyday of the Group C prototypes and IMSA GTP cars in the United States. Charlie Eastwood runs 31st overall in the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
He shares with Sweden’s Alexander West, England’s Chris Goodwin, and Marvin Kirchhofer from Germany. Now we move to check the progress of car #3. This is the Schnabl Engineering Porsche 911 GT3R. Dennis Olsen from Norway is sharing the car with Michael Christensen from Denmark and Fred Makowiecki of France, and these three, we know well, because they have driven for Porsche worldwide in other sports car racing championships such as the FIA World Endurance Championship or the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in the United States. SRO is not the only domain, the only organization or sanctioning body they have been a part of.
Earl Bamber is a driver and an owner. His brother, Will drives and owns the team as well. That is Earl Bamber Motorsports. Things might be settling down as we approach the end of yet another racing hour and Dries Vanthoor has moved to fifth place only 8.8 seconds behind Rob Bell with Nicklas Nielsen and Rob Bell coming. So, Earl Bamber is now in the lane for service in the GPX Porsche and we have affectionately called the team Bam, Cam, Jam. GPX won this race at Spa in 2019. Bam, Cam, Jam, for the first three letters of the names. We also tend to called Matthieu Jaminet “Jam Jam” from time to time especially in the IMSA races. But I digress.
A swap of position for the eighth spot into Les Combes as Dennis Olsen goes by the #50 retro liveried Mercedes for the 1971 class winning Mercedes 300 SEL sedan that won in it’s class in the ’71 event in the heyday of the touring car formula, but not overall. That year, as we mentioned earlier, it was a mighty Ford Capri that won the overall race. Maximilian Goetz, a former winner of this race, at the wheel of it. Gotz is sharing the #50 HubAuto Mercedes with Maximilian Buhk (his co-driver for their winning year I believe in 2013 along with Bernd Schneider, DTM legend), and the quick Dutchman, the veteran, Nicky Catsburg.
We can see that Gotz is doing his darnedest to get by Dennis Olsen. Work it out, know where your strengths lie, and then, commit into the turn. We ought to see more pit stops very soon. It is getting to be that time. Don’t forget that you cannot run afoul of the 65-minute time limit for driving in any stint. That’s the rules here at Spa. Mapelli, Glock, Nielsen, Bell and Vanthoor are on the same schedule as Matt Campbell is in the lane first as we watch Ezequiel Perez Companc, on his merry way in the lead of the Silver Cup class. The Argentine driver at the wheel of the #90 Mad Panda Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3.
Stuart White, the South African, is the next nearest challenger in Silver Cup in the #107 CMR Bentley Continental GT3. Marco Mapelli leads the motor race, but Nicklas Nielsen closes steadily and has brought the gap down to 7.7 seconds. Marco Mapelli may be coming to the end of a stint but everything for him is peachy right now. It should be peachy out there for lots of drivers. The track here at Spa Francorchamps looks to be in good shape and the air temperature is cooling. The cooler and denser air of the evening and overnight hours is going to help the naturally aspirated motors perform better and maybe give all of the cars a tad more downforce as well.
Dennis Lind is the leader on the other strategy in the #37 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8. When we had our most recent Full Course Yellow, most of the field took that opportunity to hit the pit lane. Several leaders didn’t and at the time the car was driven by Robin Frijns. That is the most notable example of the second strategy plan being used be some of the teams for their pit lane plan here at the 24 Hours of Spa.
No comments:
Post a Comment