65 minutes per stint, save for a Full Course Yellow. Let us save that for later. Not worth taking risks. So, I believe that the #37 Audi for WRT, they are going to assume the lead as we see wholesale tire and driver changes plus refueling going on. Dries Vanthoor stayed out for a lap or so longer and he will hold the lead for a wee while. But he too must come in for service ASAP. The Lamborghini is back on track. The #51 Ferrari is back in the fray as well. Now, we need to see about who the drivers are in these cars. Maybe the top three stayed with their drivers. Ah. Alessandro Pier Guidi is the next driver into the Ferrari. That is confirmed.
We still need to know who is at the wheel of both Lamborghini #63 and BMW #35. It is amazing, because coming out of La Source hairpin, the cars on the downhill to Eau Rouge are so much faster than the blokes in the lane who have trundle downhill between the top and the bottom of the pits, the F1 pits at the top and the endurance pit lane at the bottom. That is why the pit lane delta is so demoralizing. We have other drivers on alternate strategies including the #4 HRT Mercedes of Maro Engel, the #88 Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella, and the #95 Aston Martin of Ross Gunn, all of them are down the order in 14th, 15th, and 16th spot right now. We are going to have to wait to know more once we reach dawn tomorrow morning and we still have the night shift to come yet.
Everyone, grab an energy drink or several cups of strong coffee. Tonight, you are going to need that. Grab some water, too, to stay hydrated. This race is going to be exciting, and you will not want to miss a minute of it, right here on Endurance… The Sports Car Racing Blog, as we continue to pound around the mighty Spa Francorchamps through the evening and the dark of night, and then, into the day tomorrow. Ryan Myrehn, lead commentator for this shift on the SRO team, he says “I will defer to our own David Addison to read the timing screens like a crystal ball.” Very true. Mr. Addison has a way of foreshadowing how a race like Spa could turn out in the later hours.
So, when he has a shift, perhaps later today or into tomorrow, we shall hear if his predictions are correct. Dries Vanthoor aboard the #32 Audi for WRT sponsored by Skechers shoes, he comes to the pit lane and does so in the nick of time. A stellar effort. Here is the driver change. Who will step into the car next? Will it be Charles Weerts, another Belgian hot shoe? Or will it be Kelvin van der Linde? Odds are it will be Weerts getting behind the wheel. It is Kelvin van der Linde, back into the car. The key deal with driver changes is, don’t rush, but be quick and efficient. When the pit stops cycle through, Dennis Lind in Audi #37 ought to assume the lead. By the same token, he too, still has to pit.
Mr. Lind has a record to maintain. He is one for one here at Spa Francorchamps having won in British GT at this very track last weekend, and British GT also runs to the GT3 formula. More pit action. Have to find this car on the road, but the #3 Porsche, the Schnabl Engineering car, should have Michael Christensen at the controls, the Danish Porsche ace. Alex Fontana, meanwhile, is at the wheel of the #14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Fontana from Switzerland shares that car, remember, with an all-Swiss lineup. His countrymen are co-drivers Rolf Ineichen and Ricardo “Ricky” Feller. We see that Christensen and Fontana are in the lane. Dennis Lind will move up. Daniel Juncadella can leapfrog a few places and now, Dennis Lind might stay in P1 for a bit longer.
Lind races through Stavelot and the Curve Paul Frere. Courbe or curb as it is in French, but in English, computers don’t recognize the foreign pronunciation. Oh well. Meanwhile, Lind has cleatr sailing and can extract the maximum performance of the car going onto another lap. It is a gradual uphill climb to the front straight and the camber into La Source. Don’t run over the curbs. This is the first we’ve seen Charles Weerts in the race today. Daniel Juncadella is eight second down on Dennis Lind in the leading Audi. 8.2 seconds is the gap. Marco Mapelli and Alessandro Pier Guidi, they are next in the serial. Ben Barnicoat in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren is chasing down the second AKKA ASP Mercedes in the hands of Felipe Fraga. So, we see several good battles taking shape here at Spa as we have only just started the fifth hour of racing.
So, four hours done and dusted. Mapelli runs third behind Juncadella. Everyone on different strategy, but Mapelli’s strategy means he has been in the catbird seat now. Lind and Juncadella were trapped in traffic. Holy smokes! If you thought the top four fight was a good one, man oh man, have I got a battle for you to watch. This is for fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth between two Mercedes’, a McLaren, and a BMW and all of these cars have been ones that have been in the mix through the race to this point. Maro Engel leads the queue in the #4 Mercedes AMG GT3 for Team HRT, Hubert Haupt’s team. Then comes Felipe Fraga in another Mercedes, Ben Barnicoat in the Jota McLaren, and our old pal, Timo Glock, who has continued driving the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW.
Wow! Timo Glock has ponies under the bonnet of that BMW! That M6 with the 4.4-liter turbo V8 is massively powerful and quick on the straight compared to the naturally aspirated McLaren 3.8-liter V8. However, horsepower is relative because Rob Bell has the preferred line through Les Combes. Bell had to defend. This is cut and paste from earlier, but in fact Ben Barnicoat is the chap back at the wheel of the McLaren now for the Jota team. Rob Bell no doubt, is getting a meal and a rest before his next stint. Barnicoat is strongly defending, and Felipe Fraga is his next target as Maro Engel is scything through lapped traffic.
On the downhill part of the circuit, it is not easy to pass. Glock and the BMW have the straight-line speed, clearly. Barnicoat and Glock are both flying, and you can see that poor old Ben just got a tad of wheelspin and ran over the curb. Maybe the curb was wet. Glock goes by and here comes Ross Gunn in one of the Aston Martin’s. He has been biding his time, thinking of a move. Meanwhile Timo Glock is on a roll. He just whistled by Felipe Fraga. Glock is the man on a mission here. Ex DTM ace and Formula 1 driver is Mr. Glock. Fraga is not out of the rain yet. Gunn has dropped back from the McLaren.
Glock is hot on the heels of Maro Engel. The Mercedes might be fractionally quicker than the BMW in sector two. Up through Blanchimont into the Bus Stop chicane, he has to be perfect. In the Silver Cup category for the Silver rated drivers (a.k.a. “Sneaky Silver’s”), Patrick Kujala, the Finn, he is maintaining the lead for that car after taking over from Ezequiel Perez-Companc. Kujala is a quick driver in a GT3 car. That is for sure. We are four hours and 15 minutes into this race. In Pro-Am, well, hold on a second. We shall get to Pro-Am in a wee moment. Let’s have a Captain Cook at top trap speeds in Eau Rouge.
Right now, Sheldon van der Linde is fastest at 248 kilometers an hour in BMW #34. Ulysse De Pauw, the native Belgian aboard the CMR Bentley, he is next up in the series at 247 kilometers, followed by Ross Gunnin the Aston Martin at 246, and tied for fourth and fifth we see Marvin Kirchhofer in the #188 Aston Martin for Garage 59 and the #10 Boutsen Ginion BMW both running 245 clicks. At the wheel of #10 now is Yann Zimmer of Switzerland. The front engine cars have a quickness or speed advantage, for some reason, over the mid to rear engine cars.
We have consistently seen cars like the Mercedes, BMW, and Bentley, having the legs over the mid-rear engine automobiles like the McLaren, the Lamborghini, the Ferrari, and the Porsche. We see a Ferrari battle now between the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing car and the #53 AF Corse Ferrari as well. This is Rino Mastronardi, the Italian, leading Pro Am in one of the AF Corse entries. Mastronardi sharing with Miguel Molina of Spain, Duncan Cameron from England, and Matt Griffin from Ireland. Ferrari have taken some of their World Endurance GT drivers and put them into the GT3 spec cars and they are giving it a real go out there, proving that most production Grand Touring cars like we find here in GT World Challenge/Intercontinental GT Challenge, despite the dreaded Balance of Performance, are nearly evenly matched. Horses for courses? I’m not sure that applies to the race here at Spa right now.
Down the hill they go in an internecine and inter-team scrap in Ferrari land. Next up is the #22 GPX Porsche in Martini livery with Matt Campbell still at the wheel I believe. He and the team have had their woes so far, but they continue to press on. Lifting and coasting is key especially in some of the slower corners. Also, do not get embroiled with cars that are not in your class if you can help it. Once again, cannot stress this enough, class ratings here at Spa in IGTC are based solely on driver ratings and have nothing to do with cars because every single race car out there is a GT3 spec machine. Mastronardi is eventually going to have to know discretion is the better part of valor and just cede the place to Matt Campbell for that very reason. They come down into the final turn again.
I keep wanting to refer to it as The Bus Stop like it used to be, when the corner had a totally different shape from watching the old Formula 1 races and the Group C prototypes racing here at Spa, on video at the very least. But now, the corner is a shadow of it’s former self. BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche. Ben Barnicoat goes around Felipe Fraga for seventh as Campbell is atoning for his earlier penalty. That was a track limits penalty. With Aston Martin, hang on a second. Ah! Drive through penalty for the #38 McLaren of Barnicoat for, wait… don’t tell me, abusing track limits.
An Aston Martin update, and that is Thomas Tujula of Finland in the #159 Garage 59 car, running now in podium placing in 28th overall and Marvin Kirchhofer in 38th overall. So, Tujula is sharing that automobile with Alex MacDowall of England, a veteran of touring cars and GT racing, alongside Valentin Hasse Clot of France and Nicolai Kjaergaard of Denmark. Kirchhofer, he shares the #188 Aston Martin and we have called their number at least once so far today. This is the car he shares with Charlie Eastwood, Alexander West, and Chris Goodwin.
Barnicoat is serving his penalty for abusing track limits, and this is a setback for the team as they will drop down. We are coming up to a quarter ‘til 9PM in the evening as the sun is setting. We are going to be headed for eight hours of darkness overnight. Timo Glock passes Maro Engel. Marco Mapelli and other drivers on that alternate strategy could come to the fore. Dennis Lind in Audi #37 is back up at the sharp end now. These other drivers who have done the hard yards on the different strategy, they could reap some rewards soon.
WRT has found the advantage and they seek out any advantage they can get. WRT can find ways to win because their pit work is astonishing. Lind, and Juncadella run 1-2. The Dane and the Spaniard. The sun setting over Speaker’s corner. Such a gorgeous evening as shafts of sunlight burst through like a laser beam through Blanchimont and the Bus Stop. The driver’s will be struggling to see briefly because your depth perception is totally affected before darkness will fall in the Ardennes Forest. The original layout here at Spa, was double the length of the current track at 8 miles plus, nearly the same length as Le Mans in France.
That layout was used up until 1978 and in ’79, the track was shortened. Wish there was video of some of the much older Spa races in the 24 hours. Have seen some of the touring car events from the ‘80s and those are spectacular. The Group A touring cars were fabulous back then just as the GT3 cars are today. The old circuit was a triangular track between cities. Modern drivers didn’t race on it but it was a daunting place, a wild rollercoaster of a circuit. Ah yes. Pit stops are happening once again. Lind and Juncadella are in from the race lead which hands it to Marco Mapelli. Alessandro Pier Guidi is promoted once more to second spot until everything with this series of pit stops cycles through and order is restored.
Boom. Gounon comes out of the lane directly behind Dennis Lind. Meantime a drive through penalty is assessed to the #16 GRT Grasser Lamborghini which was repaired after a massive crash earlier in the weekend. Right now, the car is 34th in the overall with Alberto Maria de Falco at the controls. Blending back on the track at the top of the hill can be very scary. The speed differential between the BMW and the Mercedes is staggering. This is Sheldon van der Linde in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. Marco Mapelli is back to the lead of this motor race ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Timo Glock. So, Lamborghini leads the 24 Hours of Spa ahead of both Ferrari and BMW at this time.
Mapelli should be in the pound seats if he gets to traffic. He has clear track ahead now. Maro Engel is the last one to pit in this stint, rolling the dice, taking chances. If you spin or get hit by another car, you can run afoul of the maximum stint length of 65 minutes. The BMW M6 has a great engine note from it’s 4.4 liter turbocharged V8 through Courbe Paul Frere and into Blanchimont. Wow. Let’s take a lap and watch and listen onboard the BMW. Great soundtrack. Great engine note. If there is a car or engine configuration you like, there are plenty of them. Turbo, non turbo, 6 cylinders, 8 cylinders. Marco Mapelli leads Alessandro Pier Guidi by 3.2 seconds. We are ticking towards 10PM this evening.
There’s a bloke in a panda suit in the pit lane. Hang on a second. Lock the doors. What’s the deal here? Ah yes. The guy in the panda suit is the team owner, Argentinian Ezequiel Perez-Companc. We discover that the man in the panda suit is Senor Companc himself. That is panda head, or hat. He says that in spite of a chaotic qualifying session, the team knew they had a strong package coming into this crown jewel motor race at Spa. They are proving they can stay near or at the top. They’ve got Patrick Kujala, their secret weapon, in the car now. For a long time, Kujala was associated with Lamborghini and the British Barwell Motorsport team.
BMW, Audi, and Porsche, the German panzer division, in third, fourth, and fifth, only lacking their cohorts from Mercedes Benz, having to use all they can to get on terms with this leading Italian juggernaut. Timo Glock in the BMW was faster than both Italian cars last time by. He is half a second up on Mapelli and Pier Guidi. The gap is elasticated stretching out and then shrinking. 7/10ths of a second this lap. Then it shrinks again to 3/10ths. Will these two leaders run to the same lap number for fuel strategy? Will the teams pit their cars together? Will we see a battle of the pit crews to find out who has the edge at this point in the motor race? We have ten minutes or so before, yet another racing hour is in the bag.
Finally, Pier Guidi moves ahead. Traffic ahead and he tags Mapelli in the rear diffuser! Yikes! We wonder about damage to the rear diffuser on the Lamborghini and, the front valance and front end of the Ferrari! Gracious! That was a close shave! It is elbows out time for Pier Guidi through Les Combes as Mapelli forces his rival onto the curbs. New leader of the 24 Hours of Spa recorded on lap 108. So, we’ve run 470 miles even to this point in the motor race. We shall see soon about the Lamborghini’s rear diffuser damage. If it is only nicked, it won’t be a problem. But if that diffuser is cracked or broken anywhere, it warrants a replacement part ASAP.
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