Mies is fifth, three laps down on the leader, but for losing a lap in the wet on slick tires, it has been a mighty recovery. What will happen in this last hour? We are about to find out. Nick Tandy, blistered, burning hands and all, is sixth overall. You have to grip the wheel. Tandy has dealt with the blisters all race long and surely he must have some padding or something between the flesh of his hands and his racing gloves to ease the pain. Rain is likely before we finish up here at Spa and you need wet tires as we expect a massive deluge before the race ends, before the checkered flag. When the spigot is turned on at Spa, it is biblical rain.
Through La Source the gray clouds come. A mass of pit stops being completed with Max Hofer in the Attempto #99 Audi, Rik Breukers in the Silver Cup leading #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, #222, the blue Team Allied Racing Porsche now being driven by Lars Kern to the end, and Mad Panda will be behind the #159 Aston Martin of Valentin Haase-Clot. The bonnet is flapping with it’s damaged grille as well, like taking a hacksaw and cutting through the bars of a jail cell. So, Alessandro Pier Guidi is catching the car that finished second here last year with Patric Niederhauser, Markus Winkelhock, and Christopher Haase.
Jota McLaren are next in the order, the #38 car of Ben Barnicoat. We’re within the final hour of what has been a long race here at Spa in 2021. #51 leads now by 24 seconds. The Ferrari has been amazingly bulletproof. I can’t remember hearing a word from Race Control about penalties as the car pits again. They’ve stuck to their plan, running their race by the book. They are a lap ahead on lap 538. They can go to the end with no worries. Clean windscreen, and new tires. Iron Lynx, on target, for a win in their debut here at Spa. Iron Lynx lost their more favored car ten laps into the motor race, but the sister car continues to dominate.
Dries Vanthoor in the lead briefly, but he will pit. He ran a 2:21 on the most recent lap. Not a mega time. Just a decent one. The weather is going to play a factor. The skies are darkening, the temperature around the Ardennes Forest and the mountains, is cooling off. Through Campus, and past the college. Given the pandemic and horrible flooding in this part of the world, the paddock was being resurfaced, and you’d never have thought the race would even happen. But it has indeed. British GT raced here a week ago. But this race, is going to go down to the wire. Audi #32 in the lane for it’s final stop giving the lead back to Ferrari #51.
Iron Lynx copped a drive through penalty for a refueling infraction, but that’s all. So, Audi #32 gets wet weather Pirelli P Zero tires with nothing to lose, and they need to be well placed for the race. Now, they could be performing a masterstroke here, or, they could end up with egg on their faces. This could be the move of the race. This is going to be a deluge in the last 50 minutes. Into Eau Rouge it is bone dry right now. But we could see the skies open very soon. The weather is extremely threatening. The wind is picking up in the pit lane. WRT seem to be happy, trying to do a rain dance. Has it worked? The rain is imminent as the wind picks up.
Rain begins falling on the pit lane. The wind has picked up and we will see the rain right to the end of the race. WRT will know this is happening and they are ready for it. 50 minutes of the race left. Slciskf or the leader, wets for second place. The Iron Lynx Ferrari is on slick tires. What weather info do they have? No pit stop, for Pier Guidi! He is going to brave the rain! Talk about rolling the dice! This is like the Monaco casino or Las Vegas! Look at the rooster tails! The spray is unreal. It is bucketing down with rain just like we have expected the whole weekend.
Pier
Guidi is skating around out there, and Iron Lynx are set for the car to hit the
lane for wet tires. Could we see a Full
Course Yellow for water on the road? Three, four cars have spun off the road at the
final turn in wet conditions because these blokes are still on slick
tires! Oh man! We have the #911 Porsche, the #50 Mercedes
slews sideways towards the wall! Another
Ferrari pirouettes down there. Alain
Adam has to call this. What will
happen? Everyone bails except for
another spinning Mercedes into the Bus Stop.
Go slow. Go slow. Pier Guidi barely makes the corner. Everyone comes in for wet weather Pirelli
tires.
Dries Vanthoor in Audi #32, he is in the pound seats because he already has wet weather tires bolted onto the car. Torrential rain and Pier Guidi is wriggling his way around the circuit on a hellish lap. He is driving with four water skis on that car! He’s made it through Blanchimont. Oh my gosh! Dries Vanthoor can clearly go fine on the wet weather Pirelli’s. The Ferrari is aquaplaning all over the shop as he heads to the lane. Get the wet tires on that car, now! Dries Vanthoor, this rain is manna from heaven for him and his team. They could very well snatch victory away from the dominant Iron Lynx Ferrari if this torrential downpour keeps up!
There is no guarantee the wet weather tires will channel the water off the road. The rain is absolutely tipping down! Dries Vanthoor slithering through Eau Rouge as the rivers of water run diagonally across the racetrack. Vanthoor leads now and the Barwell Lamborghini, Sandy Mitchell saves that car from snapping around. The teams are shouting for a red flag. One of the Ferrari’s has crunched the wall and we are going to see a Full Course Yellow right now. That was the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Chilean driver Benjamin Hites. The conditions are horrendous, but everyone seems to be on wet weather tires.
There’s the call from Alain Adam, Race Director. Full Course Yellow in ten seconds! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow! That’s for a car in a dangerous spot. The rain is not the only factor. A car is stranded on the road at the fastest part of the circuit on the downhill to Eau Rouge. Hites loses traction, the car whips around, and he ends up facing the wrong way into oncoming traffic. Correction. That is the #70 Inception Racing McLaren. Brendon Iribe in the McLaren and it looks like an Aston Martin or something cut across the escape road and destroyed the signage on the uphill in Eau Rouge!
Welcome to Spa, Brendon Iribe! Wow! In the gloom, look, Hites has no place to go, and just spears across, and… crunch! Right into the guardrail on the other side of the road. We are under Full Course Yellow of course. How on earth did Brendon Iribe get away with that lurid spin?! Iron Lynx looks on, deleting their weather app, and getting a better one. WRT have hit the nail on the head here with wet weather tires with 42 minutes left on the clock. So, Audi #32 take the lead of the motor race. It will be feast or famine. The champagne could be on ice.
This has been a wicked, biblical rainstorm. The wreckage is being cleaned up. Alessandro Pier Guidi is now running 58 seconds behind the leading Audi. The brain trust at WRT are pretty smug right now. The clock ticks away as the rain has eased slightly. 4:38 the last lap by Dries Vanthoor, double the time of a clean lap in the dry. The one mistake for staying on slick tires in the rain, that gamble might cost the race for Iron Lynx who have dominated to this point. But, never say never. Maybe, just maybe, Vincent Vosse has made this work. It was a whole team call and a major gamble based on good information. Vosse makes a good point that the race is not done yet.
What weather app are you using? Vincent Vosse says, “the nose”. Anyone on slick tires in the rain will struggle to finish the lap. Rik Breukers and Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes continues leading the Silver Cup division. Valentin Hasse Clot might have to settle for second unless the panda doesn’t like the rain. Then it will have to return to its cage. Alessandro Pier Guidi wanted a victory but now it will be harder to get. We know it rains in Spa and the villages of Germany and Belgium have been obliterated by flooding this summer.
Safety car procedure is called for as we look again at the Mad Panda Mercedes. It is a soggy panda now. Everyone will be in a line on a wet road, and so, I will tell you now, safety cars breed safety cars. It’s a fact of life in these wet weather races. Visibility will be extremely tough. He will be assessing track conditions corner by corner. Under the safety car, his gap will be reduced. Miguel Molina in Ferrari #53 leads Pro-Am. The amount of spray on the Kemmel straightaway goes up into the trees and hovers in the air. These chaps will be driving blind. We have 35 cars left in this race of the 58 that started. Are there places on the road with standing water?
Local knowledge and understanding of how the track drainage operates means the WRT team has the awareness of what is going on. The rain has eased by the circuit is soaking wet. It is well and truly awash. Safety car in this lap. Wow. We are going to get back to green flag racing for the final half hour. Can Dries Vanthoor earn a historic win? Will someone overtake him? Up to Les Combes they come. This is a mad dash to the flag. This is very reminiscent of both renewal races we have seen so far at Kyalami, in South Africa, with the 9 Hours, in both 2019 and 2020 with cloud bursts late in the motor race.
A lack of visibility when the race gets back underway. It’s about survival. There’s a boatload at stake. The pressure cooker has been turned on. #51 will be chasing, 4.8 seconds behind #32. Further down the order, drivers will be disoriented. They won’t know where they are, and they will perhaps have the ever- living daylights scared out of them. The drivers weave back and forth to get pressure and temperature into the Pirelli tires. Four lapped cars in the way. Pier Guidi will have to overtake off the racing line. Green flag, green flag! We’re back underway!
Dries Vanthoor rockets away. Through La Source, and then, uphill to Eau Rouge. We go onboard with the #70 McLaren, the Inception Racing car we just saw spun. Now, Vanthoor is on the bubble in terms of track limits abuses. He has four. One more and he will have to serve a drive through penalty and Alessandro Pier Guidi is not in the clear either as he has three track limits warnings. Jordan Pepper at the wheel of the McLaren. Vanthoor is fine. Pier Guidi must pick his way through the rooster tails. This is hell on wheels! Pier Guidi, looking through periscope, he narrowly avoids the #27 Sainteloc Audi which is laps down.
Down through Pouhon they go. Vanthoor just needs to stay ahead of the Ferrari. Audi have had a dry spell in overall wins here at Spa since 2017. These are the most difficult conditions any driver can cope with. Vanthoor cannot extend his advantage as they run up to the chicane. You go faster under the safety car for a restart than a Full Course Yellow. The lap times are in the 2:45-2:47 range. Diving from La Source to Eau Rouge, swing right through Raidillon, getting the car light over the crest. Pier Guidi is right in the wheel tracks of Sandy Mitchell in the Barwell Lamborghini and makes a clean pass. Pier Guidi is playing catch up.
The rain is slackening and dissipating here now. The forecast though says no and that it will keep coming. The ambient temperature has dropped and so has the track temperature. Audi, if they win would earn the eighth IGTC win for them if things stay as they are. Four more wins than Porsche. Kelvin van der Linde would be tied for the win record in IGTC with Christopher Haase at four if things stay as they are now. But we just can’t bank on anything in these torrid conditions. There’s a massive puddle on the pit straight right now and the temperature drops, helping to chill the beer and the champagne.
So, as you are chilling the Stella Artois and the Jupiler for the victory celebration, van der Linde cannot afford to relax. So near and yet so far for Iron Lynx. Alessandro Pier Guidi is in a win it or bin it scenario. Mercedes #7 has passed Valentin Hasse Clot for second in the Pro-Am class. In the gloom, from a pit lane start, to 14th overall and second in class comes the #7 Toksport WRT Mercedes AMG GT3. They can pat themselves on the back after a driver change and say, “thank you, Ardennes Forest!”. But they won’t be able to challenge the panda express. The Mad Panda Mercedes will undoubtedly win in Pro-Am. More records are being set within the Intercontinental GT Challenge if Audi can hold on.
The gap is closing by the corner. Alessandro Pier Guidi is quicker than Dries Vanthoor. 548 laps in the bag. 2,363 miles. WRT want a third IGTC victory. The lead gap is 4.3 seconds. Pier Guidi has nothing to lose as the gap is closing to three seconds. It was 3.8 seconds before. The Ferrari is quicker than the Audi. The Ferrari is clawing back bucketloads of time. We’ll take this drama right now. Pier Guidi has had clear sailing after getting past that cluster of lapped traffic. Vanthoor must be being told on the radio, “push, push, push!” Mega tank slapper for the Ferrari out of Raidillon! Two tenths of a second pulled back and Pier Guidi is still steamrolling.
You want the big trophy, not the smaller one. If you have the smaller one, you want the repair bill instead. The gap is shrinking. Pier Guidi catches the curb and almost spins out! This is the car that has dominated since the overnight hours. WRT went to the rain tires just before the deluge. Pier Guidi has been one of the stars of this motor race. We must thank the cameramen and the folks in the truck. Believe you me, it takes a ton of people to put on a massive race like this. The gap is closing and fast. Will it be the overtake first, or the clock running out? Pier Guidi is very close to the Audi now.
The spray will be hugely intense. The camera lenses can see through the gloom as Vanthoor runs wide at Speaker’s Corner. 15 minutes to go. The Ferrari is cooking. It has the pace. The Prancing Horse is galloping. If he gets closer, he will be driving blind. Overtaking offline might not be too bad. There’s tons of shredded rubber all over the offline part of the road. The gaps are shrinking. The blue flags will be there for Dries Vanthoor. The marshals have done sterling service and are wetter than mermaid’s flannel right now. Another half a second pulled out by Pier Guidi. The rain is easing up. Dries Vanthoor is defending into Pouhon.
Dries Vanthoor knows he has to go really wide. Through the Piff Paff they go again. He has to work out where the Audi is weaker. Pier Guidi is right behind Vanthoor now towards Blanchimont. Through the chicane, the gap is closing. He’s nearly right on Vanthoor’s six. We’ll have about five laps to go this time by. Now, into La Source, the margin is half a second and they are nose to tail. The Audi is all over the Ferrari like a cheap suit, or if you prefer, a fat pigeon on a chip. Maintain your momentum, that is what Pier Guidi wants to do up the Kemmel straight and into Les Combes. Pier Guidi goes left and can’t quite make it. Here comes Pier Guidi again. Up the inside, he slides! Yikes! This could yet give a win to Aston Martin and Marco Sorensen.
Next year, when we tell a story about Alessandro Pier Guidi, it will be about a probable win that may go into the record books. This race creates legends. Kevin Estre, Nick Tandy, Alessandro Pier Guidi (if he stays on the road). We saw Kevin Estre bring Porsche the victory in 2019. Last year, we saw Nick Tandy nursing a wounded Porsche to the line when the transmission went ka-blammo right at the end of the motor race. This year, we could see Ferrari return to the top step of the podium at Spa for the first time in 17 years. Six and a half minutes to go, and we’ll have two, maybe three laps to go. The team at Iron Lynx have performed brilliantly. They’ve had to do this with the accident for the sister car.
Davide Rigon’s incident was massive. This team have burst onto the scene in recent years with Ferrari. They’ve gone toe to toe with Audi and WRT. They’ve been matching the Belgian/German team shot for shot and punch for punch. Well done SRO, with Stephane Ratel, Alain Adam and many, many more, as well as to the Spa circuit officials and the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium after the flooding. The floods and the pandemic have really put a spanner in trying to put this race together, but they’ve made it work. Book your tickets now if you are in Belgium, for the Spa 24 Hours 2022. Spare a thought for WRT who have come from 54th to second.
They have been in the catbird seat for a good chunk of this event but may just come up short today. But their performance is no fluke. As we’ve been singing Pier Guidi’s praises, the gap has shrunken again, look. Pier Guidi now leads by 3.6 seconds, but that is irrelevant as we are headed for the final lap of this motor race. Almost home. Final lap of the 24 Hours of Spa and this motor race has delivered. We will remember the move by Alessandro Pier Guidi with the winning move. Blimey! We will talk for years to come about that move. Hard to express how happy Iron Lynx must be now that they are going to win the 24 Hours of Spa, the biggest GT3 race on the planet.
Dries Vanthoor must be as crushed as an empty tin can. Spare a thought for that man. But, through the Paul Frere curve one more time. Ferrari will win the 24 Hours of Spa. Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen, and Come Ledogar, win the 24 Hours of Spa! What a great drive. What a grand team effort! Unadulterated joy for Iron Lynx! All the preparation for the car and the team before the race, all the effort, has paid off. Ferrari also wins in Pro-Am with AF Corse in the #53 car. Alessio Rovera and company finish second in Pro-Am. Silver Cup goes to Mad Panda Mercedes. Am will be won by the #166 Porsche of Manuel Lauck, Dennis Busch, Pieder Decurtins, and Marc Basseng.
So, here are your winners.
Overall/Pro: #51 Ledogar/Nielsen/Pier Guidi Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3
Silver Cup: #90 Breukers/Kujala/Perez Companc/Sanchez Mad Panda Mercedes AMG GT
Pro Am: #53 Cameron/Griffin/Mastronardi/Molina AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3
Am: #166 Basseng/Busch/Decurtins/Lauck T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3R
A grand slam for Iron Lynx and their drivers. The Italian national anthem plays to honor the winning manufacturer, Ferrari, with their fourth Spa 24 Hours triumph also including victories in 1949, 1953, and 2004. This race is also a round of GT World Challenge Europe. The winning drivers hold the Coupe du Roi, the Spa 24 Hours trophy aloft. Don’t drop it! Whatever you do! The champagne is sprayed! This race kept us guessing almost the whole tiMme. Finishing a 24 Hour race is amazing and winning overall, but so is winning in class. Third in Pro-Am is Garage 59, second is Toksport WRT, and twinning, the Mad Panda team, who are now a happy panda. Ezequiel Perez-Companc and company win the Silver Cup, as we hear the Spanish national anthem.
Ezequiel Perez-Companc wears the iconic panda head that is the logo of their team. Garage 59 and Toksport WRT are also on the Pro-Am podium. The champagne is sprayed. We have the Pro-Am podium and the winners Duncan Cameron, Rino Mastronardi, Matt Griffin, and Miguel Molina. We cannot forget our Am class winners in the berries and custard T2 Racing Porsche, Pieder Decurtins, Manuel Lauck, Dennis Busch, and Marc Basseng. We have more podium finishers with Barwell (Sandy Mitchell, Henrique Chaves, Leo Machitski, and Miguel Ramos) and Lamborghini, and the other AF Corse Ferrari #52 team for Andrea Bertolini, Alessio Rovera, Louis Machiels, and John Wartique.
The rain has ceased. Everyone is soaked with champagne, so they need their umbrellas. Close your eyes. Champagne stings your eyes. Drink it. Don’t spray it unless you really want to. Toksport WRT are so happy to bring home a podium after starting from the pit lane. Winning Pro-Am drivers from Intercontinental GT Challenge get their medals. Reid Harker, Will Bamber, Adrian D’Silva, and Carlos Rivas. We also have the King’s Cup, the Coupe Du Roi presented. So, correction. The Coupe Du Roi is for the manufacturer, not the overall Spa 24 trophy.
Spare a thought for the many drivers and teams who also had to retire from this race. We look at the highlights one final time. Joy unconfined for Iron Lynx. They win the 2021 24 Hours of Spa. It’s been another amazing chapter of this race. Thanks for your company. We’ve enjoyed bringing this race to you. So long until next year when we come back to Spa for another one. Goodbye for now, and take care, everybody.
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