For the intro to this race, we turn to the review of the 1990 running of the sprint event at Spa Francorchamps which was for the waning days of Group C prototypes, broadcast by Videovision Broadcast International and International Sportsworld Communicators, with Richard Nichols on the microphone. Richard's introductory words about the mighty Spa Francorchamps, profound. "Spa in Belgium is the town that gave it's name to health farms the world over, and on a good day, it is indeed as pretty as a picture. Nestling in the Ardennes forest, it is surrounded by rolling, wooded countryside and long, hilltop views. The town itself is a clean, tidy, Victorian showpiece, with a delicate, almost gentile air about it.
But Spa, is famous for more than mineral water. It's home to the dramatic circuit of Spa Francorchamps, the legendary and challenging road circuit buried in the evergreen hills of the Ardennes. A difficult, four and a half mile switchback that is always listed in everybody's list of their three favorite circuits in the world. That's almost incredible, because Spa Francorchamps is known for it's clammy, rainy, misty, forest moods." In qualifying, we saw sunny, dry, warm conditions. What will we see in today's motor race? Will the circuit be as pretty as a postcard? Will it produce a mood of a dark, foreboding, rainy, misty forest from an adventure/mystery novel? What will be painted upon the canvas for the 6 Hours of Spa on this Saturday?
Nichols' great words, set the tone, for today's second round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps. Today, for the first time in WEC and Hypercar history, it is the American Glickenhaus team that have bested their rivals from Alpine of France and Toyota of Japan (with their factory and operations based in Koln, Germany), scoring the first pole for the Danbury, Connecticut specialty car firm run by Jim Glickenhaus, a determined, passionate man, who sees himself in the mold of the great constructors of sports car racing especially the Americans like Briggs Cunningham, Carroll Shelby, and Jim Hall. It is their normally aspirated Pipo Moteurs powered Hypercar, running sans hybrid assistance, of Pipo Derani, Olivier Pla, and Romain Dumas, that starts from pole position for today's motor race.
Last year, we saw the first challenge of the new Hypercar era here, contested by Toyota and Alpine. Glickenhaus will make their first Spa appearance and if you have read the news and all the pre-race banter, you know that they are coming at this motor race with everything they've got in order to get set for their second attempt at the greatest sports car race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, next month. That is in the future. This is now. It is time for Spa Francorchamps and six hard fought hours of racing are set to come your way. It's live, and it's next!
The fans are here at Spa and ready to see a great motor race. ACO President Pierre Fillon is here. Roger Penske, a racing legend, shaking hands with Sebastien Bourdais. This track here at Spa is ever more challenging but has been totally revised. This is the traditional race before the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Glickenhaus, as we said, is on their first pole and the first American car to earn pole in WEC history. Spa has been redone, not in terms of configuration, but, the circuit has been redone and had more gravel traps put in for runoff. We shall see how things go. So glad to see fans back here for a race at Spa Francorchamps. A marching band plays on the grid. The WEC has their own marching band.
The pit walkabout happened earlier this morning and there will soon be a full-on driver autograph session. New grandstands at Spa are being built. Christian Ried is the only driver who has raced every single event since WEC began in 2012. Rahel Frey has two new co-drivers, Dorian Pin, and Christina Nielsen because sadly, Sara Bovy was positive for the Coronavirus and so was Michelle Gatting. So, two new drivers for the Iron Dames this weekend. Brendon Iribe and Inception Racing third in GTE-Am, Paul Dalla Lana second, and on the pole, Ben Keating. Henrique Chaves will join both Ben Keating and Marco Sorensen.
In GTE Pro, it is the final season for this storied class. Porsche, Ferrari, and the singular Corvette C8.R are here to compete. Olivier Pla had a massive lap to take pole for Glickenhaus sharing with Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani. Richard Lietz on pole in GTE Pro in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 sharing with Gianmaria Bruni. Corvette found the pace with Nick Tandy, sharing with Tommy Milner, the first visit for him to Spa. Roger Penske had never been around Spa before even though he too, was a racing driver earlier on in his career who ran in the United States. Roger Penske is 85 years old and still going for it. He is a human dynamo. His racing and business empires are enormous. The drivers are having conversations with each other before the race starts. Timo Bernhard is here overseeing young drivers in Porsche Carrera Cup.
The Carrera Cup cars have been the support series for WEC here at Spa this weekend. New grandstand at the top of Raidillon. Spa is a fabulous track. It is very challenging. The next race is Le Mans and then comes Monza in Italy. So we have a couple more great race tracks that we will be seeing later on in the year. Monza will hold International Le Mans Cup, European Le Mans Series, and World Endurance within a week of each other coming up in July. So, sports car racing, and all the pizza, pasta, and gelato you would like. Now how cool is that?! AF Corse one of the teams who is a new one to LMP2. We are set for the Belgian national anthem before we go racing.
So glad to have spectators here and glad to have your company as well before we go racing for the second time in 2022 in World Endurance. Clear the grid. Clear the grid, please. The tires are being bolted onto the cars. Pipo Derani and Nico Lapierre having a little fun. Not much of the high volatility, backstabbing and saying, "I will beat you!" It is not individual focused. You are a team. It is not like F1, NASCAR, or IndyCar where it is individual racing drivers in each car. Trials bikes in the forest. Is someone having a little fun in the forest? These trials bikes riders are delivering the green flag to the circuit. Holy smokes!
Robert Reid, the Deputy Sport President of the FIA is here to see the race. Wow! The bike racers jump right into the circuit! They are doing wheelies! Robert Reid, the former co-driver of World Rally champion, the late, great Richard Burns. The motorcycles spin right around and nearly scrape the safety car. Olivier Pla starting the Glickenhaus and of course sharing with Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani. Pipo Derani, in a Pipo Moteurs powered car. Cha ching! The bike racer hands the green flag over. We hear now from Anthony Davidson joining Martin Haven and Graham Goodwin in the commentary box.
Spa is not as easy as it once was. It is like it was back in the day when it was double the size. So wonderful to have fans back and down on the grid, soaking up the atmosphere. We are set to go racing right now. Let's do this. Grab your frites mayonnaise and beer and enjoy the 6 Hours of Spa with Glickenhaus on the pole. One minute to the roll off for the warmup lap. Une mas. Uno momento. The drivers are filled with adrenaline. The Toyota's are behind the Alpine and the Glickenhaus and they will have to move. You know they will go for it. The Toyota's will indeed go further on fuel due to their hybrid power. We are hoping to see the Peugeot team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not sure that will happen. We'll see.
The cars roll off. Only three places on the road where Toyota will be able to use their hybrid boost. The track has not changed. Some spots like up through Eau Rouge, have had the bumps and the compression taken out. At Pouhon, the tarmac has vanished before the gravel trap. The gravel hems you in. It is very much like 1985-'86 when this track saw Formula 1 come back and the World Endurance Championship raced here with the awesome Group C cars. We are buzzing. The Corvette and Porsche fight in GTE Pro with Ferrari as well. We also have the LMP2 scrap and the Hypercar battle between Glickenhaus, Alpine, and Toyota. GTE Am will be a major deal too between Aston Martin and Porsche. Six hours of racing is ready and we are green! Red lights out and away we go!
The Glickenhaus wants the lead. Andre Negrao in the Alpine is pushing and we see three wide in GTE Pro already between Porsche and Ferrari! Wow! We have a spin someplace, Mike Wainwright, in the #86 GR Racing Porsche and the Iron Dames Ferrari is tangled up down there too. The cars are nose to tail as the race begins. We see a tire off and the #91 Porsche had contact in La Source! Dear me! Gianmaria Bruni is in trouble! Two team mates clattering into each other right from the beginning and we have the safety car on the speedway. Wow. #85 in the gravel, the Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE of Christina Nielsen. Brendon Iribe turned Christina Nielsen and we saw argy bargy between the factory Porsche's. The Manitou crane is rescuing Christina Nielsen as the leaders come by.
Mike Wainwright is catching the crocodile and Gianmaria Bruni is in there as well. He has to come to the lane to replace the errant wheel. In replay, look, we can see the Alpine becoming the cork in the bottle and he tried going to the outside and got on the dust and wriggled his way to the inside while the Porsche's have a huge lockup, Bruni has to do the switcheroo and the #92, he dirt tracks it over the curbs and is going to rotate. The sidewall of the tire was ripped off and Kevin Estre, sunshine, you have made a massive mistake. Gianmaria Bruni calls on the radio, "I don't have a tire on this car!" Drama early doors here at Spa. Goodness gracious!
The bodywork is fine, but the wheel and tire are being replaced. The whole tread and the metal got ripped out. Pit entry remains closed. The outer rim of the wheel was totally machined off. That was not Gianmaria Bruni's fault whatsoever. #91 waits at the end of the pit lane and is now released back into the motor race. Under safety car. The safety car has to be driven hard to stay ahead of the race cars. Kevin Estre is being told that he has massive flatspots and so that car will be wriggling around under full speed. He will be dirt tracking that Porsche and be gutted. He is going to have to come to the lane. They wanted to double stint those brand new Michelin tires but now they are ruined. They are squared off.
Antonio Felix Da Costa in the Jota LMP2 #38 had a massive start and is right behind the Hypercars. Sebastien Buemi ahead of Mike Conwaya t Toyota. Toyota looking for their sixth consecutive win here at Spa. The last car that won at Spa not a Toyota or an Audi, was the Peugeot diesel the year before the World Endurance Championship started. It was the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP in Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Porsche won overall back in 1986 in the Group C era in a Walter Brun Porsche 962C with Frank Jelinski and Bob Wollek. The Porsche 919 Hybrid never won Spa. Good battle, look, between the Aston martin's of Paul Dalla Lana and Ben Keating.
Nicky Leutwiler starting the #46 Project 1 Porsche. Leutwiler sharing with Mikkel Pedersen and Matteo Cairoli. So, in GTE Pro, Porsche sandwich, the two Ferrari's and the Corvette C8.R. By force majeur you are allowed to change the damaged tire. Laura Wontrop Klauser for GM must be happy about where the Corvette is. She is the head of GM racing for both Corvette and Cadillac. The gap is opening up between the Hypercars and the LMP2 cars. Michelin tires on the Hypercars and Goodyear's on the LMP2 cars. The Michelin tire is a bespoke tire and the Goodyear is a customer tire and is completely different. Alessio Rovera is being monstered in LMP2 for the time being while Kevin Estre, through Rivage, Pouhon, and the Jacky Ickx turn. Through Fangnes and the slower turns. Fangnes and "Piff Paff" are the same corner.
Olivier Pla, inching away from Sebastien Buemi little by little. The Toyota just needs to sit there. The Glickenhaus won't have the longevity on fuel. They have the speed but they don't have the fuel longevity for the American hypercar with the French motor. Porsche AG are ready to have Bruni come back to pit lane for something. A top off on the petrol tanka dn maybe the rear left took a hit as well. Maybe he has handling woes. The team is under investigation for coming into the lane while it was closed but it is force majeur as Brendon Iribe is moving by Christian Ried. An Aston Martin 1-2-3 in GTE Am. We see a battle of the Ferrari's with Toni Vilander and Gabriel Aubry as well as the Aston Martinf or D'station with Tomonobu Fujii at the wheel of it.
One rule in motorsports, do not hit your teammate. Something will happen out of your control so you will just have to deal with it. Take control of your destiny. Manage the motor race. It's six hours. Don't risk it early doors and make a fool of yourself in front of your team. Good scrap here, look, in GTE-Am with the aforementioned Ferrari and Aston Martin battle. Banbury, England, vs. Modena, Italy. The Toyota's are reeling in the Glickenhaus hand over fist. Olivier Pla is reeling in Gianmaria Bruni as Sebastien Buemi wants by the Glickenhaus. Buemi is freaking out because of understeer. Calm down, Sebastien. It is early. But the traffic is working against the Toyota's and the Glickenhaus still leads this motor race.
Iron Dames are back in the fight. Christina Nielsen starting the car sharing with Rahel Frey and Doriane Pin. Pla, Buemi, Conway, the top three. A few drops of rain at Fangnes, at Piff Paff, the names of that turn are both acceptable. We see the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Fred Poordad starting the motor race, sharing with Patrick Lindsey and Jan Heylen, the Belgian ace who we have seen in SRO GT World Challenge America lately. Buemi is taking no prisoners trying to pass Andre Negrao, the Brazilian, in the Alpine. Antonio Felix Da Costa is ahead of the Prema and the WET cars and we see in replay, that tankslapper for the factory Porsche's. The team manager has a case of heartburn right now. That's for dead sure.
The two Ferrari blokes will be cackling like madmen. The #71 AF Corse Ferrari pitted and it was up to third place after going off the road. Aubry in #71 sharing with Pierre Ragues and Gabriel Aubry, the Spirit of Race car. Fred Poordad has the #31 LMP2 going off the road to pass at Blanchimont. That was a weird pass. Sebastien Buemi says he has understeer and is doing what he can to manage the front tires. He is running in the dirty air of the Glickenhaus which is an old school race car. It is set up like a Ford GT40, a Ferrari 512S, or a Lola T70 that raced here in the 1960s and early '70s. That was the golden age, when the "World Endurance Championship" as it was, really got started. Although back in those days it was the manufacturer's championship I believe.
In the ebb and flow of traffic the Toyota's have caught each other and Olivier Pla, he is just now going to get through the GT traffic. Into Les Combes, the GTE cars and Hypercars have the same speeds. Into Rivage/Bruxelles corner is a real overtaking spot. The Toyota's are getting stymied at the end of the Kemmel straight. The Glickenhaus is motoring while the Toyota's are getting trapped behind the Ferrari's into Courbe Paul Frere named after the racer who was also a journalist. A few raindrops at Spa but don't grab your umbrella and your Macintosh yet. Good LMP2 scrap between Alessio Rovera and Will Owen who is in the #22 United Autosport Oreca, the first of their two cars. Owen sharing with Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson.
Lorenzo Colombo should get a penalty from race control because he has really gained a bigger advantage over one of the other LMP2's and you cannot overtake by going off the road. That is forbidden. Rovera catching Colombo hand over fist. Alessio Rovera is being warned about track limits as well. Keep an eye out for the #41 WRT car in LMP2 which may have a cut tire. Toyota gaining on Glickenhaus as Olivier Pla is slithering around with less grip. Sebastien Buemi is going for it into La Source and he makes the pass. La Source? No. That was Les Combes I believe and now they turn down the hill. Mike Conway will have to motor as well to get in touch with Buemi.
Mike Conway can't get close enough as the #41 car is in the pit lane. The RealTeam/WRT LMP2 entry. That will be a slow stop for a car that has just blown a tire. Rui Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Norman Nato driving. Conway sweeps around Olivier Pla. Pla gets passed but is coming right back. He splits the Glickenhaus as Pla gets stymied behind one of the Ferrari's. LMP2 pit stops and driver changes underway and they've run 37 minutes. Sean Gelael is being monstered by Lorenzo Colombo. WRT vs. Prema. Antonio Felix Da Costa is being told by his crew chief to keep an eye on the fuel light. If the light comes on, you have to come in. Francois Perrodo now at the wheel of the #83 car.
It could be that drivers will double stint here in the dry, sunny conditions at Spa in a barely used race car. One careful owner. More LMP2's in the lane. Da Costa, 2:07.837. Sean Gelael, three seconds slower than Da Costa across the stint. Da Costa in the #38 Jota entry. Vector Sport also in the lane, a brand new LMP2 team. In LMP2 you cannot modify the fuel rigs. The gravity fed fuel bowsers are all the same. Da Costa told, "box this lap. Box this lap. Fuel only." He will stay in the car. He is on his in lap, halfway up the Kemmel straightaway. Ah yes. Da Costa knows about energy management from racing Formula E, the totally electric open wheel cars. Da Costa opened a gap on Sean Gelael of 13 and a half seconds. A pass for second spot? Nope. Sean Gelael wants it but knows discretion is the better part of valor.
Lorenzo Colombo is new to sports car racing and a former open wheel racer. Prema, new to LMP2 and they too have been in open wheel competition for a long time. Rovera handed his Oreca to Francois Perrodo. He says he was stuck behind the Toyota out of Eau Rouge and lost a spot, struggling with pace compared to Sean Gelael. The team will keep up their pace. Long way to go. We can see a lot of insects and splattering on the windscreens. Edoardo Freitas, Race Director handing a drive through penalty to the #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, who will be penalized after contact with #71 and Gabriel Aubry, the Spirit of Race Ferrari.
Buemi continuing to lead the motor race sharing the #8 Toyota with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa as we hear about possible rain on the Toyota radio. Dark clouds loom here at Spa. Could we see rain? Has the angel of doom cometh? It seems like a lot of us are on a full dry setup and we have not found need for the wellies just yet. Good battle in LMP2. Emmanuel Collard the meat in the sandwich between Will Owen and Francois Perrodo. Collard passes his old teammate, Francois Perrodo. How many times has Collard won here? He had to have won when he raced with four-time Le Mans winner Henri Pescarolo. Josh Pierson, the 16-year-old rookie who drove fabulously at Sebring is going for it.
Pierson is in the sister United Autosport car sharing with Oliver Jarvis and Alex Lynn. Sean Gelael and Lorenzo Colombo, I believe they are also in open wheel in Formula 2. Huge lunge there, and Colombo almost gets into Gelael! Yikes! Glickenhaus to the pit lane from third and the Alpine moves to third. Better fuel mileage for the French car. WRT wants a safety car, their Silver rated driver in the car. Olivier Pla wriggling the Glickenhaus all over the track. Cars off the road send a truck in to get them. Full Course Yellow freezes everyone's spot while the safety car packs everyone up again. We will see more safety cars if someone is in strife on the road. Alpine to the lane, car #36. One lap later than the Glickenhaus.
Full set of tires but no driver change for the #36. No rain yet but we shall see. It is humid here at Spa and there are bugs all over. The #56 Team Project 1 Porsche is penalized for contact with Christina Nielsen. Brendon Iribe will cop a penalty for that one. Will Owen hanging on and so is Josh Pierson followed by Emmanuel Collard, Ed Jones, Charles Milesi, Francois Perrodo, and Ryan Cullen. Toyota in the lane, car #7 as the track is declared wet. Rain lights on now. The track has been declared wet. Use the rain light in low mode. Low mode is the rear light. High mode is leaving your floodlights on at full intensity. Aston Martin #777 in the pits for slick tires. Tomonobu Fujii sharing with Satoshi Hoshino and Charlie Fagg. Two Japanese drivers and a Brit.
Toyota to the lane. The leader is in, Toyota #8. Can the sister #7 use the undercut? Now, through Eau Rouge. Gelael got stymied and Lorenzo Colombo had a head of steam, and both went off the road. Damage to the Toyota for Buemi on the lefthand sidepod. Aston Martin #33 in. #777 now has Satoshi Hoshino at the controls. Ben Keating will do another stint. Toni Vilander leading GTE Am for AF Corse as we have a battle in LMP2 between Intereuropol and RealTeam. Jakub Smiechowski driving as their Am driver. Smiechowski followed by Rui Andrade from Angola racing under a Portuguese license.
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