Summertime in Belgium can mean one thing, and one thing only. In the southern part of the country, it is time to go racing again in the Ardennes Forest. Circuit de Spa Francorchamps will once again rock to the thunder of 70+ GT3 production sports cars in the renewal of an annual tradition. SRO GT World Challenge Europe and the Intercontinental GT Challenge return for their blue riband, gold cup, creme de la creme event, the 24 Hours of Spa. Strap in, cinch down those belts, and get ready for another epic motor race. We have seen our fair share of them in this event in recent years. I hope you have plenty of frites mayonnaise, Belgian waffles, good Belgian beer (Stella Artois, Jupiler), and are ready and raring to go for the day into night and back to day classic that is the greatest GT3 event in the world.
It is a slightly earlier date than we are used to but round three of Fanatec GT World Challenge and the Intercontinental GT Challenge. This is the diamond jubilee editiopn of this wonderful race. The biggest, the best GT3 race in the world. This is a global phenomenon. America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. We have seen racing at Paul Ricard before. Yours truly is still working on that race and will post it soon. Then we have a fw more races left this year. There was a driver's parade into the town of Spa Francrchamps for people to see the cars and get autographs. The driver's parade is what makes this race very unique and for them to see these wonderful cars.
The circuit is seven kilometers long. It is legendary. Everyone knows the place. We have a very busy grid ready to go. This will be an entbralling race, an entry listing dripping with star names and great cars. We are starting behind the safety car because it has been raining all morning. We'll start the race at 4:30 P.M. local time, 9:30 A.M. Central Time. Rest In Peace, Formula Regional; driver, Delano Vandhoff, who died in a fatal wreck in the Formula Regional open wheel race. Godspeed, Delano. We welcome David Addison, John Watson, Amanda Busick, and Jemma Scott on commentary and pit lane reporting.
It is hard to tell if you want to wear shorts or waterproofs today. Pro class, has any driver who wants to participate in the race. Jules Gounon, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Raffaele Marciello are teamed up in the defending champion #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes AMG GT3. BMW have a great record at Spa and Rowe Racing is leading the Endurance Cup after winning at Monza in the springtime. The season is still long. Valentino Rossi is more confident and accomplished than he was last year and now driving for BMW and not for Audi of course. This is the most important race of the season of course.
The weather will be up and down as we said. Lamborghini has good pace but they have not been lucky this year. However, the new version of the Huracan could change fortunes. Mirko Bortolotti is looking forward to running the new EVO2 model Lamborghini Huracan in 2023. Ferrari won the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They want the triple crown here at Spa. Antonio Fuoco is ready for it racing with AF Corse in the new 296 GT3 Ferrari. Porsche also are always up there. They are here for Fanatec GT points and Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Laurens Vanthoor is confident even though he has been racing Porsche's Hypercar program all year. Audi has a bigger presence than in recent seasons and Kelvin van der Linde knows he has a chance to go for it racing with Scherer Sport. In Pro-AM, Gold, Silver, and Bronze, all are fascinating combinations. George Kurtz won Pro-Am in LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The boss of Crowdstrike, they are the sponsor of this year's race and Kurtz wants to go for it. In Gold Cup you can have two gold and one silver rated driver.
The Boutsen VDS Audi has shown speed all season with Aurelien Panis. He is the son of Formula 1 veteran and 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis. In Silver Cup, it is all Silver rated future star drivers with a large, competitive entry. Aston Martin and Bullitt Racing are back. Jeff Kingsley, the Canadian, he is ready to go for it. In the Bronze Cup, you have Platinum, Silver, and Bronze graded drivers. Hubert Haupt and his team want this victory in class. The biggest goal besides collecting the points is finishing the race.
No formation lap. The race will start when the cars move away from the starting grid. Qualifying into Super Pole, was very interesting. Matteo Cairoli, the Bronze driver, he is on the pole for this motor race and starting driver for the #20 Porsche 911 GT3R for Huber Motorsport. Cairoli sharing with Antares Au, Tim Heinemann, and Jannes Fittje. Winners in Btonze last year, the Iron Dames qualified well with their #83 Lamborghini. Sara Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Doriane Pin, and Rahel Frey. You do not win a 24 hour race on the first lap.
Watch for Alessio Rovera in the new Ferrari 296 GT3 #51. Rovera sharing with Nicklas Nielsen and Robert Shwartzman. We have seen GT1 Hypercars doing demo laps this weekend. The grid is being cleared. Drivers strapping in. We're getting set to go racing in a wee while. Watch for the #11 Comtoyou Racing Audi R8. Gilles Magnus, the Belgian, sharing with countryman Fred Vervisch, and German ace driver Christopher Haase. Klaus Bachler starts third for Porsche with the #911 Pure Racing (Pure Rxcing) entry sharing with Allksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, and Marco Seefried.
Kevin Estre is also ready to go in the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R with Laurens Vanthoor and Julien Andlauer. Fabrizio Crestani has pole in the Silver division and Sandy Mitchell, driving for K-PAX Racing, he will be a bloke to watch. He will be racing at night and in the forest it is very dark. Mitchell sharing with Marco Mapelli and Franck Perera in the Lamborghini Huracan. WRT are racing for BMW this year in a few M4 GT3's. Charles Weerts and his teammates want to win this race, their home race. Weerts sharing with Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde.
We have no idea who could win this race. By chance, an Audi could win this race. This event will be extremely unpredictable. Avoid penalties in the pit lane and stay clean. Stay out of the pit lane except for regularly scheduled service. Watch for the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Valentino Rossi, Augusto Farfus, and Maxime Martin. It is time to go racing. Time for the command. Drivers, start your engines! OK! Engines will fire and the safety car will lead them away. The #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3 in the pit lane.
Kenny Habul wrecked and has recovered, shuffling their drivers. We will talk about the #75 car soon. The driving team is Chaz Mostert, Martin Konrad, Adam Oseika, and Nicky Catsburg. Martin Konrad the starting driver. Therace cars will catch up the safety car and we'll start this race. Matteo Cairoli leading the grid alongside Alessio Rovera, Joel Sturm, Frank Perera, Charlie Fagg, and more. Away we go. The race is on! All the tension felt is now being released. The track is drying and we'll have one more lap behind the safety car before we turn them loose.
The Pro drivers will run the slick tires but they will have to live with a handful for a stint or two. Eau Rouge is a steep hill up to Raidillon. It is a 40 degree incline. It is also a blind apex. Aim for the pine tree. But there are now five tall pine trees in the forest. Experience, knowledge, confidence, commitment. That is Eau Rouge. Down the pit lane the #216 Porsche 911 GT3R. This is the Modena Motorsports car of Francis Tjia, John Shen, Benny Simonsen, and Mathias Beche. John Shen, the Canadian, has spun the car. I don't want to over egg the pudding, but I think he was on slick tires and is back at it.
We have now been racing for ten minutes and are still in grid order. Patrick Assenheimer was also in the lane. Safety car in the lane this lap. No spray and the track is drying quickly. A car has crashed! Kyle Washington has lopped the right front corner off the #132 GMG Racing by Car Collection Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R! Oh man! Kyle Washington sharing with James Sofronas, Patrick Long, and Jeroen Bleekemolen. Can the damage be fixed? We'll have to find out and they need a snatch vehicle to get that car recovered. This is unreal. What is the amount of damage the team will have to fix. There is vulnerability with the radiators, the suspension and more.
Game over. Kyle Washington and company won't start the race! Good grief! He just loses it and... ker-runch! He slams the barriers on the exit of Raidillon! Oy yoy yoy yoy yoy! That car was supposed to contend for IGTC points! You have to feel for the boys at GMG! We have raced for 15 minutes, and we have not had a racing lap yet. At least the circuit is drying out. Will we see the marshals having to repair the barriers? Jordan Pepper in 61st place, in the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, will have to push when we go green, sharing with Mirko Bortolotti, and Andrea Caldarelli. Maro Engel to the lane for a new set of Pirelli P Zero tires. Also to the pit lane is the aforementioned Jordan Pepper, and Daniel Serra in the Ferrari 296 GT3.
Fuel going into the car as well. Thomas Neubauer, Chris Froggatt, and Dylan Pereira have all pitted too. Mercedes #999 and one of the drivers, Mikael Grenier of Canada, there is a long safety car period and so the strategy factors into everything. Mikael Grenier sharing with Maro Engel and Daniel Juncadella. Every class except Pro can get waved by. Ian James has also pitted the #4 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. That car being shared by Ian James, George Kurtz, Colin Braun, and Felipe Fraga.
Everyone is now on their toes on a dry road. Porsche #56 in the lane too, the Daniele Di Amato driven Porsche 911 GT3R in Silver Cup for Dinamic GT and Huber Racing. Di Amato sharing with Jop Rappange, Adrien de Leener, and Tanart Sathienthirakul. Green flag! We go racing in the 24 Hours of Spa! Finally! Matto Cairoli leading Alessio Rovera, Joel Sturm, Franck Perera, Charlie Fagg, and Mattia Drudi. Sturm wriggles his way through Eau Rouge and uphill to Les Combes. There's a long, long way to go in the race. Matteo Cairoli moving ahead. A battle, look between Robert Renauer and the Iron Dames Lamborghini.
They turn through Piff Paff for the first time as Charlie Fagg is chasing Frank Perera and then Mattia Drudi is right on his six from Campus into Courbe Paul Frere named for the legendary racing driver and journalist from Belgium. Matteo Cairoli has a 3/4 of a second advantage over the Ferrari and now, Porsche on Audi, look. That is Kelvin van der Line scrapping hard with Steven Palette in the Bronze Cup. Alberto di Folco is in the Gold Cup Boutsen VDS #9 Audi. Jordan Pepper has uncorked fastest lap of the race thus far.
Matteo Cairoli extends his lead onto the eighth lap of this race. Sheldon van der Linde, chasing down Anton de Pasquale. Maxime Martin passes the Lambo and here comes the Dan Harper, Neil Verhagen, Max Hesse BMW as well. Cannot tell which one that is. Nico Menzel fighting with one of the other Audi's, the #40 car. Lots of shuffling going on early doors as we are just half an hour into this event. Thomas Preining in the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Sheldon van der Linde scrapping with teammate Maxime Martin. That is the Dan Harper driven Rowe BMW M4 GT3 #998 of Harper, Verhagen, and Hesse.
The weather is being facetious and those leaden clouds are looking to disperse and dispense more rain. Maxime Martin goes ahead of Sheldon van der Linde up the Kemmel straightaway. Harper gets mugged by Anton de Pasquale who has raced in Europe in Formula 1600 and Formula 2000 cars. He is an Australian Supercars veteran too of course. Matteo Cairoli leads and let me tell you, we are going to have rain here in a wee while from the looks of those dark skies. Charlie Fagg still chasing Franck Perera. The McLaren 720S GT3 vs. the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
Laurens Vanthoor in the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche is beginning to pick his way through the traffic as Maxime Martin has uncorked a purple sector, fastest of all. Fred Vervisch just up the road, glued to Alberto di Folco! Fred Vervisch is monstering the other Audi driver. Matteo Cairoli continuing to lead Alessio Rovera. Porsche #20 of Cairoli still in the lead. The gap is now four and a half seconds between the top two. 12 laps now completed. Joel Sturm is second in the Bronze Cup to the leading car, the #20 Porsche. Mattia Drudi is fourth in the #40 Audi for Audi Sport Team Orange1.
Drudi sharing with Dennis Marschall and Ricardo Feller. Dylan Pereira from Luxembourg is trying to make progress, the starting driver in the #66 Tresor Attempto Audi R8 sharing with Sean Hudspeth, Kikko Galbiati, and Andrey Mukovoz. More battles are on. Henrique Chaves in the McLaren is past Luca Stolz and now Anton de Pasquale is still being harried. We still see the dark clouds looming on the horizon. All cars have their headlights on for safety reasons. We are 13 laps into the race now. We also watch the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing McLaren 720S GT3. Chris Froggatt is a frustrated racing driver dropping like a stone.
Froggatt sharing the car with Eddie Cheever III., Jeffrey Schmidt, and Jonathan Hui. Charlie Fagg in the Optimum Motorsports McLaren is giving it a good run thus far passing Franck Perera and Kelvin van der Linde makes his move aboard the #17 Scherer Sport Audi R8. Kelvin van der Linde, Nicki Thiim, and Luca Engstler. Charlie Fagg is now fifth sharing his McLaren with Dean MacDonald, Sam De Haan, and Tom Gamble. We are going to see scheduled pit stops coming up and we see spots of rain in the endurance pit lane on the downhill to Eau Rouge. Martin, van der Linde, Harper, a battle of the BMW's for 17th spot. Downhill and back up through Eau Rouge.
Six hours, 12 hours, and the end of the race are the points opportunities and some argy bargy there for Steven Palette being bonked by Raffaele Marciello. I think that was accidental. Just hard racing but not as clean as you'd like it to be. Alessio Rovera continues on in second place and we have many of the other drivers within the top ten who we've already mentioned. Joel Sturm though is being reeled in by Alessio Rovera. 2:20.6 for Rovera, 2:21.2 for the leader. So, Alessio Rovera is motoring currently. We could see more rain. Matteo Cairoli leads Rovera now by four seconds. A Bronze rated car leading and has set fastest lap at 2:19.442.
A spin for the #70 Lamborghini into the final chicane. That is Gerhard Watzinger, the American driver in last place. He might have stalled the V10 engine. He got on the whirligig. Watzinger sharing with Kerong Li, Jean Francois Brunot, and Brendon Leitch. Maxime Martin scampering away from Sheldon van der Linde and now, Sheldon van der Linde is being caught out of Bruxelles by Henrique Chaves. So the racing already is hot and heavy with Matteo Cairoli leading the motor race currently. Down to Piff Paff they go, Fangnes corner, so it has a couple different names. Sheldon van der Linde has a scrape with the Hexis Energy Drink Porsche. Well, well, well. The Porsche cut across his bow and that was definitely an avoidable shemozzle.
Chaves still poking his nose out at the BMW. Daniel Serra given a driving standards flag for "unsporting behavior". What does that mean? Rovera continuing to pour on the steam in his chase of Matteo Cairoli. This is fascinating so far. Just amazing. Huber Motorsports leading the race. Tim Heinemann, one of the co-drivers is a DTM Trophy and German GT4 champion. Fagg, Di Folco, Hofer, the top three in the Gold Cup currently. McLaren, Audi, Audi. Franck Perera has flown Plummet Airways to seventh place. Alessio Rovera leads the "Pro" class, which no longer really exists in GTWC Europe or any of the global championships for SRO.
Raffaele Marciello closing on Fred Vervisch into Les Combes, Vervisch tries slamming the door in Marciello's face but Vervisch outbrakes himself and loses a place, running out of braking power and out of road. Sheldon van der Linde also being given an unsporting behavior flag and track limits which are all coming at the exit of Blanchimont and also at the top of Raidillon. The road is beginning to dry out as we said earlier. Marvin Kirchhofer has gained 12 places. Kirchhofer driving the #159 Garage 59 McLaren. He shares it with Nicolai Kjaergaard, and Benjamin Goethe.
Fred Schandorff, too, is really pressing on hard as Michelle Gatting goes to the pit lane for an early pit stop to get the car out of the traffic. Maro Engel definitely on his toes out of Bruxelles trying to pass Christopher Zoechling in one of the Porsche's for Dinamic GT Huber Racing. That is the second of their three cars, car #55. Zoechling sharing with Marius Nakken, Ben Barker, and Philipp Sager. Meanwhile, Joel Sturm is still running well and fending off the challenges of Mattia Drudi. Teams sometimes do come in a wee bit earlier than they would on the next stint.
This is part and parcel of strategy. Everyone is not just sitting in the lane eating an ice cream although that would taste good right about now. No time for snacking and hanging out, ladies and gents. We've got a motor race, not necessarily a car show, a la the driver's parade we talked about. Drudi closing in on Sturm to Les Combes. No way through. Sturm slams the door in his face. Drudi is trying to force the Porsche to go defensive. BMW vs. BMW. Dan Harper vs. Sheldon van der Linde and we also have Maxime Martin and Marco Wittmann in a couple other BMW's.
Martin caught once again by Sheldon van der Linde as well. This is hot and heavy racing indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment