24 Hours of Spa Hour 13

Halfway home.  It’s 4:30 A.M.  The witching hour.  The 24 Hours of Spa is half over for 2021.  Don’t worry lads and lasses, the dawn shall be coming soon.  The regular points allocation for GTWC Endurance goes to the top ten or eleven I believe.  We now have an allocation of points now in the 12^th hour.  Iron Lynx will get 12 points.  Audi Sport WRT with nine points and Aston Martin for six points I believe.  This goes on down the line to tenth spot.  Maybe 11^th spot.  Alessandro Pier Guidi is still your race leader.  Nothing has changed.  Consistency is the key and Pier Guidi is 12 seconds ahead of Charles Weerts while Marco Sorensen is gaining on Weerts as we speak.  The Ferrari is escaping from the other two.  Clear road ahead.  The car is very comfortable.  Pit stop time for the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc Audi R8 of Christopher Haase. 

In comes the sister Sainteloc Racing Audi in the Silver Cup class as well.  This is car #27, Lucas Legeret of Switzerland at the controls.  The car is getting a scrubbed set of Pirelli P Zero slick tires.  The car is in good shape.  There’s smearing on the paint but that is to be expected and Legeret is in gear and down and away.  Ryuchiro Tomita hands the #31 WRT Audi to one of his co-drivers as the car is refueled and away.  So, it is either Valdemar Eriksen or Frank Bird now in the car.  Ah.  Frank Bird now at the wheel of it.  #51 will head for the lane soon.  Will the Iron Lynx entry block one of their fellow Ferrari’s?  The #93 Sky Tempesta Racing machine is in the lane for service just behind where Iron Lynx are pitted on the downhill side, so in the endurance/heritage pit lane.

Alessandro Pier Guidi has just gained four seconds in one lap.  Charles Weerts and Marco Sorensen are both losing time to the Ferrari through traffic.  Come Ledogar and Nicklas Nielsen have both done incredibly well and now, Alesandro Pier Guidi hits the pit lane with a 4.2 second advantage and that team, Ledogar/Nielsen/Pier Guidi, have earned points for the championship too.  Driver change, tire change, fuel.  So, Come Ledogar will take over and Charles Weerts is in the lane in Audi #32 for WRT as well, look.  Lamborghini #63 is running well but they have a drive through penalty in their future.

Marco Sorensen has the #95 Garage 59 Aston Martin, but they are headed for the garage to do their technical pit stop/brake change.  Take your medicine.  This is standard procedure.  Although the sister #188 Aston Martin with Chris Goodwin at the controls, took a long, long time to do their tech stop and are now buried way down in 46^th place.  The #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes is also in the lane for service and for a driver change.  Jules Gounon brought the car in from fourth place.  So, it is either Raffaele Marciello or Dani Juncadella getting into the car.  My guess is it is Marciello who will take it over.  We watch the mechanics at work on Aston Martin #95.  There’s clumps and chunks of rubber caught in the bodywork.

They clean the windscreen, and the car is hot, extremely hot, all over the place.  The mechanics are checking for play in the hub, the wheel bearing.  Into the lane now, too, is the #66 Audi Sport Team Attempto Audi in the lane.  Christopher Mies has done his stint and he will hand over to one of his co-drivers, brakes steaming away.  The two drivers give each other a pep talk as the Aston Martin is back on track.  Some teams have chosen scrubbed tires and others have fresh, new boots on the car.  Where will Nikki Thiim rejoin?  Mattia Drudi has finished his stint.  Christopher Mies, I think is in the car.  There’s steam coming out the top of the helmet through his balaclava.  It’s hot. 

Alessandro Pier Guidi says that so far, the team and the car are doing well, and they have taken the points.  It’s a long, long race yet.  Anything can happen.  The car is running well and Nicklas and Come, his co-drivers are doing well.  Pier Guidi says the Ferrari is quicker in cooler conditions.  So, he will get some rest now and is content to say that the car has an advantage.  The drivers are extremely fit, eat well, keep their weight down.  These people are true athletes.  Racing is not a stick and ball sport.  But these folks are true athletes in every sense.  No candy bars.  No guilty pleasure food.  Eat well.  In the Silver Class, Mad Panda Motorsports and the #90 Mercedes AMG GT3 still lead.  Ricardo Sanchez from Mexico is at the controls.

Second spot in Silver sees Axcil Jeffries now at the wheel of an identical Mercedes, the #7 AMG GT3 for Toksport WRT.  Third spot is the Garage 59 #159 Aston Martin.  Tuomas Tujuula, the Finn, has that car in a good spot.  He is just ahead of the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 now being driven by Jonathan Hui, the driver from Hong Kong.  Then comes the #53 AF Corse Ferrari and we ought to see who is driving that car.  Hui, followed by Matt Griffin, and Alessio Rovera, as we see some sparks shooting off one of the cars on the overrun. 

That is the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes which could have suspension woes.  We’ll have to see.  They are third overall, but sparking on the left side?  No tire trouble or so it seems.  Is there a broken exhaust?  We shall see what is going on with this car.  We look at the AWS Race Vision speed trap through Raidillon and right now, Jules Gounon is fastest in the #88 Mercedes at 241 kilometers an hour (151 miles an hour), followed closely by Christopher Mies in the Audi and David Pittard in the BMW both running at 240 kilometers per hour.  Thomas Neubauer in the other #35 Walkenhorst BMW still has the fourth fastest speed tied with Nikki Thiim in the Aston Martin, at 239 kilometers an hour.  However, Neubauer and company are out of the race with the second Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW having retired earlier on as we discussed.

Four manufacturers in the top five speed traps.  The Audi and the Mercedes, going down the hill, the Mercedes is lazier through the turns, hence the sparks we see.  Jules Gounon, the Frenchman, runs third in the overall just behind the Audi and it is hopping on the left rear corner.  Sparks are fine, but something may be amiss on the left rear of that automobile.  How will AKKA ASP handle this newly arisen issue?  The sparking is unusual, and the car is losing ground to it’s rivals.  Jules Gounon’s teeth must be chattering.  Team radio sounds like a set of false teeth, windup false teeth.  Running over the curbs you damage the car.  It has been a symptom for a while for the pole sitting automobile.  They have clawed their way back up to third but are still a lap or so down.  If they’ve picked up shock and damper woes, other people will have to be careful.

Don’t run over the jagged sections of the curbs.  That’s what track limits are for and they are surely hitting the rumble strips too.  The Pro-Am battle is down to under a second with Jonathan Hui leading the class over Alessio Rovera and Matt Griffin, three Ferrari’s.  The order has changed and now, Rovera leads over Griffin and Hui is now third who has had a lap go awry.  Pro-Am is quite the battle especially for the same teams of Prancing Horses.  Matt Griffin is a veteran Ferrari driver who won the European Le Mans Series championship many moons ago. 

Henrique Chaves is next up in the #77 Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3.  The V8 Ferrari is not a V12, but it is still evocative.  Matt Griffin has won the European Le Mans Championship and then the old iteration of GT World Challenge, in 2014, the old Blancpain GT Championship.  The drivers really enjoy this race, and you can have cars come together and then drift apart and then cross paths again in a few more hours.  Timing and scoring is a fascinating thing to take a look at.  Meantime, the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari continues ticking.  Jules Gounon in the #88 Mercedes is still going ‘round with the sparks, but he is not losing too much time.  However, the handling must be going away on that Benz.

Maybe they are eking the car out for the next pit stop.  You’ll have to stay out there and keep pushing on.  Keep soldiering on.  How many points during a 24-hour race will your car handle at 100%?  Not after the start.  No different than being a rugby player who has been dealing with injuries.  Many of the cars have now served their long technical pit stops.  We wonder who may get another drive through penalty.  It will either be for track limits or speeding in the lane.  The #63 Lamborghini has been having Damocles’ sword held over it.  Now we watch a battle for ninth spot between the #54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche of Klaus Bachler and the #25 Sainteloc Audi with Christopher Haase at the wheel. 

The #50 HubAuto Mercedes is in the garage for a differential change.  Nick Tandy has now dropped to 11^th in the #47 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R.  He has dropped one spot from the last time we checked in on him.  So, he is out of the top ten for the moment.  Come Ledogar leads the motor race by 14 seconds ahead of Charles Weerts.  Ledogar is slower than Weerts right now.  2:21 for Weerts and 2:23 for Ledogar as Jules Gounon only lost a second or so to Weerts, hanging onto third by 43 seconds over the #37 Nico Muller driven WRT Audi.  Ben Barnicoat runs fifth for Jota in the #38 McLaren and sixth goes to Andrea Caldarelli who is aboard the #63 Orange 1 FFF Racing Lamborghini.

Caldarelli is sixth in the overall and pressing on well, thank you.  Christopher Haase is still in hot pursuit of Klaus Bachler.  The #32 WRT Audi has picked up 52 positions and they were jolly lucky getting the rub of the green during a safety car.  Keep your noses clean in this motor race ladies and gentlemen as we approach 5:00 A.M. and another hour before sunrise with mist continuing to linger in the air.  Some cars will come into their own and start handling better as daylight comes to the fore.  It will be much easier to see the cars in the daylight.  The aspects we won’t see when daylight hits are the glowing brake discs and the flames shooting out of the exhaust. 

We can split this race into three, equal, eight-hour segments, into thirds.  By the end of this race, you will have tired, dry, grainy eyes.  So, keep some eyedrops handy or splash your face with water every so often if you want to stay awake.  Coffee will also help, but that’s not the only solution.  Audi have the most cars in the top ten but the championship regulations for GT3 provide close racing with all these amazing manufacturers and cars.  The gap has been reduced slightly now between Come Ledogar in the lead and Charles Weerts in second.  Traffic is the deal.  Ledogar loses the advantage and then it yoyoed back in his favor.  Jules Gounon is half a minute behind but is 39 seconds ahead of Nico Muller.

He has a cushion over Muller but is falling away from the top two.  #33, the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari spins at La Source, but continues and rejoins the race.  That car has Fabrizio Crestani at the controls and is 19^th in the overall.  The #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes continues leading the Silver division but drops a place in the overall from 14^th to 15^th, being passed by the #4 HRT Mercedes.  The #38 Jota McLaren is fifth overall, Ben Barnicoat at the wheel and he is in the lane.  Jules Gounon, after the sparking on the left rear corner, he is still cutting good lap times. 

Christopher Haase passes Klaus Bachler through La Source.  Drive through penalty for the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini for speeding in the pit lane.  Andrea Caldarelli is fifth in the overall.  How the front runners are being pinged for speeding in the lane, I don’t know.  David Addison and John Watson were talking earlier saying you set the speed limiter to 49 kilometers an hour.  Maybe there is an electrical or technical issue, but it is down to the driver.  It is the sole responsibility of the driver to set the limiter.  Come Ledogar now leads this motor race over Charles Weerts by 21 seconds. 

Jules Gounon continues in third place.  We are creeping ever closer to daylight. Iron Lynx and WRT are looking stronger and stronger.  We await the #63 Lamborghini to serve a drive through penalty from fourth spot.  Yes.  Race Control makes another mention of the penalty.  Come in soon, lads.  Come in soon.  Bouncing over the curbs, using all the road rather than exceeding track limits, down through Pouhon, touching the curbs on the inside, flashing the lights to the car ahead.  Down the hill.  The team manager is arguing his point with the stewards, and so, the penalty has been suspended.  Negotiations currently underway. 

The team boss will have run up to see the Race Director ant he Clerk of The Course, begging, “don’t give us a penalty!  We did nothing wrong!”  The Ferrari goes as wide as possible and does the dummy through La Source.  The Lamborghini outbrakes the Ferrari, powering down the hill through Eau Rouge in the dark.  What a famous and brave set of turns!  On the left-hand side, a car exits the lane and we have about 45 minutes ‘til sunrise.  The skies are certainly lightening.  The team manager’s job is to fight for his team if the penalties doled out are believed to be unwarranted.

Jules Gounon hanging on in third and Andrea Caldarelli has just unlapped himself.  The LED headlights flashing do distract the drivers and that is what they are meant to do in a way.  Way back in the day, headlights were more like candles and did not provide much light.  Come Ledogar leads Charles Weerts now by 20 seconds.  Weerts is 30 seconds ahead of Jules Gounon.  There are two other cars from AKKA ASP.  Their #89 car is 12^th overall, in the hands right now of Lucas Auer.  Formula 1 driver, and a ten-time F1 race winner, Gerhard Berger, is Lucas Auer’s uncle. 

Berger also raced here at Spa in the 24 Hours in the touring car days back in the mid-1980s with BMW.  Auer and company could work their way to the top ten places.  Penalties are far less than we’re used to, but they are scattered around, to quote SRO lead overnight commentator Bruce Jones, “like confetti being thrown around at a wedding.”  Ha!  Good one!  We’ve heard very little about penalties in recent hours.                    

Caldarelli pits from fourth and I believe he is serving his drive through penalty, flashing the lights and that was the drive through penalty, and he is now way down in tenth spot.  Maybe 11^th spot.  Car #32 started 54^th but they have not served a penalty at all.  Another car is now under investigation by the stewards, Audi #25 for Audi Sport Team Sainteloc being shared by Markus Winkelhock, Patric Niederhauser, and Christopher Haase.  They are under investigation for a refueling infraction.  Aston Martin are fastest with Niki Thiim, running in the 2:20 bracket.  Jules Gounon, sadly, is losing time to the Aston.  Gounon has the Mercedes is third overall, pogoing it’s way over the bumps.

Nick Tandy is back up to ninth place in the overall.  Caldarelli will have to serve the drive through penalty!  How agonizing!  He will have to serve the penalty and just take the medicine and get it done.  The driver clicks the radio and says, “again!  Really?  You must be joking!”  Let’s have a Captain Cook and see if he comes to the lane.  Nope.  Not this time.  The pace of the #32 WRT Audi has been simmering right along as well with Charlesd Weerts at the controls.

We have also seen an off-track excursion for car #85 but are having trouble seeing where said car is in the running order.  Wait.  Wrong number.  No #85 in the entry.  Nicki Thiim runs fourth overall still.  We are probably more worried about speeding in the lane than being pinged for track limits.  Thiim is eating chunks out of Jules Gounon, running only seven and a half seconds down.  He will push hard.  His dad, Kurt Thiim, raced in German Touring Cars, in the old version of DTM.    

 

24 Hours of Spa Hour 12

In replay, we can see up through Raidillon, Glenn van Berlo pulled the car off the road.  Glenn van Berlo is part of a racing family.  His brother Kai van Berlo is also a sports car racing driver, and their dad was also a racing driver.  It sounds like, according to Mr. Bruce Jones, the van Berlo brothers are good drivers and a hoot to be around.  Such a shame, but the car needs to be moved as it is right at the top of Raidillon.  The leaders pit.  Kelvin van der Linde hands the #32 Audi (the race leading car), to Charles Weerts for his next stint.  Alessandro Pier Guidi will stay aboard the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari.  We’ve had some position shuffling in the pit lane.

Apologies again to Audi Sport Team Attempto.  We thought their orange, yellow, and gray Audi was the car in trouble when in fact it was the VS Racing #666 Lamborghini.  The mist continues to hang over the circuit.  Alberto Di Folco brings the #16 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini in for service.  The team is doing their brake change but doing so in the pit lane.  Normally it is wiser to take the car into the garage to change the brakes.  Maybe they can do it in the confines of their pit box.  That’s a big maybe.  This is a rarity.  You just don’t see brake changes in the pit lane.  What will the SRO and the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium say about this?

Schnabl Engineering’s loss is Jota’s gain.  Rob Bell and company are going to move back up the order.  Rob Bell, Oliver Wilkinson, and Ben Barnicoat in the #38 McLaren will gain places back that they lost earlier in the motor race.  Ben Barnicoat at the wheel of the McLaren.  Christopher Mies and Nick Tandy are still in the fight as well.  Work still going on, frantic work, on the #22 GPX Porsche.  They seem to be buttoning up the bodywork as the rollback is hauling back the stricken VS Racing Lamborghini,car #666.  They are taking the car back towards the pit and garage area.

Alessandro Pier Guidi leads in the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari with Charles Weerts now second in the #32 WRT Audi R8 LMS.  Marco Sorensen is third, a minute and a half behind Charles Weerts.  Fog is a main issue according to Rob Bell, and he is right.  Following the safety car, the drivers are weaving back and forth not so much to clean their Pirelli P Zero tires, but rather to put heat in them.  Everyone knows soon the safety car will be in the lane soon.  So, you will be ready to punch it almost immediately.  It’s clear as you like in some places on the road, but misty and foggy on other parts.  Nick Tandy and KCMG have just made their mandatory technical pit stop.

Dries Vanthoor says that the race is going well for him and for his team.  He got lucky with the rain and they moved up 35 places from 50^th to 15^th spot.  The strategy is key for tonight and tomorrow.  There’s lots of fog at Eau Rouge and it is hard to see.  The car is working well, and he and his team hope it stays alive and they can stay at the front.  Dries Vanthoor says he is going to go get some rest because he is quite tired and wants to be refreshed for his next stint behind the wheel.  Safety car in at the end of this lap.  The level of focus required in racing is high, but even more so in fog.

Many of the top teams work with physio therapists and massage therapists and the like.  There is a darker lighted room so drivers can rest their eyes and minds, but still watch the race to see how their car is doing.  Okie dokie then, mate.  We are back to green!  Marco Sorensen is looking to work his way into the mix here before long.  He is four and a half seconds down on Charles Weerts who is following the Ferrari.  Iron Lynx is growing rapidly, as a team, and they are opening an advantage in the lead.  Alessandro Pier Guidi is stretching his legs right now.  Michael Christensen now has the #3 Schnabl Engineering Porsche back on track and is playing catch up.

Christensen is a wheel man and so he’ll be able to do it.  The team followed through with the repairs and they are going to move up.  No doubt of that.  We are also looking for the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin which had been undergoing a gearbox change and the rear decklid and bumper of the car looked as if it was pretty oily and a real mess.  Alessandro Pier Guidi’s advantage has ballooned to a second a half.  So, he is motoring while Marco Sorensen is five and a half seconds down.  Fabrizio Crestani is now chasing down the Mad Panda Motorsport Mercedes #90 in Pro-Am.  Crestani currently at the wheel of the Ferrari for Rinaldi Racing, car #33.

Rino Mastronardi is catching Fabrizio Crestani as well, so, a battle between Ferrari’s.  Maybe the mist has lifted out of the third sector because that is where we are seeing fast times come in, bang, bang, bang, in quick succession.  Many drivers are now on new Pirelli P Zero tires as well.  The mist is still hanging in the air, obscuring the view of the cars.  Through Les Combes, the mist was horrid a while ago, but it is not so bad now.  But Rob Bell was right when he said the drivers are struggling with the mist.  The track isn’t slick at all.  Christopher Mies in the Audi works his way past the #93 Pro-Am class leading Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari.

Matteo Cressoni has gained a second or so and we have a car pulling off the road.  From 15^th place, this is Michael Christensen in the much delayed, beleaguered #3 Schnabl Engineering Porsche.  Oh dear.  His exhaust pipes were glowing and there might be some damage on the rear bumper.  Someone has clattered into the right rear corner of that car.  Commentator’s curse!  We were just extolling his virtues and talking about how well he was going.  But now, well, we’ll see if he can get back in the game.  Was this up to the entry of Eau Rouge?  Where dd this happen?  Let’s hope we can extract the car quickly.  We don’t know what happened.

The gap between Alessandro Pier Guidi in the lead and second place man Charles Weerts is growing slightly.  Pier Guidi is actually 3.3 seconds ahead now.  There’s fluid pouring out of the Porsche it seems.  Very sideways for Michael Christensen who spun completely around and across the track after hitting the pit wall!  Ouch!  That rear bumper is hanging by a thread, with a puncture, and suspension damage.  Deary me.  A few cars being warned about disrespect of track limits with the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes and the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes in fourth spot, Daniel Juncadella at the controls now.

Yet another car being warned, the #18 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R.  That is the car driven by Josh Burdon, Alexandre Imperatori, and Edorado Liberati.  Edoardo Liberati will have to obey the warning flags or serve a penalty.  Meanwhile, the sister #47 KCMG Porsche is still in the hunt too.  That is the Nick Tandy, Maxime Martin, and Laurens Vanthoor car.  So, KCMG has a warning.  Phil Keen and company have retired from this motor race and will finish 50^th in the overall standings.  Game over.  The race has been run at a fearsome pace, but it has been incredibly clean too.

We are getting some great racing here through the middle of the night.  The leading Ferrari is consistently improving it’s lap times.  Bentley #107 for CMR is given a warning flag.  Ulysse de Pauw at the controls right now.  But the car was penalized for some earlier indiscretion.  They are running way down in 34^th place in the overall.  The #3 Schnabl Engineering Porsche is just now being towed in.  Christian Engelhart driving the #54 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, a car that has consistently been moving up after their sister entry dropped out, is being monstered by another consistent runner.  It’s our old pal, Ben Barnicoat in that steady #38 Jota Sport McLaren, the sole remaining McLaren in the motor race after the Inception Racing car, I believe, has headed for the house quite some time ago now.

Barnicoat is a lucky, lucky, lucky luck boy that he didn’t get his nose chopped off scrambling through Bruxelles there!  Wow!  Close shave, mate!  Barnicoat almost got the rough end of the pineapple there.  The rub of the green indeed.  Some contact there, too, a lunge, between the Porsche and the Lamborghini, but the door was firmly slammed in somebody’s face.  Alessandro Pier Guidi could be growing the gap he has had for some time.  The gap is now closing, 3.6 seconds.  Charles Weerts is gaining slightly.  So, Barnicoat has moved past Engelhart through the mist.

The Porsche we worried about earlier has been moved.  The tire debris at the side of the circuit has not gotten any worse in the last five almost six hours.  Audi #31 wriggles through the turn.  Not sure who it is driving.  The Aston Martin, though, has impeccable manners insofar as handling and turning into the fast corners.  It is gripping, biting really well.  Weerts still runs behind Pier Guidi.  Two drive through penalties being handed out to the #31 Team WRT Audi and the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari.  That is the 17^th place car of Ryuichiro Tomita, Frank Bird, and Valdemar Eriksen.  The Ferrari of course is being shared by David Perel, Fabrizio Crestani, and Benjamin Hites.  Refueling infringement for the #31 car. 
#38 in the pit lane.  Ben Barnicoat will stay in the car.  Tires and fuel for the Jota team.  They are cleaning the rubbish out of the radiator grille as well.  A solid pit stop and a smoky sideways getaway!  Wow!  Iron Lynx and Alessandro Pier Guidi still lead.  Lots and lots of work done on the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin, and thankfully, they are back on track, Chris Goodwin now behind the wheel.  In half an hour, points will be allocated for the Intercontinental GT Challenge.  Two or three hits during the race, and then, at the end.  This is the first round of three in the championship. 

Warning is one thing, and last warning is far more concerning.  Last warning for the #18 KCMG Porsche in 15^th spot.  Edoardo Liberati, Alexandre Imperatori, and Josh Burdon will have to mind their P’s and Q’s.  The #37 WRT Audi is in the lane for service and just now being issued a drive through penalty is the #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari.  Nick Tandy, we go onboard with him in the Porsche, the #47 KCMG car.  He makes a good move going uphill.  Tandy is running in tenth place right now.  Fully committed in that screaming flat 6 Porsche.  He is coming up to start another lap, on a clear track, behind Christopher Haase in the Sainteloc Audi, the #25.

Nick Tandy has just done his long pit stop with new boots and a brake change.  He is ready to go for this stint.  It will be interesting to watch his sector times as we get closer and closer to the halfway mark in the race.  The thick mist we saw earlier has lifted a bit.  KCMG have now come to the top ten.  What will become of the sister car though?  Drive through penalty for abusing track limits for the #99 Attempto Racing Audi.  Fabien Lavergne, Max Hofer, and Alex Aka drive that car.  Fabrizio Crestani, meanwhile, has the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 16^th in the overall.

Will Nick Tandy earn a podium?  Let’s keep our powder dry.  He was on the race winning team last year.  Alessandro Pier Guidi, meanwhile, leads the motor race by 6.7 seconds, and we have a car stopped on the road.  Oh dear.  Another local yellow at the very least.  Wait a second.  We have two cars.  One is stopped and one has spun to the left side of the circuit.  The T2 Racing Am class leader must have spun.  Manuel Lauck at the controls.  He just spun on his own accord and the other car was on the access road on the other side.  Manuel Lauck is recycling the system to restart the car. 

Whoops.  Hold everything.  That’s the Team Allied Racing Porsche that has spun.  Manuel Lauck, sorry Sir.  Did not mean to implicate you in a spin, sunshine.  Carry on, mate.  Team Allied-Racing, that is… the #222 Porsche 911 GT3R that has spun off the road.  Lars Kern sharing with Bastian Buus, Julien Apotheloz, and Arno Santamato.  It is not like Lars Kern (Porsche test driver and a man who knows the Nurburgring Nordschleife like the back of his hand), to make a mistake.  So I can only presume it is one of the other three co-drivers who has made a pig’s breakfast in the chicane there.  Ah yes.  It is Bastian Buus who has spun the car.  We watch Ryuichi Tomita of Japan in the #31 Team WRT Audi dropping down the hill.  He is currently in 17^th place.

Tomita appears to be being pursued there by Fabrizio Crestani in the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari, car #33.  The mist is still in the air in a frond at the top of the hill.  It has really dispersed but is still in a clump at the highest point of the track at Les Combes.  Alessandro Pier Guidi is seven and a half seconds ahead of Charles Weerts who is another seven or so seconds ahead of Marco Sorensen.  Five different brands in the top five.  Ferrari leads Audi leads Aston Martin leads Mercedes leads Lamborghini.  Sorensen losing time to Weerts or so it appears.  A good mix of cars in the top five.  These GT3 cars sound wonderful.  It is the unexpected stops where the mechanics get on it. 

We are at 4:20 A.M. and have an hour and 40 minutes before dawn.  Will we see the sun?  Will we see more mist?  Andrea Caldarelli in the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini, under investigation for speeding in the pit lane.  Oh boy.  That car was the erstwhile leader of the motor race earlier and has dropped to ninth in the overall at this stage I believe.  Truthfully, Caldarelli is in the 11^th spot.  Axcil Jeffries at the wheel of the #7 Toksport WRT Mercedes has just uncorked the fastest time for his car.  So, the Zimbabwean is flying. 

We have other fastest laps for individual cars with Ulysse de Pauw setting quickest time in the #107 CMR Bentley and in the #10 Boutsen Ginion Racing BMW M6 GT3, the fastest time goes to the bloke currently driving it, Switzerland’s Yann Zimmer.  The fast lap times and sector times are massively improved especially in the midfield.  Has the #22 GPX Martini Porsche come back on track?  Nope.  They are down in 46^th place.  A spot above is the Nicky Catsburg driven Mercedes, still being worked on.  That is the #50 HubAuto Mercedes Catsburg is sharing with the two Maximilian’s, Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Gotz.  

McLaren #38 is still running well.  We are skimming around to see if there are more incidents.  We do see the #166 Porsche, the Haegeli by T2 Racing car is still in the field, 37^th overall, leading the Am class and 25 seconds ahead of the Huber Motorsports Porsche.  Evetryone is being sensible through traffic.  People are beginning to see better, and the track conditions are uniform without surprises of any kind.  We have a nice mix of manufacturers.  Audi has a run on the top eight, but in sixth and ninth we do have a couple of Porsche’s, and Ferrari leads, Aston Martin third, a Mercedes in fourth and a McLaren has come into the top ten with Ben Barnicoat.  Andrea Caldarelli of course in the Lamborghini is under investigation by the stewards for speeding in the pit lane.

Most should make the hour without a stop but those who pit now will give up champipnship points as we’ll be halfway next time by.  The blokes who have done brake changes have tossed points opportunities out the window or so it seems.  The gap still extends for the lead, and we watch the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari in the Silver class in 16^th overall.  They continue to run half a minute down on Silver Cup leaders, the #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes in 14^th overall compared to 17^th for Rinaldi and the Ferrari.  Yet, it is still half a minute gap in Pro Am, no matter how you slice it.  Ryuchiro Tomita continues harrying Fabrizio Crestani.  Don’t forget that during the daylight hours yesterday, Benjamin Hites spun that Ferrari and landed in the gravel trap, having to be extracted by the marshals.  This battle continues unabated for another lap.  We are ticking down to halfway through the race.  12 hours down and 12 hours to go.  Who will be the king of the late brakers? 

The #3 Schnabl Engineering Porsche is also in the garage with the front bumper and the front trunk lid, up.  Now, that’s not the hood, since a Porsche is a rear engine, nee mid-engine car.  So, the “frunk”, the front mounted trunk, as it were, is open, while the mechanics service the automobile.  Has there been contact on the circuit?  That is a dodgy, wobbly looking left front headlight on that Porsche, if I say so myself.  They are fiddling with the whole left front fender assembly on that car.  They are eighth overall, so still in the top ten.  They likely could be doing a brake change on that car.  The brake change work continues, on the #16 Lamborghini.

This is a car we have seen in the wars through the race this weekend.  Clemens Schmid, Alberto Maria Di Folco, Tim Zimmerman, and Kikko Galbiati on the driver’s strength.  It appears they’ve changed the discs and not the calipers and the whole braking system.  That’s odd.  Remarkable work at Schanbl Engineering.  They have worked on the left front fender, the bumper, the splitter, and now, will do a new door, and have done the brake change.  This is a full service stop for Schnabl.  It is very efficient.  They are remembering and praying for those here in Europe, across the border in Germany, with the flooding.  Stay safe.  Bless you all.

 

24 Hours of Spa Hour 11

“I can’t wait to scream and go fast again!”  Loads and loads of tire debris at the top of the circuit, on the original circuit, it went straight on and to the left down into the valley into corners like Burnenville, Malmedy, and the Masta Kink.  The original course was 14.1 kilometers (8.8 miles) long, and began use in 1950, as it was yet different from the original layout thought up in 1924.  The track started at the top of the hill at La Source, plunging down through Eau Rouge, and Raidillon, to the Kemmel straight.  Les Combes continued the downhill plunge into Haut de la Cote, Burnenville and Malmedy before the dreaded and awesome Masta kink, through Holowell and Stavelot, back uphill to La Carriere, and Blanchimont was a straight blast back up to the heavy braking zone at La Source to start another lap.  That’s how one of the layouts (the most famous layout) of the old circuit, worked out.  Meanwhile, in modern times, we have a safety car procedure on the track towing the Walkenhorst BMW into the lane.  Nope.  Never mind.  The safety vehicle is going behind the barriers.

Mapelli leads Dries Vanthoor now with the Aston Martin third followed by Ferrari and Mercedes.  We have five brands in the top five places at this moment.  Dries Vanthoor and company started 54^th out of 58 cars of course.  Is this car going to win?  It is now up front.  It seems this might be their year.  This lineup is blessed tonight as the fog, the mist, continues.  Many hours to go, but the #32 car does deserve the result.  We’ll have to see.  On merit, they’ve grabbed the bull by the horns, no pun intended.  Dries Vanthoor is frantically heating/cleaning his tires. 

KCMG is telling everyone else “please speed up!” behind the sagety car, as we hear from Race Director Alain Adam that the safety car will head for the lane this time by.  KCMG are running 17^th overall, with former 24 Hours of Spa winner Maxime Martin at the wheel.  He has to catch and pass the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes with Timur Boguslavisky at the wheel and has to pass the #3 Dennis Olsen driven Porsche for Schnabl Engineering as well.  He will be working his way towards the top ten.  Today is Mark Lemmer’s wedding anniversary, having to make up to his wife Jo.  Lemmer is the Barwell team boss of course.  Congratulations to them on their anniversary.

Now then, the #34 Walkenhorst BMW was retired due to a blown radiator just as we thought.  Game over for both, Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW’s.  Jens Klingman has the only BMW M6 GT3 left in the race for Boutsen Ginion Racing.  Unfortunately, they are well down the order in 38^th overall.  We have a real candy dish of different cars in different positions for the lapped traffic that the top runners will be dealing with.  Safety car lights off.  It’s time to go racing again.  Drivers will be asking who is behind them.  Marco Mapelli leads Dries Vanthoor and we have to see how many back markers are in between.

Green flag.  Dries Vanthoor is now second.  They thunder into La Source again and down the hill to Eau Rouge in the darkness.  Marco Mapelli is surely the leader right now.  Dries Vanthoor is pushing the EBM Porsche, or one of them.  There are four cars now between Mapelli and Vanthoor.  Braking hard into Brussels corner.  So many different lines the drivers use through that turn.  The field is bunched up now thanks to the safety car.  Aurelien Panis is the car inbetween, the #27 Sainteloc Racing Audi (the third of their cars, I believe, and one of two remaining for that team in the race). 

Panis, the Frenchman, son of 1996 Monaco Grand Prix F1 winner Olivier Panis, sharing with Alexandre Cougnaud, his countryman, Lucas Legeret of Switzerland, and Italian Louis Prette (maybe he is French, because the name is surely French, but racing under an Italian license).  This mist continues to hang in the air.  Dries Vanthoor is flashing the lights through Blanchimont at Aurelien Panis saying “let me by!”  Surprisingly, Marco Mapelli cannot eke out more of an advantage in the lead of the motor race right now.  Through Eau Rouge, the rear diffuser and undetray scraping on the pavement.  The second-place car is pulling out a wee bit before braking for Les Combes.  The driving is fairly civilized at this point.  Who is immediately in front of Dries Vanthoor?  He flies down through Pouhon, the left-hand double apex corner.  The balance of the car in these corners is critical.  The fog has slid down the mountain.  Everyone is enjoying the onboard camera footage and the sound of that V10 normally aspirated Lamborghini.  The wall of mist is still there, too.

In replay, look, out of the Bus Stop, a Mercedes has spun sideways.  That’s the #4 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes, with Maro Engel driving.  Someone tapped him into a spin there.  That is a busy section of the road.  Engel should be back on his way now and he is.  He was 17^th overall but then will be dropped down the order a bit.  We have a long, long way to go yet.  Just be patient, fans.  We’ll get there.  Eight retirements I believe, from this field of 58 starters.  50 automobiles left as the Mercedes is in the pit lane for HubAuto.  Nicky Catsburg, Maximilian Buhk, and Maximilian Gotz.  A puncture rips the bodywork apart. So, a new tire is going on the car.  But, the damage will also be fixed.

In Formula 1 we are familiar with flailing tires and the damage they can do.  It is bad enough on an open wheeled car.  But on a GT or prototype sportscar with risk of bodywork damage, it is even worse.  Aston Martin #95 is moving up with Marco Sorensen at the controls and Daniel Juncadella is also in the mix in AKKA ASP Mercedes #88.  The #14 Ferrari runs wide into the turn.  #14 Ferrari?  Sorry, Charlie.  Mate, I think you have your cars confused and that can happen in the dark of night.  It is the Emil Frey Lamborghini of course, the all-Swiss lineup.  Alex Fontana sharing with Rolf Ineichen and Ricardo “Ricky” Feller.

These GT3 cars are really evenly matched and that’s what makes this form of racing so incredibly competitive.  It is properly dark here at Spa around ¾ of the lap as the wheel arch damage for #50 is still be wrestled with by the team.  The balance of the car will be all cattywampus and you are a sitting duck, and a danger to other drivers.  As a driver you think, “oh no!  I have more damage than I thought!”  Late lunge into the Bus Stop, that driver decides discretion is surely the better part of valor.  Moments of sheer genius are few and far between in motor racing.

Timor Boguslavskiy is that driver.  Maxime Martin was driving the KCMG Porsche #47 and he is in the car now, moving up.  As the cars spark and bounce over the curbs, Martin is being reeled in by Christopher Mies.  Two drivers who have won this motor race before, going at it in a hammer and tongs duel.  Martin has Mies right on his six.  The mist is omnipresent, and we see now a Ferrari going off the road somewhere.  It’s a bloke who is just trying to stay out of the way of other drivers, but in doing so, he is putting himself in a spot of danger. 

Marco Mapelli has a 3.8 second lead over Dries Vanthoor.  Alessandro Pier Guidi who led for Iron Lynx in the #51 Ferrari is now in third spot, 11 seconds behind Vanthoor.  Some of the gaps are beginning to close in.  Dries Vanthoor flies through Eau Rouge and the cars get a tad airborne up through there.  The cars chatter over the curbs.  We haven’t called the #99 Attempto Racing Audi R8’s number in a while.  But they are still pounding around in 25^th in the overall.  Alex Aka, Max Hofer, and Fabien Lavergne are the driving trio there. 

They are four and a half seconds ahead of the Silver Cup entered #40 Mercedes AMG GT3 for SPS Automotive Performance.  Miklas Born and Yannick Mettler, both from Switzerland, sharing with Aussie Jordan Love, and German Lance David Arnold aboard that car.  The mist is thickening up.  Will this mist develop into fog soon?  Only time will tell.  The mist is wafting in and out and in and out.  Marco Mapelli is 3.5 seconds up on second place man Dries Vanthoor.  Well, well, well.  We spoke of the #14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini a wee while ago, and now it is the commentator’s curse, they are under investigation by the stewards for speeding in the pit lane.

 So much for that, ladies and gentlemen.  Ricky Feller should be at the wheel of that automobile.  Black and white warning flag for Aston Martin #159 as there’s a five wide tussle through La Source!  Yikes!  The action is heating up.  This is dicing as everyone tries to outbrake one another into the corner.  Car #159, one of the Garage 59 Aston Martin’s shall earn the ire of the stewards as well, look, for… you guessed it.  No respect of track limits.  That’s Thomas Tujula of Finland sharing with Alex MacDowall of England, Valentin Haase Clot of France and Danish driver Nicolai Kjaaergard.  How do drivers speed in the lane unless their speed limiter is busted?

Nico Menzel in the #23 Porsche is way off out of the corner there, look.  He was almost in the neighboring county there!  Cherry red flames backfiring out of the exhaust, too.  Absolutely amazing!  McLaren in the pit lane from eighth, the #38 Jota Sport car.  He steps out of the car and we shall see who comes into that car.  Team boss Sam Hignett has run Jota Sport and used many brands and many cars in numerous championships.  Power slide out of the lane!  Wow!  That’s incredible!  In the gloom, the #188 Aston Martin is trundling ‘round with Marvin Kirchhofer at the controls is in strife.  He was well placed in the Pro-Am Cup.

Into the lane he comes now and the race leader is also due in soon, leading Dries Vanthoor now by 4.4 seconds.  Pit stop time now for the #63 car.  #188 is 24^th in the overall.  Hard to tell what damage could be there.  No drive change for the #188 but the dollies are being put under the car.  This could be for checking the car and doing a brake change.  Mapelli resumes in the lead.  VS Racing back to the lane as well (Vincenzo Sospiri Racing), and this time, Dutchman Glenn van Berlo does a far better parking job getting the Lambo squarely into it’s spot unlike his co-driver Yuki Nemoto did earlier.  Steam emanates from the Lamborghini, but it does not seem like a problem.

News flash on the #188 Aston Martin.  The brakes and parts are ready to be changed but the rear diffuser is also being removed for some strange reason.  What is going on in the driveline of that car?  It has been running slowly.  What could the matter be?  There’s some front end damage being repaired and we need to know what is going on at the rear of the car, according to pit lane reporter, Ben Constanduros.  Hopefully all they need is a brake change.  Is it time for coffee and biscuits?  Not yet.  At least not for the #188 team as they’ve got work to attend to on the car.

Dries Vanthoor was promoted to the lead of the motor race after Marco Mapelli pitted.  Alessandro Pier Guidi is a mere 8.9 seconds behind, and he is running his second stint in the car.  Aston Martin #188 is still undergoing the brake change.  Some teams can change the rotors, pads, and calipers in two minutes.  This is going to take closer to five or six minutes, and the brakes, remember, are red hot.  Back in the 1960s, there was a Formula 1 team that built a great looking car.  But they couldn’t get to the engine without slicing the engine cover off.  Now, Marco Mapelli has been given a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane!  So, this is the third car we’ve had leading this motor race that has been pinged with a drive through penalty.

This time, though, we still don’t understand the logic of the penalty.  Speeding in the lane, yes.  But, how?  Why?  Audi #32 leads the motor race with Dries Vanthoor.  It is still misty.  That’s not changed yet.  We are finding out that there are still more repairs needing to be done on the #188 Aston Martin.  There is oil ready to go into the car for the gearbox or the differential.  Marvin Kirchhofer says that they have indeed lost the gearbox.  It has gone bang and is being changed right now as we speak.  The electronics were cycled through, and the gearbox needs to be changed.

They can finish the race and that’s good, but they won’t be in contention for a class win of any kind.  Matt Campbell has brought the #22 Martini liveried GPX Porsche to the garage as well.  The team have done their technical stop, their brake change.  The car is being wheeled out on the dollies and is still on the air jacks.  What a great color scheme that Martini scheme is.  Legendary and classic, as a scrubbed set of Pirelli P Zero tires goes on the car, and the car is down and away.  Audi #32 leads the motor race by 8.7 seconds now over Ferrari #51.  We now look at the full field summary, the rundown of all the positions, or maybe at least the cars still running.

1.       #32 Vanthoor/van der Linde/Weerts                        Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3

2.       #51 Ledogar/Nielsen/Pier Guidi                                Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3

3.       #95 Thiim/Gunn/Sorensen                                         Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3

4.       #88 Marciello/Juncadella/Gounon                           AKKA ASP Mercedes AMG GT3

5.       #63 Bortolotti/Mapelli/Caldarelli                              Orange 1 FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3

6.       #37 Muller/Frijns/Lind                                                  Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3

7.       #25 Winkelhock/Niederhauser/Haase                     Audi Sport Team Sainteloc Audi R8 LMS GT3

8.       #54 Bachler/Engelhart/Cairoli                                     Dinamic Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R

9.       #3 Olsen/Christensen/Makowiecki                           Schnabl Engineering Porsche 911 GT3R

10.   #66 Drudi/Marschall/Mies                                           Audi Sport Team Attempto Audi R8 LMS GT3

11.   #47 Martin/Tandy/Vanthoor                                       KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R

12.   #89 Auer/Boguslavskiy/Fraga                                     AKKA ASP Mercedes AMG GT3

13.   #38 Bell/Wilkinson/Barnicoat                                     Jota Sport McLaren 720S GT3

14.   #18 Liberati/Imperatori/Burdon                                KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R

15.   #4 Engel/Stolz/Abril                                                        HRT Mercedes AMG GT3

16.   #90 Perez-Companc/Sanchez/Kujala/Breukers    Mad Panda Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3

17.   #33 Hites/Crestani/Perel                                              Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3

18.   #31 Tomita/Bird/Eriksen                                               Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3

19.   #7 Jeffries/Tunjo/Petit/Dienst                                    Toksport WRT Mercedes AMG GT3

20.   #99 Lavergne/Hofer/Aka                                              Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3

21.   #93 Hui/Froggatt/Cressoni/Cheever III.                  Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3

22.   #159 Tujula/MacDowall/Haase Clot/Kjaergaard  Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3

23.   #53 Cameron/Mastronardi/Griffin/Molina            AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3

24.   #52 Machiels/Bertolini/Wartique/Rovera             AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3

25.   #77 Ramos/Machitski/Chaves/Mitchell                  Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3

26.   #61 Triller/Rivas/Harker/Bamber                              EBM Giga Racing Porsche 911 GT3R

27.   #22 Campbell/Bamber/Jaminet                                 GPX Martini Racing Porsche 911 GT3R

28.   #40 Born/Love/Mettler/Arnold                                 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG

GT3

29.   #30 Pull/Colapinto/Goethe                                         Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3

30.   #666 Rump/Van Berlo/Moulin/Nemoto                 VS Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3

31.   #69 De Haan/Collard/Collard/Schiller                      Ram Racing Mercedes AMG GT3

32.   #27 Cougnaud/Legeret/Prette/Panis                       Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3

33.   #20 Pierburg/Kurtz/Braun/Baumann                       SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG      

GT3

34.   #2 Bastian/Scholze/Grotz/Pla                                     GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3

35.   #107 White/Jean/Panciatici/De Pauw                     CMR Bentley Continental GT3

36.   #911 Au/Allemann/Renauer/Renauer                     Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R

37.   #10 Liebhauser/Ojjeh/Zimmer/Klingmann            Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3

38.   #16 De Folco/Zimmermann/Galbiati/Schmid       GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan

GT3

39.   #87 Gachet/Tereschenko/Umbrarescu/Drouet   AKKA ASP Mercedes AMG GT3

40.   #166 Decurtins/Busch/Lauck/Basseng                    Haegeli By T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3R

41.   #14 Fontana/Ineichen/Feller                                      Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3

42.   #23 Schell/Jacoma/Leutwiler/Menzel                     Huber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R

43.   #222 Kern/Buus/Apothelos/Santamato                 Team Allied-Racing Porsche 911 GT3R

44.   #50 Catsburg/Buhk/Gotz                                              HubAuto Mercedes AMG GT3

45.   #11 Kohmann/Zollo/Roda/Fumanelli                       Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3

46.   #188 West/Goodwin/Eastwood/Kirchhofer          Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3

47.   #70 Milroy/Iribe/Madsen/Pepper                            Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3

48.   #34 van der Linde/Pittard/Wittman                         Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3

49.   #35 Glock/Tomczyk/Neubauer                                   Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3

50.   #19 Baguette/Hamaguchi/Constantini/Keen        Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini           

                                                                                       Huracan GT3

51.   #57 Ward/Grenier/Ellis                                                 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3

52.   #26 Green/Hutchison/Tambay                                   Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3

53.   #56 Dumas/Rizzoli/Pedersen                                      Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R

54.   #5 Beretta/Haupt/Assenheimer/Dontje                 HRT Mercedes AMG GT3

55.   #114 Lappalainen/Aitken/Rougier                            Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3

56.   #163 Altoe/Perera/Costa                                             Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3

57.   #71 Fuoco/Illott/Rigon                                                  Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3

58.   #21 Muller/Lietz/Estre                                                  Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3R

There is your full field rundown, and a total of eight cars are now officially retired.  50 of the 58 starters continue pounding around.  Low attrition by endurance racing standards, but it’s game over for some heavy hitters who have headed for the bench.  The mist still hangs around and we are at 3:16 A.M., an hour and a quarter to halfway.  Pit action still to come.  To change brake calipers in two minutes is unreal.  Again, it is that time of the race.  More brake changes coming.  Earl Bamber said there were more than just brakes being changed on Porsche #22.

Some teams have had to go through force majeur on their brake changes.  The fog has tumbled it’s way down to Eau Rouge.  It’s wafting across the road and will dissipate or hover around in the valley.  At Daytona there is a lot of ambient lighting.  Here at Spa, and at Le Mans, not so much.  Circuits are totally different in their layouts which affects how much lighting they truly have outside of a car’s headlamps.  The weather changes all the time.  The darkest and coldest part of night is just before dawn in 3 hours and 45 minutes.

The leader of this race has moved up 53 places.  Unbelievable, and of course, they started 54^th from not getting a time in during qualifying and a red flag.  They had no registered time.  They lead Alessandro Pier Guidi.  Nico Muller in the sister #37 Audi is sixth in the overall right now.  Muller is playing catch up and Christopher Mies, Mr. Brave, stayed on slick tires in the downpour earlier in the race.  Maxime Martin, too, he is one to watch and still a contender.  Maxime Martin is bish bash boshing his way through the field.

Audi #25, Patric Niederhauser, has uncorked his fastest sector time in sector one.  Every manufacturer save for Bentley is at the top of the shop.  We have only one Bentley and only two McLaren’s.  The McLaren’s are a wee bit down the order as Matt Campbell is back in the pit lane and they are wheeling the thing back into the garage.  Is this their technical stop?  Are they changing parts they couldn’t do earlier on?  They are 27^th in the overall which is not expected for a team of this caliber with three factory Porsche drivers who have all raced together in different championships and events in the past… Matt Campbell, Matthieu Jaminet, and Earl Bamber. 

There is a brake change going on, but they could have further troubles, as the mechanics are looking at the car with torches (flashlights), instead of throwing the wrenches right at it.  The mist is thickening up again.  The lap times we are seeing are two and a half or three seconds off what it was earlier.  Marco Sorenson is still fastest for Aston Martin.  2:19.2.  The Martini liveried GPX Porsche has steering woes.  They are working on the steering rack and the front axle.  The brakes are fine.  They have power steering fluid at the ready, but the deal is finding a vibration in the steering wheel that could come from the suspension or the steering rack, possibly. 

They are looking at the left front corner of the automobile to find the problem.  Teams like to know what is going on.  Electrical issues, you can’t see them unless there are wires that are loose.  This issue is a ripple effect for the team that won the Spa 24 Hours two years ago, in 2019.  We’ve had just a few retirements from the race and some cars are in the pit lane fixing problems or doing brake changes.  We have had very few track limits warnings.  That’s good, because it is frustrating to hear the Race Director click his radio and hear “abuse of track limits”.  Alessandro Pier Guidi is now just 1.1 seconds behind Dries Vanthoor.  He is coming in a hurry.  Through Les Combes go the leaders.  The Iron Lynx Ferrari is chasing down the WRT Audi.  The margin through Bruxelles is about 6/10ths of a second, headed down through Speaker’s Corner and Pouhon. 

The Audi exhaust glows in the darkness is amazing and so does the Porsche.  Whoa.  Hang on, everyone.  We have a Full Course Yellow in ten seconds.  5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Full Course Yellow, now.  Full Course Yellow, now.  What could the problem be out on the circuit?  There’s a bug in my ear telling me that Christopher Mies has trouble out on course in the #66 Audi Sport Team Attempto Audi R8.  It is slowing, someplace, but we have to see where.  The Full Course Yellow boards are flashing right now.  Kudos to the marshals who volunteer to do this.  Without them, we cannot go racing at all.  They are brave souls and are a part of the action.  We doff our hats to these people.  Bless them.

Check that.  The car in strife is not the #66 Attempto Audi.  Sorry to give that team a scare!  It is the #666 Lamborghini for VS Racing that we saw in pit lane earlier.  That’s the Vincenzo Sospiri Racing entry for Martin Rump, Glenn van Berlo, Baptiste Moulin, and Yuki Nemoto.  They have had a fraught race in the recent nighttime hours and well, unfortunately, it continues that way for the crew of this Lamborghini.  Glenn van Berlo is at the wheel of it right now, but he isn’t going anyplace.  That car is 35^th overall. 

 

  

24 Hours of Spa Hour 10

David Pittard runs fourth in the overall.  Right now, the Orange 1 FFF #63 Lamborghini still leads the motor race.  So, we’ve given the marker of doom to six cars at least.  It is also game over for car #5 from Haupt Racing Team (HRT).  Team boss Hubert Haupt from Germany, his race is over, along with co-driver’s Michele Beretta from Italy, German Patrick Assenheimer, and Dutchman Indy Dontje.  There is still one bullet left in the gun at HRT though as the #4 machine should be out there pounding around.  No worries for the #63 Lamborghini, and Mirko Bortolotti who is putting quite the amount of daylight… (oops, darkness), between himself, and Dries Vanthoor. 

Dennis Lind runs third and is three seconds clear of David Pittard who is taking chunks out of third place.  Mercedes’ top running car is seventh, the #88 AKKA ASP car which has had a penalty and is now having to push ahead of the Nicklas Nielsen driven Ferrari, the AF Corse #52 entry I believe.  In the mist, it can appear that someone somewhere has dealt with a locked brake, but then you look back over and go, “oh, that’s only the mist on the road.  No worries.”  Recently, we haven’t had penalties or messages from the clerk of the course.  We’ll have to see.

It is good that we have a dry track right now.  A little contact up Kemmel straight and into Les Combes.  That was a close shave through the haze.  Again, in the hazy darkness, it is hard to see which car is which.  We find a battle between Charlie Eastwood in the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin vs. the #7 Toksport WRT Mercedes in the hands of Marvin Dienst.  Marvin Dienst is trying to find a gap and he is within 7/10^ths of a second of Dienst in 22^nd spot.  The Mercedes catches up in the chicane, but the Aston Martin is the car that has the oomph even though the Mercedes has enough grunt as well. 

Dienst is part of a Silver rated driver lineup.  The weather isn’t as misty through places like Stavelot and Blanchimont on the far end of the circuit.  Of course, these turns have different names now.  Yours truly is trying hard to stick with the classic names.  The final corner has changed profiles over the years.  Spa is an incredible circuit, and the pictures just don’t do it justice.  Spa, the Nurburgring, Suzuka, they have a gradient change.  Charlie Eastwood is being caught up by the Mercedes, flinging chunks of tire off the car.  Charlie Eastwood is being monstered by the Mercedes through Brussels and Speaker’s Corner.  The wind has kicked up again blowing the mist around.  These cars and drivers are evenly matched.  The camera angle is bang on to see the chunks of rubber, the marbles, that have been discarded on the side of the road.

Red hot tires have those chunks of rubber all over them and it is like driving on ice or glass.  Now we can see the junk that appears offline.  Mirko Bortolotti is absolutely pulling away from Dries Vanthoor.  The Orange 1 FFF Racing Team are bish bash boshing it right now as the Lamborghini V10 is absolutely screaming away.  What a beautiful sound.  The car clattering over the curbs.  The last two laps, last year, Nick Tandy, in bad weather, there was a box of rocks in that transmission.  It was unbelievable!  You can hear the chattering of the gearbox and the differential.  We know the Bentley has been running neatly and tidily.  Nelson Panciatici is 19^th overall, second in the Silver Cup class behind the Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes with Marvin Dienst next up.  CMR, stands for Classic & Modern Racing in the #107 Bentley.

That’s the White/Jean/Panciatici/De Pauw entry.  #222 is also in the fight in Silver Cup, the Team Allied Racing Porsche 911 GT3R for Lars Kern, Bastian Buus, Julien Apotheloz, and Arno Santamato, so, a German, a Dane, a Swiss, and a Frenchman on that driver’s strength.  Santamato was a late addition to that team.  Bastian Buus is a strong driver in European GT4.  Rik Breukers continues to lead Silver Cup for Mad Panda Motorsports as someone runs over a bit of grass that has gotten onto the circuit.  That’s grass spraying all over the road, look.

Ah yes.  Marvin Dienst… uh um… has been given the black and white warning flag for disrespecting track limits.  It might be dark, but it’s like Santa Claus when you’re a kid.  He is watching you.  The marshals are watching you.  Hundreds of Santa Clauses.  The #69 Ram Racing Mercedes is racing one of the Porsche’s into Eau Rouge.  Who will be brave?  Schiller goes in and is offline.  He was trying to sell the Porsche driver a dummy.  Breukers is being hounded now by the #25 Audi of Patric Niederhauser.  Manuel Lauck, the Am class leader is trying hard to stay out of this battle.  Lauck at the controls of the #166 Haegeli by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3R.  Lauck shares that car of course with Dennis Busch, Pieder Decurtins, and Marc Basseng.

How much of a gap will Niederhauser be able to eke out over Breukers?  Maybe it is the reverse?  Ah.  Never mind.  Niederhauser grabs ninth place.  Pit stop time for the #38 Jota McLaren of Rob Bell in eighth overall with Raffaele Marciello ahead.  David Pittard is losing time to Dennis Lind and Nicklas Nielsen is actually the next one in the order.  What a sharp corner the La Source hairpin is.  Jordan Pepper is now driving the Inception McLaren, 49^th in the overall.  Pepper is a former Bentley Boy.  He did so well with Bentley especially at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, his home circuit.

Lamborghini #63 pits from the lead of the motor race.  Mirko Bortolotti out, and a driver change underway.  It will likely be Andrea Caldarelli who is next into the car and yes, he’s down and away.  They have one bullet in the gun right now and the #19 Lamborghini is still in the garage having dropped like a stone to 50^th in the overall.  Dinamic Motorsport have the #54 Porsche 911 GT3R in the pit lane as well.  Some of the teams have already used their mandatory technical stops to change brakes as the #107 CMR Bentley is set for a pit stop and they have run well especially with drivers like Nelson Panciatici and Stuart White.

The pit crew is getting ready but have to stay behind the white line.  Here is the Bentley now.  Tires are changed and fuel is added along with the driver change.  Panciatici is a very experienced sports car driver.  Stuart White is a teenager who is in his first endurance race running in open wheel cars.  So this is his first race in a GT or endurance car of any kind.  Did Phil Keen have trouble with the electrics for a while?  He has had a lot of trouble this weekend after a last-minute deal.  He does not want to let the team down.  The #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari is running decently after Francesco Zollo had a few spins in the daylight hours yesterday.  Tim Kohmann, the German is currently driving, and is languishing down in 47^th place.

Dries Vanthoor is now the leader of the race.  Marco Mapelli has fallen to seventh having taken over the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini.  Audi Sport Team WRT run 1-2.  Vanthoor’s team-mate, Dennis Lind, is now second at the wheel of the team’s sister car, the #37.  Mist laden clouds continue to hang over Spa Francorchamps in this pitch-dark night.  Constant track conditions are easier for drivers as they understand how everything works.  Drivers want consistency.  Staying awake all the way through won’t work.  You need sleep.  Rik Breukers in the lane now from tenth spot, in the Silver Cup class leading #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.

Fuel, tires, and a driver change, and who will get into the car?  We shall see.  The #666 VS Racing Lamborghini is in the lane too.  The VS in VS Racing is former sports car and Formula 1 and IndyCar driver, Italian Vincenzo Sospiri, who runs the operation.  Yuki Nemoto of Japan is driving sharing with Martin Rump of Estonia, Glen van Berlo from Holland and Baptiste Moulin of France.  Nemoto is 31^st in the overall.    AF Corse pits their Ferrari, too.  The track has been wet and slippery in the last turn.  Dries Vanthoor leads Dennis Lind, but we don’t know the gap.  Pit stop for Sky Tempesta Racing including a driver change for the #93.  Eddie Cheever III. should be at the wheel now.  No fuel spillage or overflow from the Ferrari.

We await to see where Dennis Lind is, as he ought to be second behind the Lamborghini.  We saw the VS Racing Lamborghini and the Mad Panda Mercedes.  Vincenzo Sospiri is telling his team, his pit crew, not to make any more mistakes because the marshals were giving them a warning.  The Lamborghini is cockeyed in the lane.  Nemoto trapped poor old Mad Panda in the lane and maybe the two teams had a discussion and said, “let’s not have this misunderstanding again”, or the marshals have doled out a penalty.  Pit stop time for Audi Sport Team WRT car #32 which has to trundle down from the F1 pit lane to the endurance side of the lane.

Drive through penalty doled out to #69 for disrespecting track limits, our pals in the Ram Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 that we’ve seen throughout this race so far.  It’s been hours since Race Director Alain Adam has issued a penalty.  It looks like it was from that grass being sprayed out from the rear of the car.  That team is running way down in 35^th place.  Pit stop time now for the #4 Haupt Racing Team BWT Mercedes AMG GT3, Maro Engel at the wheel of it.  Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, and Vincent Abril, what a great driver trio.  Engel is tenth overall. 

Fourth place man Dennis Lind has the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8 stopped on the road.  That’s right at the bottom of the heritage/endurance pit lane.  Check that.  That is on the way into the pit lane, look.  Oh man!  He’s switched that car off and pulled over to the side of the road and maybe he has run out of fuel!  Deary me.  This is not good.  Lind is going to drop like a stone.  He was jolly lucky not to get hit in the pit lane there either.  Aye yaye yaye yaye.  Option 1.  Nope.  Option 2.  Nope.  Option 3.  Nope.  Dries Vanthoor has now dropped to third place with Marco Mapelli in the lead and Raffaelle Marciello running second.

The mist has cleared out and we see a gorgeous moon hanging here in Belgium.  A golden moon on a crisp night and poor old David Pittard has spun off the road and the car has steam spewing off the front.  Hot engine on wet grass.  No tell tale skid marks, not far away from the pit lane.  The car is steaming and it could possibly have had the radiator go bang.  Pittard just couldn’t get over into the lane, but the 2018 race winning team might be out.  Oh, deary me!  It’s a double whammy for Walkenhorst Motorsports as the #35 sister car is being retired.  Game over for Timo Glock, Martin Tomczyk, and Thomas Neubauer, with the race not even half done yet, and these chaps are headed for the bench.

Thomas Neubauer steps out of the car, being hugged by the team.  He must be absolutely crushed.  Horrible moments for Walkenhorst Motorsports.  Contact with another car created damage that can’t be fixed, and the team is down the order.  The sister car’s motor just blew itself to bits.  It just isn’t their year at Spa.  No team deserves this.  A double retirement is crushing for the team.  Terrible news.  But they will be back.  When you lose one car, you might lose another.  Yes, the #34 car, the engine has indeed gone ka-blammo.  Wow.  Unreal. 

David Pittard is desperately trying to turn the car off or crank it over to get it back to the lane.  No incident, but as I said, the Walkenhorst boys are understandably shaken by these events.  Let’s not write off #34 yet.  They could still, in fairness, make it back to the lane and maybe get the car repaired.  So, the sister car is not out yet, but one bullet has indeed been used up.  Let’s run down the top ten places at the moment.  Marco Mapelli and Lamborghini lead this motor race ahead of Dries Vanthoor in the Audi.  Ross Gunn has the Aston Martin in third place.  Nicklas Nielsen is the best Ferrari campaigner right now followed by Daniel Juncadella, the Spaniard at the wheel of the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes.

Dennis Lind has the #37 Audi in sixth spot after the pit mishap.  Rob Bell is next in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren followed by Patric Niederhauser in the Audi, with two Porsche’s bringing up the back half of the top ten with Matt Campbell aboard the #22 GPX Martini car and Dennis Olsen at the wheel of the #3 Schnabl Engineering entry.  Well, well, well.  As we ride aboard with Marco Mapelli, that spooky layer of mist has returned to Spa Francorchamps.  Is this palace of speed haunted by ghosts?  It’s not Halloween yet, mate.  We’re not out here trick or treating looking for sweets.  We are in fact in the middle of one of the best motor races of the year.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Full Course Yellow.  Full Course Yellow.  What for?  Ah.  No guesses.  Clear up the Walkenhorst BMW.  It has been sitting there, dead stick for a wee while.  The recovery vehicle is on course trying to rescue the BMW.  Rotten luck for Walkenhorst Motorsports, the team who won this motor race in 2018.  David Pittard is out of the car.  He’s fine but will have to work the brakes and steering while being towed to safety.  Drivers are trundling around in second gear.  Good to see that the warning lights have augmented or replaced flags.  That was a quick recover for the BMW as it is pushed through the gap in the wall.  So frustrating. 

He could have had the car break on him at the exit of Blanchimont but could not get there.  He had to pull over on the grass.  He could’ve gone right into the pits, showered, gotten changed, and had a bite to eat at the very least.  What feedback can I give to the next driver?  What can I get for information to the team?  Walkenhorst Motorsports even had a third car entered for this race, the #36 entry, which had to withdraw.  So, now, they have no cars left.  Gut wrenching for the Walkenhorst organization.  Meanwhile, the #32 Audi just pitted from second, and the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin is in pit lane.  #188, Marvin Kirchhofer, he is leading Pro Am and is 19^th overall.

The long shot towards pit entry shows no cars ready to come in yet.  But, action will start in the lane soon as the teams extract fuel from the pipes, draining it out to save time and save messes and fire risks.  Daniel Juncadella pits the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes to the lane for a splash and a dash.  They are working their way back up through the field.  Maybe thar was a stop and go penalty but they’ve served one already, that team has.  That is their 12^th stop after the leading #63 Lamborghini has pitted ten times.  We should be back to green flag racing very soon.  The cars if they could speak (like in the Pixar “Cars” movies for instance), they’d say, “I’m not made for this!  You are restricting me to this stupid speed limit when I want to go fast!”