The TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa, the main race of the Blancpain GT calendar, always delivers good action and lots of drama, and BMW made it again, this time with the No. 34 Walkenhorst Motorsport car, well driven by Philipp Eng, Christian Krognes and Tom Blomqvist. The race was marked by being as unpredictable as always, as well by two vicious crashes that happened during the night time.
With his common prowess, René Rast took the lead in the No. 2 WRT Audi from the No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, controlling the race almost immediately. The No. 62 took it back within the first hour and managed to hold it in the second hour, when a race ending crash for the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes brought the first Safety Car period.
The further hours saw the lead being handed to the No. 8 M-SPORT Bentley due to a fuel rig issue that was making refueling difficult for the No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, sending the car back to 21st place. The race saw its second full course yellow right at this point when the No. 97 Oman Racing Aston Martin had a side contact with the barriers.
Another car that was effectively ruled out of the contender group was the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini, as a contact with the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren brought a drive through penalty and extensive damage to the front end of the car. At the end of the fourth hour the worries were around the tires, with punctures plaguing some race favorites, which knocked out briefly the No. 14 Emil Frey Lexus, for example.
In the first quarter of racing, there were so many yellow flag periods that the order was pretty much shuffled around the top, with the exception of the No. 8 M-SPORT Bentley. Bad news came from Strakka Racing, as their No. 44 Mercedes had a missing front wheel, and unable to recover it, the car retired, and thus, ending the Brazilian participation at Spa.
With eight hours, the No. 8 Bentley was battling with the No. 29 Land Audi for the top, until an emergency pit stop was needed for the No. 8 as the team was working on the undertray. Trouble fell over the No. 98 ROWE BMW with an alternator problem, eliminating them for the moment.
Briefly past the eight hour mark a big accident brought another full course yellow as the No. 114 Emil Frey Lexus, driven by Stephane Ortelli, had a violent crash at Eau Rouge, which was followed by a quick fire. Ortelli himself came out of the car and the fire was extinguished before the rescue crew arrived to the accident site.
The race was pretty much in contention for four cars, as the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW was leading the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes, the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes and the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi, with at least four more cars racing just outside the top lot. Unfortunately by the time of this a vicious crash knocked out both the No. 666 Attempto Lamborghini and the No. 31 Parker Bentley, and further care having to be taken on accident site, the race was red flagged. Jürgen Krebs and Andy Meyrick were taken to the nearby hospital for precautionary checks.
After the halfway mark the cars were released to the track again and the race went green, with most of the usual suspects still fighting for victory. As the night was being left behind, more and more cars were being knocked out for the most different reasons, such as the No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, the No. 90 AKKA-ASP Mercedes and the Am Cup dominator, the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren.
Just before the final quarter of racing, the No. 117 Bernhard Porsche was another in the list of eliminated due to a three-way crash with the No. 8 M-SPORT Bentley and the No. 111 Aust Audi, destroying the front ends of the cars involved and sending them straight to the garage.
By the final part of the race we had three German manufacturers with two cars each in contention for the win. BMW was in the best position with the No. 34 Walkenhorst car and the No. 99 ROWE car, while Audi was fighting back with the No. 25 Sainteloc car and the No. 29 Land car, and Mercedes was just outside the battle with the No. 4 Black Falcon car and the No. 88 AKKA-ASP car. Some good pitwork under yellow flag near the end of the 21st hour left the No. 34 and the No. 99 in a good position, practically fighting each other only, and in fact they could carry on in another yellow flag period, dominating the race since then.
The final hour was pretty much dominated by the BMWs, despite a desperate try of the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi to fight back, and with 45 minutes to go onwards, the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW just had to hold its way to the checkered as neither the No. 99 ROWE BMW or the No. 29 Land Audi would be threats for them.
In the Pro-Am Cup, despite a good late showing of the No. 42 Strakka Mercedes, this wasn’t enough to take the class win from the No. 333 Rinaldi Ferrari. The Silver Cup was dominated by the No. 12 Ombra Lamborghini, but not without some drama as the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini was right behind them to almost spoil the party. With most of the Am Cup main opponents knocked out, the No. 77 Barwell Lamborghini had a comfortable class win, two laps ahead of the No. 9 Target Lamborghini.
The Blancpain GT Endurance Cup will return only on September 30th with the Blancpain GT season finale at Barcelona.
PHOTO: SRO
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