The moment every team taking part of an SRO GT3 championship was waiting for, and even some from other series as they want to test their best against those who are in, but this year’s TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa were even more grueling and special as a bunch of factors basically selected those who could fight for wins, one of them being the extremely bad weather at the Ardennes-based venue, with the No. 20 GPX Porsche 911 GT3R claiming the win with Michael Christensen, Richard Lietz and an inspired Kevin Estre.
With the round counting towards the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup, the whole Blancpain GT Series and the Intercontinental GT Challenge, alliances and extra entries were brought in, putting the car number into 72 machines, with 51 of them managing to finish, which was quite a high number taking into account how troubled the race was.
A bit like this year’s 6 Hours of Spa, the weather was a factor to consider at the start, or better to say the bad weather as intense rain was pouring down the circuit. Three laps behind the Safety Car were done to see how track condition will be, and with the green flag the No. 6 Black Falcon Mercedes was free to go away, while the rest of the field was looking for visibility and room to race.
The favorite way to retire at Spa had an early start too, as the No. 80 Audi R8 LMS Cup car back end snapped and the barrier was the next destination with less than 30 minutes of racing, which called a full course yellow at that time.
The race had another yellow with the No. 227 HubAuto Ferrari spinning and crashing, in a moment where most of the teams were already on slicks as track condition improved dramatically. The second hour practically like the first one, with the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes trying to keep the lead from the army of Porsches coming behind it. Their worries only got worse as the field was kept together with another full course yellow, as the No. 37 3Y Technology BMW slammed the wall hard after a brake failure at Les Combes.
Due to barrier repairs the full course yellow took a big chunk of time, and pit stops during the yellow really messed up the order, with the No. 998 ROWE Porsche taking the lead. The neutralization was extended due to another hard hit, this time being the No. 31 Parker Bentley with Ryan Ratcliffe at the wheel as the car lost control and went straight to the barriers after Stavelot, which required not only car towing but also more barrier repairs.
With near four hours of racing two penalties affected the top of the table, with the No. 998 ROWE Porsche having improved a sector under yellow flag and the No. 563 FFF Lamborghini speeding in the pit lane, handing the lead to the No. 1 WRT Audi, being followed by a Mercedes pack and the fifth placed No. 2 WRT Audi. As night time was coming the No. 1 lost ground, eventually seeing the lead go to the No. 72 SMP Ferrari, and while things went smooth for Ferrari in the Pro Cup, the Am Cup leader, the No. 444 HB Racing car, found its way to the barriers.
As if the rain hasn’t been enough of an unwanted guest during daytime, it came back during the night as a short lived downpour, but this didn’t affect too much in the order as the usual suspects were still taking their rounds at the lead, being them the No. 72 SMP Ferrari, the No. 1 WRT Audi, the No. 99 ROWE Porsche and the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes. Rounding them was the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini and the No. 76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, but both cars were having difficulties to get into the lead.
The race was going to the halfway point with showers at other points while the pit area was receiving the most of the water, but then a big downpour came in, which called a brief Safety Car period, and with the persisting rain, standing water all over the circuit and traffic almost everywhere were factors to watch during the night, being proved by the No. 42 Schnitzer BMW, which spun and crashed at Kemmel, bending the right rear suspension of the BMW M6 GT3, which still returned to pits for proper repairs.
A yellow flag period came to repair barriers and due to the increasing rain too, and after two hours behind the Safety Car and no improvement, the race was red flagged. With the weather showing no signs of improvement and instead getting even worse, the race was suspended for three hours at 8:30 A.M.
At 11:30 A.M., the teams met the race control and both parties decided to continue racing, with still five hours to go, with the cars that didn’t do the technical pit stop in the middle of the night going for it now. Of course the series of yellows and the Red Flag messed up the order, so the leader in the restart was the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW, which was holding the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche.
A mistake in the Safety Car procedure saw the lead getting gifted to the No. 1 WRT Audi, along with a 51 second advantage, though this was nullified when the car came to its pit stop, so the No. 34 retook first place and enjoyed a comfortable run on it until their technical pit stop, so the No. 1 got back to top.
Some strong contenders for the win were left behind during the final hours, like the No. 72 SMP Ferrari, which crashed in another car at Pif-Paf, and the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW with a right rear puncture.
The 22nd hour turned into an epic clash between the No. 20 GPX Porsche and the No. 4 Black Falcon, which was initially for third, but soon turned into lead battle as the No. 1 WRT Audi spun and crashed and the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi did their regular stop. A mammoth effort from Kevin Estre secured the lead and a good gap for the No. 20, while the No. 4 was struggling for pace.
The final hour had rain starting again and some slides around the field, though with the track being moist at most, but the No. 20 GPX Porsche was still dominant, with the No. 998 ROWE Porsche coming in second, while the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes struggling to keep third place. A hard crash for the No. 16 Modena Porsche brought another Safety Car entry and caused some barrier damage along with the car, but the neutralization was surprisingly quick compared to the race’s standard, with the green flag coming back again and the No. 20 having clear air ahead, though a three-car contact that put the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche and the No. 1 WRT Audi to a halt called another yellow with 11 minutes to go.
There was only 4 minutes of green flag, but even a bunched up field couldn’t take the win from Estre and the No. 20 GPX Porsche, especially as traffic was too much of a challenge for Nick Tandy in the No. 998 ROWE Porsche, which settled for second place.
The No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini enjoyed a neat run to the Silver Cup victory, and so it was for the No. 97 Oman Racing Aston Martin in the Pro-Am Cup. Rinaldi Racing still had what to celebrate with the No. 33 Ferrari winning the Am Cup with certain ease after seeing the sister No. 333 Ferrari pull out of the race early, mostly due to ABS failures.
The Blancpain GT Endurance Cup now returns only in late September, as the Barcelona round will be held on the 29th, along with the SRO eSports GT Series finale for the sim racing community. The Intercontinental GT Challenge returns a month earlier, with the teams moving to the Far East to race at the Suzuka 10 Hours on August 25th.
PHOTO - SRO
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