ROWE Racing wins 24 Hours of Spa

Even though having a good lineup at disposal helps to win races, an endurance race is another kind of beast, and with the 24 Hours of Spa isn’t different, as the No. 98 ROWE Racing Porsche 911 GT3R was driven by Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor to stay in contention and eventually win against the top-grade Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge Europe opponents.

The race itself had a notable change before the green flag, as a late decision by the stewardsm backed by race director Alain Adam, reinstated the enforcement of track limits at several points of the track where they were relaxed on Thursday and Friday, mostly on safety grounds.

The No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes was threatened at the start of the race but kept the top spot in what was essentially a Mercedes vs. Audi clash with the top-4 trying to get away from the bigger pack, but a brief Safety Car to retrieve debris bunched up the field, but the order wasn’t changed. Some mistakes from the No. 31 WRT Audi and the No. 4 HRT Mercedes opened the away for the No. 66 Attempto Audi to get second place and go on pursuit of the No. 88, which kept the lead at the end of the first hour.

Not going after the No. 88 actually cost a lot for the No. 66 in the second hour as the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini got second place and got away with it, and at the end of the second hour the No. 40 GPX Porsche also found a way past. It was at this moment that the lead changed, with the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini capitalized on AKKA-ASP’s pit stop strategy to gain control of the race, exactly when the rain was starting to make its presence at Spa-Francorchamps. While the bad weather didn’t evolve, the light rain was somehow persistent. When it was expected that the No 31 WRT Audi would stay in contention for the lead, a drive through penalty was given due to track limit abuse, handing second place back to the No. 88 and returning to track in eighth place. The No. 88 scored an extra as Felipe Fraga also passed the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini to take the lead, helped by traffic ahead.

If things couldn’t get worse for the No. 31 WRT Audi, the car stopped trackside pouring smoke from its back end, eventually being a top-grade retirement as it could return as a contender, which added to a period of yellow flags coming in sequence. The seventh hour ended with the No. 98 ROWE Porsche taking second place from the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini, all while the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes retained the top spot.

A pit stop before a yellow flag handed the lead from the No. 88 to the No. 66 Attempto Audi, but the situation was reversed when the No. 66 received a penalty due to refueling infringement. Eventually the No. 63, the No. 88 and the No. 66 would be in their particular clash for first place, acting on their own plans.

Near the ninth hour, another penalty fell over the No. 66 Attempto Audi, now for speeding in the pit lane, which sent it to 15th place. At this point there was a merry-go-round of cars in the top places as their pit stops were in distinct moments. The lead only changed effectively at halfway into the tenth hour, when the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari passed the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes.

Near the halfway point, the No. 88 was dropping but still in contention until the left front wheel detached from the car and the No. 88 spent time in the AKKA-ASP garage. The hour 12 battle for overall honors was between the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, the No. 98 ROWE Porsche and the No. 3 K-PAX Bentley, with the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini being the outsider.

The second half started with rain coming back and messing up with the put strategies, as not only the regular service needed thought, but also when to do the brake change. While the rain level was reduced, much of the track was still wet enough to justify the wet tires.

The No. 51 had the lead in a safe position, but a pit stop mistake when dealing with the sister No. 52 car cost time and the lead as it was handed to the No. 98 ROWE Porsche, with the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini and the No. 12 GPX Porsche being the closest contenders out of the 10 cars in the lead lap. Later on the No. 35 Walkenhorst BMW found the barriers in the worst way possible near the fifteenth hour, with it being totaled in the accident.

Tomczyk’s off was the last under the dark sky as morning came with the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini in the lead, but unfortunately, Dennis Lind lost control on the way to Radillion and crashed hard in the barriers, which brought a full course yellow as well some damage to the area along to what happened to his car. This was followed by another major shunt at the same point, when the No. 188 Garage 59 Aston Martin spinning at Radillion, which triggered a spin and crash from the No. 991 Herberth Porsche, and although most of the passing cars avoided the crashed one, the Silver Cup leading No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini couldn’t escape and hit the rear of the No. 991, destroying the whole left side of the car.

After the track cleaning, another crash, this time Paul Frère, as the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari met the barriers with violence. With the big amount of cars pitting at the time, the order was shuffled so the No. 66 Attempto Audi assumed the lead and the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi got second place, racing in a persistently wet track to stay out of the radar of the No. 51 AF Corse ferrari.

The final hours a significant amount of off track excursions as the track got wetter and wetter, and if the order wasn’t scrambled enough before, and with an extra push the No. 98 ROWE Porsche was again thrown into the lead with a chasing No. 66 Attempto Audi behind, and with the No. 51 AF Corse being busy with the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche, the first place battle became a two-car affair.

When things looked secure for the No. 98 ROWE Porsche, a gearbox problem combined with an oil leak hindered its pace, but somehow not only Nick Tandy brought it home to win the race, but also to have a manageable gap over the No. 66 Attempto Audi.

24 Hours of Spa - Race results

With this weekend’s win, Porsche kept the streak alive after winning in 2019 with GPX Racing, with the 2019 winning drivers, Richard Lietz, Michael Christensen and Kevin Éstre, finishing in 13th in the No. 47 KCMG Porsche. The Stuttgart manufacturer also had another two cars in the top-5 finishers, an impressive feat as six manufacturers were in the top-10.

Barwell celebrated the Pro-Am Cup win with the No. 77 Lamborghini after losing its Silver Cup entry in a leading position, and the Silver-ranked class win fell to the No. 5 HRT Mercedes, an incredible mark for the recently founded operation from Hubert Haupt. Despite having the worst fastest lap of the Am Cup, the No. 108 CMR Bentley won in the class as its contenders were wiped out of the race during the night and early morning.

The next GT World Challenge Europe race will be the season ending Paul Ricard 1000 on 13 November, while the Intercontinental GT Challenge will end its 2020 season a month later, with the Kyalami 9 Hours set to be held on 10 December.

PHOTO: SRO/Dirk Bogaerts