The Asian teams are making its way back to the 24 Hours of Spa after the 2020 edition not following the massive presence in 2019, as HubAuto Racing and KCMG confirmed their efforts for 2021.
HubAuto Racing will align a specially themed Mercedes AMG GT3, reflecting their change away from Ferrari in other GT3 competition. The car will pay tribute to the Legend of Spa, the iconic red Mercedes 300SEL that won its class and was second overall at the 1971 24 Hours of Spa, beating all odds on pure reliability as it wasn't considered a favorite for that race, and with this event completing 50 years, it was a natural choice that the homage car would carry the number 50.
The Pro Cup trio will be formed by Maximilian Buhk, Maximilian Götz and Dominik Baumann, with two of them having some good history together, as Buhk and Götz partnered Bernd Schneider to win the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series title in memorable fashion with a Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, to then go to separate paths as only Buhl stayed in GT3, while Götz focused in DTM and Schneider started to switch between GT3 and GT4 to help customer teams.
In the KCMG side, a pair of Porsche 911 GT3R 991.2-spec will be at disposal, as the multidiscipline team fixed its roots at Stuttgart after being the last international team for the Nissan GT-R GT3. Both cars will be in the Pro Cup, with KCMG following its usual approach of having a car with factory drivers and another with its own roster.
The No. 47 will count with factory drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy, who were more focused in GTE racing recently but are GT3 aces, joined by Maxime Martin, who comes from spells as a factory driver for BMW and Aston Martin. The No. 18 will have Edoardo Liberati, Josh Burdon and Alexandre Imperatori, who are with KCMG since their initial commitments with LMP and GT racing back at the mid of the last decade.
For both teams, this year's 24 Hours of Spa will hopefully be a race of redemption, as KCMG managed a 13th place finish with the factory lineup entry in 2020 while the other car with KCMG-only drivers didn't complete the race, and HubAuto saw its relationship with Ferrari end with a 23rd place finish.
Both teams presented good results in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, with HubAuto being a race winner at the California 8 Hour at Laguna Seca, but the grueling day at the Ardennes kept both the Taiwanese and the Hong Kongese out of the overall top-10.
The 24 Hours of Spa will be held on 31 July and 1 August, with the Test Days being held on 22 and 23 June.
PHOTOS: HubAuto Racing, KCMG
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