Now begins a round of the new World GT Championship. Darren Turner in the Nissan leads Eric de Doncker in the Ford by a mere 196 laps. The Matech / VDS team is strategizing as to how best to overcome this “starting” deficit over the next 60 minutes.  That is sadly about as close to endurance racing as the GT series will be next year.

Back to the reality of the race at hand, the final hour begins with some minor drama. Daniel Desbrueres has a puncture and brought the somewhat anonymous No. 145 G3 class Porsche Cup car of First Motorsport into the pits. Then Thomas Mutsch comes to a brief halt at the pit entry with the still G3 leading No. 121 Ford. He retained the position against the second place but still somewhat slower Porsche of Rodney Forbes.

The two Prospeed GT2 Porsches are on the same lap and it is the only conceivable contest left for position. Richard Westbrook in No. 60 is chasing Louis Machiels in No. 61. The pro factory driver in No. 60 is about three seconds per lap faster, but with 20 minutes left and a gap of 75 seconds, it can’t realistically be considered a race—especially as they are from the same team.

Oliver Gavin takes the Corvette out for one last leaky smoky lap. But all the glory resides with Kurt Mollekens, who brings the No. 4 Corvette to victory, 11 laps clear of Lemeret in the last of the Maseratis. The MC12s will not go out in a blaze of glory at a race that they nearly owned for several years.

It is quite an accomplishment for the now venerable Pratt & Miller built car. The Audi survives to take third overall and an (almost) uncontested G2 trophy. GT2, as usual, was a good battle, if episodic. The class is well served by having all the top finishers end in a proper overall order. There too it was something of a case of attrition. At one point both AF Corse Ferraris were dominant, now only one is left. The Brixia team deserves much credit for a fine second place and CR Scuderia’s third is also commendable.

It was a similar case of attrition in G3. Hours of a Ford 1-2 faded to a single Matech entry. It struggled in the closing hours and were the race a few hours longer it is likely that either the remaining Mühlner or Prospeed Porsches would grab a higher spot on the podium. The strong Barwell Aston Martin challenge faded after the car suffered some bodywork damage.

We have one last bit of drama. The No. 121 Ford has been shedding parts for some time.  On the penultimate lap it deposits a piece of burning debris. All are warned about it and its avoided. In any case most of the field by then had greatly slowed.

During the night this was one of the better 24 hour races over the past decade. Added to that were the spills and thrills during the variable weather of Saturday. The demise of the No. 3 Corvette largely took the wind out of the closing hours. Nevertheless, in total the 2009 edition of this classic must be rated as a 3-star, worthwhile, not too bad event. There is also a tinge of advance nostalgia with the question of whether it will continue as true GT race in the future.