Total 24 Hours of Spa – Saturday Notes
Whether The Weather

Race day has arrived at Spa, with the 64th edition of the Spa 24 Hours due to get underway at 16:00 CET. However, the only topic of conversation is the weather – and, more specifically, how heavily and for how long will it rain?

Super Pole on Friday afternoon was cancelled following a huge thunderstorm that saw 30mm of rain fall in just ten minutes just before it was due to start – the second F3 race also falling victim to the deluge – and DSC’s away team found itself almost washed off the road as it entered Liege last night by another storm. Things have been calmer so far, but the rain was falling heavily and consistently with four hours to go, and the Race Director had been quoted as forecasting “Intermittent showers until 20:00…and then it will really start to rain!” Fog was also present in the vicinity of the circuit this morning, so an uninterrupted race is not guaranteed.

The cancellation of Super Pole left the #66 Pro Class Vita4one Racing Team BMW Z4 of Mathias Lauda, Greg Franchi and Frank Kechele on pole (2:19.473) with the #3 Marc VDS Z4 Of Markus Palttala, Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin alongside them on the front row. Third is the fastest of the Pro-Am runners, the #88 Von Ryan Racing McLaren of Alvaro Parente, Rob Barff, Chris Goodwin and Roger Wills, with the Paul Ricard winners Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Stephane Ortelli fourth in the #1 WRT Audi R8 LMW ultra.

GT3 Racing Team Manager Jim Hersey revealed that a last-minute reprogramming of the engine-loggers meant that all of the teams running Audi R8s began the second qualifying session in utter confusion as various warning lights came on and sensors reported problems. Fortunately a mechanic in a neighbouring pit quickly discovered that unplugging the logger resolved the issue and the cars were able to take part in the session before making any changes. The logger issue has now been resolved.

Practice and Qualifying was far from trouble-free for several teams, with plenty of work being provided for the mechanics before the race. Both Michael Wainwright and Andrew Howard had ‘offs’ in the Pre-Qualifying session; the former incurring significant-front end damage to the #9 Gulf Racing McLaren at Les Combes and the latter doing the same to the #107 Beechdean-Aston Martin Racing at the exit to Pif Paf. Both cars missed the first Qualifying session as a result, but while the Aston team managed to cycle all four drivers through in the second session (three laps each), Rob Bell didn’t get time to do his mandatory laps in the Gulf car. Fortunately, the stewards gave permission for the car to take part in Warm-Up and the race.

Aston Martin Racing MD John Gaw – one of the Beechdean drivers this weekend – was not too  perturbed by the lack of running; “I’ve only done about six laps, but that doesn’t really matter in the overall scheme of things – it just adds to the challenge. The car is still in its development phase and this race is the latest stage of that development – we managed 20 hours at the Nürburgring 24 and we want at least one of the cars [the other being the #89 GPR Racing Vantage] to go the full 24 this weekend.” So he’ll be wearing two hats this weekend? “Yes – more MD than Racer.”

The Preci-Spark Mercedes SLS ended the second Qualifying session also with front-end damage, but like the other two cars was able to successfully participate in Warm-Up.

The #37 DB Motorsport BMW Z4 (overtaking under red flags), the #7 ARC Bratislava Porsche 997 GT3 R (exceeding track limits) and the #60 Von Ryan McLaren (changing turbo) will all have to serve stop/go penalties – of one-minute duration for the BMW – within the first three laps of the race, while KRK Racing have been handed a formal reprimand for refuelling during Q1.

Things are looking much better for the second Von Ryan car, which starts from Pro-Am pole in third; “At last, our luck is changing,” exclaimed Rob Barff. “We’ve had some rotten luck so far, but we’re much more positive now; the four of us are gelling well –the addition of Alvaro and Chris is a real advantage – and Roger [Wills] did last year’s race in a McLaren, so we’ve plenty of experience to call on. It’s just a shame Leon [Price] can’t be here this weekend.

“As for how the race will go; there’s a massive distance to cover on potentially the most difficult circuit there is and the key to doing well is just to keep going round and round. Freisinger won the race in 2003 in a GT2 (N-GT) Porsche by spending a miniscule amount of time in the pits, and that’s the kind of performance that everyone wants to aspire to.”

And it was a similar story at MTECH; “We didn’t have a good qualifying through various issues, but we’ve a strong driving team and if we can stay out of trouble we’re hopeful of a good result,” said Matt Griffin. “I led the race last year, but while that’s unlikely to happen this time we’re hoping for a steady run.”

As the race start approaches, would you believe….the sun has come out!

MH