Bernd Schneider grabbed his second overall win at the 24 Hours of Spa, but this time around there was, if anything, even more to celebrate than the 1989 win he shared with Win Percy and Gianfranco Brancatelli aboard a Ford Sierra Cosworth.
Why?
Because by doing so Schneider adds to a famous set of 2013 race wins at the Dubai 24 Hours, Bathurst 12 Hours and 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, a matchless achievement for himself and, of course or Mercedes Benz with the SLS AMG GT3.
It’s an incredible achievement for the 49 year old who was consistently one of, if not THE fastest man on track, and it comes, rather neatly, 49 years after Mercedes Benz’s only previous Spa 24 Hours win.
For the winners there should be justifiable plaudits too for Maximilian Gotz and Maximilian Buhk too, Buhk in particular adding fire to the belly of the HTP attack, he will storm into overall contention in the Pro Cup drivers standings for the Blancpain Endurance Series.
Manthey Racing will be disappointed with their second place in a race that for much of the 24 Hours they showed every sign of dominating. They looked to have the pace to see off every challenger but finally had no real answer to the Mercedes attack. Patrick Pilet though deserves a particular mention here for an impressively attacking display in the #150 Porsche.
We found out post race though that the car finished running on only five cylinders!
Third, eventually, went to the #2 WRT Audi but in truth their pace wasn’t what earned them the final overall podium slot, but rather it was the astonishing attrition rate of others.
The BMW attack looked a convincing case for a near walkover but one by one the Z4 GT3s fell by the wayside, particularly so in the case of the three car Marc VDS attack and the Vita4One effort – A series of unrelated, and largely unforeseeable issues accounting for the cars, none more bizarre than the overheating fire extinguisher that took out the wiring loom of the then second placed overall #3 car!
There was late race heartache too for the then third placed #44 Kessel Ferrari, the Series class leader expired in smoke and flame as the 458’s V8 self destructed.
Pro AM looked for quite a time to be between the SMP and AF Corse Ferraris and the surviving Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-R. The Nissan, replete with its quartet of NISMO Athletes would eventually finish third in class, 7th overall but it could have been better still after a breakthrough stint overnight from Jann Mardenborough brought the car up the overall order from 21st to 10th. A brief delay left the team with much of the work to do again but he was very capably supported by Lucas Ordonez, who we believe now leads the Pro-Am drivers points standings, and who provided real punch as the cars raced into the early morning light. Wolfgang Reip impressed too and the relatively inexperienced Peter Pyzera was far from daunted by the experience either – A new generation of potential Nissan heroes is born!
Ahead of the Nissan though there were still a pair, from what had been a quartet of Ferraris to grab the top two podium places. The Russian flagged SMP racing squad fielded a quartet of 458s but with incident and accident one stayed at the top, the #71 crew too though had their issues, not least a late race penalty that sealed their second step fate.
They were bettered in the end by AF Corse, another team that fielded multiple cars, and another too that saw several cars fail during the 24 Hours
Ultimately it was a well rounded, disciplined performance from the #59 crew of Duncan Cameron, the gentleman driver solid as a rock as the pros around him on track duked it out, Alex Mortimer played a great defensive role on his return to the Spa 24 Hours, giving the 69-attacking pair of Toni Vilander and Matt Griffin breathing room to mount their attack.
Vilander is an established star of course at this level, but Griffin will have turned a few heads as he attacked Salo, ultimately successfully in a near last ditch and ultimately successful run for the lead of the Pro-Am class.
The Gentleman Trophy class only came alight at the very end of the race with niggles for some of the front runners.
In truth for most of the race the result looked in little doubt as the #20 Sofrev ASP Ferrari exerted an iron grip on proceedings, a late problem with the car unable to start without outside assistance though left their deserved win briefly in doubt.
Second was another solid Ferrari effort, this time from the DHL backed Sport Garage team’s #52 car, a slightly smoky last half hour left nerves jangling there too as the much troubled, and battle scarred #111 Kessel 458 stayed sufficiently close, but not sufficiently fast, to provide a potential threat.
Aside from the BMW meltdown there was disappointment too for Aston Martin, contact blunted the Beechdean attack after the car led early on, real pace on a recovery drive will have been some consolation (but probably not much!). The GPR (AMR) effort falling foul of dirty fuel.
For McLaren it was a frustrating Spa adventure too, Overheating, gear selection and contact issues saw all too many of the MP 4-12C s delayed or retired there were two remaining Maccas in the Pro class top ten, but neither really challenged for overall podiums.
The Pro Porsches, aside from the Manthey effort, seemed to be incident magnets too , the Pro GT by Almeras suffered an early delay with a broken radiator whilst both Prospeed cars suffered mechanical and contact woes too.
Alex Buncombe suffered a frightening off early in the race in the #32 RJN Nissan after a rear stub axle apparently failed, whilst Louis Machiels had a no less violent end to his Spa 24 Hours much later on when the then Pro-Am leading #50 AF Corse Ferrari crashed out almost in the same place at Eau rouge after suffering a puncture.
Neither JRM Nissan finished, the #23 car retiring on the penultimate lap, after several issues for both cars.
As with several other marques there was just too much contact and a little too little pace for the majority of the Audis, Enzo Ide though takes the booby prize for the most dramatic exit featuring an Audi R8 LMS as a rather ill executed pass on Iain Dockerill’s Insight Racing 458
Whilst Mercedes took the win there were woes too for both Black Falcon cars and a substantial off for Klaus Graf in the Rowe racing car.
SMP Racing’s four car Pro AM attack looked very impressive and looked dominant too with all four cars in the overall top 20. In truth though there was, perhaps, at times a little too much pace and a little too little strategy. They will feel that a single podium for the long time class leading #71 458 is fairly poor reward for the effort. Particular mention should go to front row starter Alessandro Pier Guidi whose first lap antics at Eau Rouge could have caused the mother and father of all accidents. Perhaps the very opposite of heads up driving from the undoubtedly talented Italian.
All in all an incident packed, engaging and interesting Spa 24 Hours with plenty of talking points and an historic result but ultimately this wasn’t quite, a classic – Food for thought aplenty about this event, the future of GT Racing and much more besides – We’ll get some sleep and write some more!
Graham Goodwin
