This weekend sees the 2015 edition of the Spa 24 Hours, one of, if not THE biggest all GT races of the year and a bona fide endurance racing classic.
Whilst a number of cars have fallen off the provisional entry the current 58 is more than enough to ensure that the quality of racing in all three classes is up to muster.
Three classes? Well yes, despite the fact that the entry is composed entirely of GT3 machinery the class structure carries through, in this instance based on driver ability with Pro Cup, Pro-am Cup and Gentleman Trophy contests within the overall field.
Happily there’s a major change to report on the safety front after a frankly worrying display last year.
A string of major accidents saw huge damage, more than one driver hospitalised, And on reflection very good fortune that we aren’t looking back on worse news still.
A solid response was required from the race organisers and that’s what we got!
Adoption of the Sean Edwards foundation programme was a sensible and highly appropriate move, Recognising the challenges inherent in a packed grid of cars with broadly similar performance but with drivers of vastly different skill and experience levels.
Across the grid there are 11 different marques and 12 different cars featured on the 58 car entry (Audi is represented by the two different evolutions of their R8 LMS).
Pro Cup
Pro cup is packed with 25 entries.
Audi is the headline acts this year the Spa racing debut of its new 2015-spec R8 LMS.
The new car has already taken a major 24-hour racing honour after a dominant run at the Nürburgring 24 hours in May. Since then though there was an uncharacteristically off-colour run at Paul Ricard.
Despite that though there is little doubt that the quartet of new Audis feature highly on many people’s list of race favourites.
WRT and Phoenix are dripping with Audi factory talent
The #1 WRT car features Messrs Vanthoor, Rast and Winkelhock, a difficult lineup to ignore.
WRT’s #2 Audi meanwhile has the barely less talented trio of Stephane Ortelli, Frank Stippler and Nico Muller on parade.
Phoenix meanwhile field a trio of Le Mans 24 Hours winning drivers in their #6 Audi, Lotterer, Fassler and Rockefeller another very classy looking squad.
Phoenix too have a pair of high-quality lineups with their #5 car bringing Christian Mamerow, Christopher Mies and Nicki Thiim out to play.
Don’t ignore either the third WRT car, the #3 car the older spec version of the Audi it was a very high quality driver squad in Robin Frijns, Jean-Karl Vernay and Stephane Richelmi. If Ricard-like woes revisit the new cars the ‘classic’ version of the R8 is more than capable.
That’s certainly what customer teams Sainteloc racing and ISR will be counting on. They field an Audi apiece, again with high-quality driver lineups, Sainteloc’s #35 (below) has Gregory Guilvert joined by Edward Sandstrom and Marc Basseng whilst the #75 car from ISR sees Filip Salaquarda with Frederic Vervisch and Audi factory man Marco Bonanomi.
Audi is not the only marque fielding a new car for Spa this year.
Lamborghini is bringing its brand-new Huracan GT3 to Belgium for the first time, a car which features an identical powertrain to the Audi but with a very different aerodynamic solution.
The new Lamborghini is, as yet, an unknown quantity over 24 hours but that Audi powertrain is a hefty calling card. Both cars are run by the GRT Grasser Racing Team, the longtime Lamborghini customer undertaking the development year with the new car.
The #19 Huracan fields Andrew Palmer, Jeroen Mul and Fabio Babini with the sister #63 Lamborghini mustering Adrian Zaugg, Mirko Borlotti and Giovanni Venturini.
If one or two of those names are perhaps less familiar to some DSC readers then pay close attention, they are set to make a splash!
The third new GT3 car for Spa this year comes from McLaren with the spectacular new 650 S GT3.
Von Ryan Racing enter a pair of cars which feature a galaxy of McLaren factory talent, the #58 car in particular, fielding Rob Bell, Kevin Estre and Shane van Gisbergen has all the signs of being a real contender. The sister #59 McLaren is offering Alvaro Parente, Bruno Senna and 2015 GT new boy Adrian Quaife Hobbs.
Bentley were the new boys last year but suffered early problems that cost them dearly. They’re back in 2015 though with no fewer than three cars in the Pro Cup, a pair for M-Sport and HTP with a single car.
The lead #7 M-Sport car looks pretty convincing with the now well established trio of Guy Smith, Steven Kane, and Andy Meyrick. The sister #8 Bentley should be very fast too, though 2014 standout Maxi Buhk has seemed a little off colour since a huge smash at Brands Hatch. He is joined by Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet.
HTP meanwhile have Vincent Abril, Mike Parisy and Harold Primat in their #84 Bentley, the HTP Continental GT3s sporting all black and all red liveries for their Pro and Pro-Am cars
Nissan’s GT-R has had a comprehensive upgrade for this year and it shows! There are two Godzillas in the pro class, one apiece for GT Academy Team RJN and MRS GT.
The #23 RJN car won last time out in a very convincing display at Paul Ricard, Alex Buncombe, Wolfgang Reip and Katsumasa Chiyo return and there’s little to suggest that Nissans won’t again be on the pace in Belgium, though a recent Balance of Performance change has blunted its edge somewhat!
MRS meanwhile feature a new and eye-catching bright red livery on the #73 car for Sean Walkinshaw, Craig Dolby, and Martin Plowman. Look out for their new ‘Godziller’ branding!
BMW is represented by four of the sonorous Z4 GT3s from three separate teams.
The #9 ROAL Motorsport car sees Paralympic hero ex-Formula One and Champcar star Alex Zanardi Contest his first 24 hour race, BMW having made major changes to the Z4 to accommodate his needs alongside there is a teammates Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock.
Quite apart from being an assured fan favourite already, the addition of a Michel Vaillant livery, paying homage to long established Belgian racing institution is sure to add yet further support.
The all Brazilian crewed #77 car should be quick but is likely to play second or third fiddle to the pair of Team VDS cars.
Maxime Martin, Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner in the #45 add another to a lengthening list of most likely to succeed.
The sister #46 BMW too though should not be overlooked. Marcus Palttala, Nick Catsburg and Lucas Luhr are another very high-quality squad.
Finally, there is no new car yet for Mercedes-Benz here, instead the three pointed star is represented in the Pro class by a pair of well crewed SLS AMG GT3s apiece for Black Falcon and Rowe Racing.
Black Falcon know how to win 24 hour races and field an intriguing pair of squads here.
The #21 Mercedes has Hubert Haupt, Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Yelmer Buurman on board with the sister #29 Benz mustering Adam Christodoulou, local star Nico Verdonck and late addition Andreas Simonsen.
Rowe Racing meanwhile have some heavy hitters too with Thomas Jager in the #98 and Stef Dusseldorp in the #99.
Pro-Am Cup
The Pro-Am class features 22 cars with almost as many stars on the roster as the Pro Cup!
There are three additional marques to mention over and above those featured in the Pro class.
The first is the sole Jaguar in the race, the Swiss Emil Frey Racing outfit have found pace this year with the pretty blue #14 XKR.
Fredy Barth, Lorenz Frey and regular Pro Gabriel Gardel will be joined here by the sometimes rapid Jonathan Hirschi.
The second is Ferrari, no fewer than nine examples of the 458 Italia GT3 grace the class from six different teams.
Five of those teams field a single car apiece:
Kessel Racing, Insight Racing Denmark, Sport Garage, Dragon Speed and Rinaldi Racing.
That leaves four cars to account for and to absolutely nobodies surprise it’s the seemingly ever present AF Corse that does just that.
Dragon Speed (below) have added the very rapid Ryan Dalziel to an already strong team featuring rapid veterans Elton Julian and Anthony Lazarro alongside car owner Henrik Hedman. Kessel meanwhile will lean heavily on Michael Lyons in the #11 car.
Rinaldi have stepped down to Pro-Am for this race in their bright green #333 458 the talents of Marco Seefried and Norbert Siedler should more than keep them in the mix.
AF Corse meanwhile have been dipping in their bran tub of talent! None of their four cars are without at least one standout driver.
The #47 effort sees local specialist Stephane Lemeret together with AF Corse regular Pasin Lathouras joined by the rapid Alessandro Pier Guidi and the otherworldly talents of current WEC GT World Driver’s Champion Gianmaria Bruni.
The #51 Ferrari sees the well established pairing of rapid Gentleman Duncan Cameron and increasingly widely recognised world class talent Matt Griffin joined by Francisco Guedes and Ferrari GT works driver Davide Rigon.
The #52 458 has the remarkably rapid Raffaele Giammaria and the teams other current GT world champion, Toni Vilander aboard with Marco Cioci and Michele Rugolo joining Enzo Potolicchio and Pierguiseppe Perazzini in #53.
There are solo entries in the class from teams fielding Bentley, Nissan and Audi machinery.
HTP Motorsport’s #83 Bentley was a late to change from the Pro cup and fields a quartet of young drivers: Fabien Hamprecht, Max van Splunteren, Louis Machiels and Clemens Schmid.
The single Audi in the class is fielded by WRT, the #4 car featuring British ex-touring car star James Nash in the order.
There’s two Pro Am Aston Martins making up the British marque’s representation. One is the #32 car of Leonard Motorsport AMR. Stuart Leonard is joined by the talented trio of Michael Meadows, Tom Onslow Cole and Aston Martin factory driver Stefan Mücke.
The other comes from the Oman Racing Team, who moved down from the Pro Cup after adding bronze driver Jonathan Venter. Factory man Jonny Adam, Daniel Lloyd and Ahmad Al Harthy make up the rest of the car’s lineup.
The #22 GT Academy Team RJN Nissan will be a crowd favourites, fielding a trio of Nissan GT Academy winners (Ricardo Sanchez, Florian Strauss and Gaetan Paletou) plus Nissan LMP1 factory driver Olivier Pla.
Better still the car is presented in a ’Heritage’ livery and mighty fine it looks too (with thanks to Gaetan Paletou via Twitter for the pic!)
Mercedes-Benz have a trio of customer SLS AMG GTs in the class.
Black Falcon have a single car alongside their two car pro entry. The late edition of Bernd Schneider to the existing trio of Oliver Morley, Maro Engel, and Sean Johnston elevates the #18 Benz onto the list of favourites.
The GT Russian squad enter the other pair of cars with Christophe Bouchut the standout name in the #70 effort, and Marco Asmer adding steel to #71
Just BMW left then with five cars entered in the class though only four will contest the full race.
The fifth is a charity effort fielded by Marc VDS with Spa legends Eric van de Poele, Marc Duez, Pascal Witmeur and Jean-Michel Martin. Each driver will complete just a single 24 minute stint apiece as they worked to raise funds for a cancer charity.
TDS Racing have plenty of BMW experience from Eric Dermont, Henry Hassid and Franck Perera on board, the regular TDS trio joined here by Rebellion Racing LMP1 driver Mathias Beche
Finally there are a trio of British entered BMW’s.
Team Russia by Barwell see a cocktail of their regular Blancpain Endurance and British GT efforts with Leo Machitski and Johnny Cocker joined by Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen in the #78 Z4 GT3.
Barwell also prepare the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW which fields Oliver Bryant, Devon Modell, Alasdair McCaig and BMW factory man Alexander Sims here.
Finally, Triple 8 Racing and their #888 Z4 GT3, another team bolstered by BMW factory talent. Dirk Muller joins Joe Osborne, Lee Mowle and Ryan Ratcliffe.
Any of the above could find themselves in contention with the race likely to be decided as much by teams ability to run trouble-free as it will be on pure pace.
Am Cup
Finally the Am Cup features 11 cars, included in which are the only two Porsches in the race!
There are some notable names in terms of teams and drivers in the order.
AKKA ASP’s #10 Ferrari fields Jean-Philippe Belloc amongst its squad whilst Karim Ojjeh returns with Boutsen Ginion now having switched from McLaren to BMW.
Team Parker’s #24 Audi again fields Julian Westwood but adds the highly enthusiastic Benny Simonsen. Rui Aguas will add steel in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari with Liam Talbot continuing a European tour aboard the #111 Kessel 458.
GG
