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Hour 6: Pole-Sitting WRT BMW Crashes Out Before Half Distance

Big crash for Weerts in traffic as Manthey EMA leads after six hours

The Mountain has claimed its first major victim of the race, with the #32 WRT BMW making a heavy impact with the wall at The Cutting at the five-hour mark.

Charles Weerts was leading a long train for third position since an earlier safety car. Heading out of Griffin’s bend, the pack came across Colin White in the #56 Nineteen Corp Ginetta. Colin kept to the extreme left of the track, with Weerts leading the field around the outside of the kink, but closed the door too sharply at the kink, making contact with the front of the Ginetta, pitching the BMW sideways, and almost climbing the concrete wall.

The team confirmed that Charles is shaken, but otherwise okay, but the #32 was a strong contender and a big casualty in the context of the race.

Leading the way at the halfway point is the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche, which has been in control of the race since the first stint. Ayhancan Guven has just gotten behind the wheel, once again holding off the #46 WRT BMW, Valentino Rossi behind the wheel, and now Christopher Haase in the #22 Wash-It Audi in third. The top five is completed by the #888 National Storage Triple Eight Mercedes and the #13 Phantom Team75 Bernhard Porsche, which has had an impressive run so far.

It felt like it was almost a matter of time before something happened, with a number of close calls as the tightly packed Pro field squeezed past the slower traffic over the mountain.

This was compounded by a number of Safety Car interventions in a messy second quarter of the race. After the restart for recovery of the Vortex that brought out the first Safety Car, it was only 20 minutes before the safety car was back out on track again, this time due to an incident at Griffin’s Bend.

Invitational Class leader Hadrian Morrall in the #91 Wheels/FX MARC II V8 lit up the rears on the exit of Griffin’s, spinning the Martini-clad car into the inside wall, right in front of the lead group.

This brought the leading group in the pits – Guven holding off both BMWs, then the #888 National Storage Mercedes and the #13 Phantom Team75 Bernhard Porsche. The timing of this Safety Car allowed both Schumacher and Habul to fulfil their driver time requirements in the #2 KFC Audi and the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes, with both now out of the car.

Another angry train of Pro cars at the restart was given a total of 15 minutes to sort it out before the third Safety Car intervention of the race, as the battle for Pro-Am lead came to blows at McPhillamy Park. Yasser Shahin in the #911 Shell V-Power/The Bend Porsche ended up in the gravel, after contact with Glen Wood in the #48 M-Motorsport Mercedes at the apex.

Shahin was extracted from the gravel but did deposit much of it on the circuit on his way back to the pits, which caught out Julien Boillot in the Vortex, who had an innocuous spin at The Dipper.

This Safety Car intervention brought cars back onto the lead lap, with 14 GT3 entries in the mix with 8 hours remaining. It was still the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche, Campbell at the wheel, which led the field away, gapping it slightly, while positions second to eighth were squabbling in a huge pack. Maxime Martin in the #46 WRT BMW stretched his legs, Weerts in the #32 BMW behind him, with Jaxon Evans in the #13 Phantom Team75 Bernhard Porsche holding up the next group.

Kelvin van der Linde, hunting in the #22 Wash-It Audi, made a pass on Evans at The Chase and was almost immediately behind Weerts, but it was traffic that bunched the field up again – Max Twigg in the #702 TekworkX MARC IRC GT plugging the field up on the run to the Elbow, slowing Martin in second all the way back into the battle pack to 8th.

The intensity of the pack battling meant that at some point, it was going to boil over. While the #32 is out of the game, the #56 Ginetta did get back on track. However, the #56 had another incident around 25 minutes before the halfway point, bringing out another Safety Car.

Owen Hizzey ran slightly wide out of the Dipper, sliding out to the wall before firing into the inside wall on driver’s left. The car crabbed its way down past the Elbow, and parked up around 100m down Conrod Straight. It’s been a difficult run for the Ginetta team run by Nineteen Corp, who has been involved in almost everything so far today.

The Pro-Am field is being controlled by the #48 M-Motorsport by Erebus Mercedes, who didn’t elect to take a stop in the most recent Safety Car, while the Silver class is being led by Marcel Zalloua in the #44 Valmont Tigani Audi, in 15th place.

The tight GT4 battle has been split by the safety cars, with the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren now a lap ahead of the #19 Nineteen Corp Mercedes and the #230 Method Motorsport McLaren. Jesse Bryan leads the way, 10 laps behind the overall leader.

The invitational class has been whittled away, with the class lead in the hands of the #10 Matt Stone Racing MARC IRC GT, at the hands of Cameron Hill. They hold a three-lap lead over the #702 TekWorkX MARC IRC GT, with issues striking most other cars in the class. The #111 MRA Motorsport MARC II was involved in an awkward moment with the #47 Supabarn Mercedes at The Elbow, with Rylan Gray getting slapped with a drive-through penalty to go along with damage to repair.

The #20 Localsearch T2 MARC IRC GT was in the mix after their repair, but a moment for Daniel Jilesen at the top of the Mountain saw that car crawl into the pits and require an extensive repair, now 19 laps down from class lead, while the Vortex has been circulating a few seconds off the class pace, after a few interruptions to their run as well.

The clouds have rolled in across the circuit and there’s a significant threat of showers. It is very dark at the track now, with wet tyres being prepared up and down the pit lane.

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