Team WRT have been long-time supporters of the Spa 24 Hours with no fewer than four of their management team having very personal relationships with the race: Vincent Vosse (1), Kurt Mollekens (2), Pierre Dieudonne (2) – see below and Thierry Tassin (4) all previous winners of the event.
To mark the centenary edition of the race in 2024, cars #32 and #46 will sport special liveries inspired by the BMW cars entered in the 80’s and 90’s with, among others, Thierry Tassin at the wheel.
Vincent Vosse is probably the one person at Team WRT who is most emotionally linked to the race: “I grew up a few kilometres from the track and used to go to Spa-Francorchamps to watch the races since I was a kid. That’s where and how my passion for motorsports began.
“The 24 Hours was always a special race, with the largest crowd. So, to be able to take part in it was a dream that became a reality in 1995, and to win it, was the crowning of an ambition. Still, I only won it on my eighth attempt, in 2002, with a Viper, and in the seven previous participations, I only finished the race once.
“It shows how difficult it can be to succeed in a race like that. After that, I had three more podium finishes and one pole position, missing narrowly a second victory in 2004, when we were leading in a Ferrari but were slowed by a technical issue.
“My last run was in 2010 when I stopped racing to focus entirely on the Team WRT project. To win again in 2011 and 2014, as a team, after having gained the trust of a big car brand, was magic. Since then we have always been fighting at the front. We want to win again!”
Sporting Director Pierre Dieudonné has also a long relationship with ‘the race’, 17 starts as a driver, one more than Vosse, and something to correct straight away: “In the books and on the internet, I am listed as a 3-time winner, but this is not true. The confusion is because in 1974-75 when the BMW 3.0 CSi of Luigi Racing won, I was officially entered, but as a reserve driver, and did not take the wheel of the winning cars.
“I won in 1981, with the Mazda RX-7 together with Tom Walkinshaw. A memorable win in many ways: it was the first win of a Japanese manufacturer, moreover with a car not running in the top class and equipped with a rotary engine. It was also the last win of a two-driver line-up and the first time that an on-board camera was used in the live feed by Belgian TV.
“I had the chance to have lived two very different periods of the 24 Hours, as I raced it on both the old long road track and the new circuit. The old 14-km track was very fast and scary, especially at night or with bad weather, and big accidents were frequent. Fear added to the normal stress of the race. Avoiding mistakes and trouble with the car was a necessity because you could pay a very high price.
“Today the race is completely different, it has become a 24-hour long sprint race. You still need to make a faultless race, but today’s cars allow them to be driven to the limit for the entire race.”
Sporting Director for the Hypercar programme Thierry Tassin is not involved in the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa, but he is the Team WRT member with the most starts, 19, in the race and the most wins, four, all conquered at the wheel of BMWs: the 635 CSi in 1983 and 1986, the 318is in 1994 and the 320i in 1996.
“He will be driving a 635 CSi in the exhibition events this week and underlines another key aspect of the 24 Hours: “It’s the biggest GT race in the world today, but has always been a huge event, with tremendous resonance. In my time it was an event flooded with spectators, and covered by Belgian mainstream press and media as no other racing event.
“For a Belgian driver, winning the 24 Hours could be the springboard to a professional career. It was in my case, when I won for the first time in 1983. I was then racing in single-seaters at a high level, Formula 2, but I was living in a difficult moment and was barely known beyond motorsports circles.
“Winning the 24 Hours re-launched my career and made me become a public figure from one day to the other. I must say that seeing the track invasion by the public from the podium is something that took my breath away and that I will never forget.”
Team Manager Kurt Mollekens, with two wins out of 14 starts, sheds an amused sight on his achievements: “I won the last edition of the touring car era, in 2000 with a Peugeot, and the last race with GT1 cars, in 2009 with a Corvette, so I will ask Stéphane Ratel to let me know whenever he decides to drop GT3s.”
Jokes aside, he makes an interesting analysis of modern times: “The race has evolved tremendously, it is much more difficult to win it today, as it has reached a degree of complexity that requires not only a true team effort but perfection at every stage and in every detail. It stems in great part from the fact that this is a 24-hour sprint race with over 60 cars of the same class. Here, you don’t have different car classes, the 60 plus cars all have the same performance, acceleration, and braking levels, so the racing is extremely tough, and overtaking very difficult, you are all on the same pace and to the limit for 24 hours.”
Team WRT line-ups for this year’s edition include two drivers who have already visited the top step of the podium, Raffaele Marciello, who won it in 2022, and Maxime Martin, who conquered it in 2016 at the wheel of a BMW M6, following on the footsteps of his father Jean-Michel with four wins, and his uncle Philippe with two.
The German manufacturer is by far the one with the most wins at the 24 Hours of Spa: 25. The first one was in 1965, with an 1800ti driven by Pascal Ickx and Gérard Langlois.
The following year the victors were a 2000ti, with Hubert Hahne and another, younger Ickx brother, the then 21-year-old Jacky who would become a front-runner in single seaters and sportscars and a national hero in his home country.
Jacky will be the official starter of the race this year and will do the official opening lap before the race in the company of his brother Pascal, the oldest living winner of the race.
Team WRT
#32 Sheldon van der Linde (ZA) – Dries Vanthoor (BE) – Charles Weerts (BE) Pro
#46 Maxime Martin (BE) – Raffaele Marciello (CH) – Valentino Rossi (IT) Pro
OQ by Oman Racing Team WRT
#30 Ahmad Al Harthy (OM) – Sam De Haan (GB) – Jens Klingmann (DE) – Calan Williams (AU) Bronze
