SRO GT Academy frontrunners join Safety Car crew
Whilst the inaugural SRO GT Academy winner, Gaspard Simon, is making his 24 Hours of Spa debut aboard Walkenhorst Motorsport’s #35 Aston Martin, several of the drivers vying to be his successor will be in attendance this weekend.
Léo Jousset, Lukas Papin and Viny Beltramelli, the top three in the FFSA GT GT Academy standings as of the end of May, will join the team of Safety Car drivers at the event.
Lionspeed to run Art Car
For the second year in succession, Lionspeed GP is fielding an Art Car at the race, designed by Luis West.
The scheme will feature on its Bronze Cup-entered #89 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2), for Bashar Mardini, Patrick Kolb, Alex Fontana and Axcil Jefferies.
“My work’s always about colour, light and emotion, and I always try to create something that is dynamic rather than static,” West said. “It’s a unique chance because usually you create art to be preserved, but an art car is temporary by design. The scratches and tyre marks become scars and part of the story.”
Four series on stacked support bill
This year’s support package features four series, each of which will host one race on both Friday 26th and Saturday 27th June.
The GT4 European Series, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, McLaren Trophy Europe and GT3 Legends will each host a pair of encounters around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
AF Corse leads pre-event test
AF Corse’s Tommaso Mosca was fastest in Tuesday’s two-hour private test, which offered the first track time of race week at this year’s 24 Hours of Spa.
The Italian set a 2:18.002 aboard the #51 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, ending up 0.091 seconds clear of both Maxime Martin’s #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed AMG GT3 EVO, and Dennis Marschall’s Bronze Cup-topping #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, with both drivers setting a 2:18.093.
The AF Corse-supported #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari led the Gold Cup, with the #20 Motopark Mercedes-AMG topping Silver, and the #0 JMR Corvette Z06 GT3.R heading the Pro/Am runners.
In total, 64 of the 69 competitors elected to run in the private test.
Dawson tops Bronze Test
2 Seas Motorsport’s Charles Dawson was then fastest in the following 60-minute Bronze Test, the event’s first official running.
The reigning British GT GT3 drivers’ champion set a 2:18.901 aboard the #222 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, ending up 0.123 seconds ahead of the #991 Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Darren Leung.
In total, 26 cars participated in the session, split across the Bronze and Pro-Am classes. The top six runners were all Bronze Cup competitors, with the best Pro-Am entry being the #177 Grupo Prom Racing Team Mercedes-AMG of Stephane Tribaudini.
Parade kicks off festivities
More than 260 cars took part in the annual parade from the track to the Spa city centre.
Thousands of fans lined the streets in the sunshine to get a glimpse of the contenders set to do battle in this weekends race, plus additional machinery from the support paddock and special guest cars including the BMW M3 Touring 24H, complete with a roof top box!
Drivers then took part in an autograph session before returning to the circuit.
Images courtesy of Frozenspeed, SRO/JEP and Lionspeed GP
