Thursday Spa Notebook – Sportscar365
Photo: Jules Bénichou/21 Creation
***The #93 Sky-Tempesta Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo will lose five places on the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa grid due to an infringement during free practice. Chris Froggatt overtook the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 under yellow flags to recover the #28 ST Racing BMW, according to a report from the stewards.
*** Following a late change to the racing rules, safety car periods will no longer be preceded by a Full Course Yellow. The FCY procedure, which requires all cars to slow below 80 km/h in response to an incident, will only be used for short interventions. Some teams were frustrated that they only learned of the new measure on Wednesday.
***Maxime Oosten’s crash during free practice at Raidillion only caused damage to the bodywork of the ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 and the chassis and suspension were not affected, according to the co-owner and driver of the team, Samantha Tan. The car underwent repairs and sat stripped down in the garage after the session, but returned to the track to complete the following session.
***Two drivers were fined €500 ($508) for crossing the finish line twice at the end of a session. Walkenhorst Motorsport’s Joerg Breuer incurred the penalty in free practice while CMR Bentley driver Stephane Lemeret did the same in pre-qualifying. A fine of €700 (714 USD) was also imposed on Valentino Rossi who exceeded the pit lane speed limit by 13.6 km/h.
***Audi Sport Team Sainteloc has changed the order in which its drivers qualified with the approval of the stewards under force majeure. According to an official bulletin, Christopher Mies was allowed to qualify first and take time off from night training for personal reasons.
*** Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe points leaders Max Weering and Loris Spinelli do double duty, but in different cars. As well as sharing their Bonaldi Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 in the supporting series, Weering is in Silver Cup with Leipert Motorsport, while Spinelli joins Sky-Tempesta Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in gold.
***SPS Automotive Performance is organizing SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG this weekend. Kenny Habul’s team had the support of Triple Eight Race Engineering for their victory at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hours in May. SPS raced the flamboyant AMG at the Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai in January.
***SPS was fined €1,000 (US$1,018) for unsafely throwing the SunEnergy1 car into the path of GetSpeed Performance’s #3 Mercedes-AMD during pre- qualifications, causing damage to the latter vehicle.
***SRO Motorsports Group’s GT2 formula features prominently in the Spa paddock, in the form of a static display entitled “The Rise of GT2” where an Audi R8 LMS GT2, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport, a KTM X-Bow GT2 and a Brabham BT63 GT2 Concept are shown.
***There is also a Mercedes-AMG GT Track Series in the center of the stage, with “homologation in progress” printed on the information panel. This is despite the manufacturer stating in May that the Track Series is designed for track use. Maserati became the sixth manufacturer to announce a GT2 entry earlier this week.
***Boutsen Racing’s Audi missed Wednesday’s parade due to a damaged gearbox. The car crashed in bronze practice on Tuesday but returned for free practice.
***The minimum refuel time during standard pit stops during the race has been set at 41 seconds, while short pit stops have a maximum refuel time of six seconds.
*** GPX Martini Racing has submitted a request to Porsche to reunite its line-up of 2019 winning drivers this weekend, according to team principal Pierre-Brice Mena. “After 2019 we didn’t push for it to come back in 2020 or 2021 because you have the pressure to try to repeat it,” he told Sportscar365. “Time has passed a bit and it’s good that the lineup is reunited.”
*** It is unclear whether GPX will return to full-time European racing next year, with plans for 2023 unclear. However, Mena said GT3 remains “super important” to the 2019 Spa-winning team: “We are looking at doing a full program etc. but I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to do. We need responses from organizers and Porsche Racing is still in our DNA and will always be important to us.
*** Mena added that GPX intends to stay with Porsche for the first season of the manufacturer’s new GT3 product next year. It is understood that the team has pre-ordered two cars.
*** The BMW ROWE Racing team is set to repeat its current program next season, according to team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf who told Sportscar365 that the team led by Motorsport Competence Group wanted to give full attention to the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup and again the Nürburgring 24.
***K-PAX Racing plans to add two factory Lamborghini drivers to its lineup for the Indianapolis 8 Hours according to team strategist Thomas Blam. “That’s the plan,” he told Sportscar365. “From what we understand, the rules will be aligned with the [GTWC America] rules in regards to pit stops and that nature.
***Blam said the Lamborghini team could make it to this year’s IGTC season finale depending on the results from this weekend and Indianapolis. “There were whispers,” he said. “Let’s see how we do here and in Indy. At that point, we might pull the trigger to do the final event.
*** BMW M Motorsport staff were largely unaffected by Wednesday’s Lufthansa strikes which saw the German flag carrier cancel the majority of its flights from Frankfurt and Munich, where BMW is based. The manufacturer’s race director, Andreas Roos, explained that it was common for BMW personnel to reach Spa by road.
*** Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3, supplied by TF Sport, was a new purchase after the intended car was damaged in a crash at Nürburgring 24 in May, according to team manager Tom Ferrier TF team. The British team repairs the damaged car for future use.
***Attempto Racing’s #66 Silver Cup Audi has a special livery celebrating 30 years of GT racing run by SRO Motorsports Group.
*** The 30th anniversary GT race cars run on tires from various suppliers, despite having Pirelli stickers on their bodywork as part of SRO’s affiliation with the Italian company. Most GT3-spec cars on the classic grid run on Pirelli rubber.
*** Jack Aitken plans to pursue a combined GT3 and LMP2 program next year. The former Grand Prix driver drives a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo for Emil Frey Racing and an Oreca 07 Gibson with Racing Team Turkey in the European Le Mans Series. “I like doing it; I have no problem switching between the two cars as they are very different so I have no problem separating them in my mind,” Aitken told Sportscar365.
*** Aitken believes teams remain “a bit scared” of punctures after the events at Paul Ricard, where several Lamborghini teams suffered tire problems. “We have made some changes to the tire prescriptions, the parameters we can run for this race from Pirelli. Hopefully that will be enough to prevent these issues.
***The SRO’s annual press conference takes place in Spa on Friday, with Stephane Ratel providing updates on his organization’s global activities. An announcement relating to the 12 Hours of the Gulf, which was alludes to by the event’s official Twitter account, should be part of the presentation.
John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report
