The spotlights have only just faded from the 24 Hours of Le Mans and it’s already time to light them up again for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa! There is no rest for the world’s elite of GT3 racing, who in two weeks will have contested the greatest Endurance and GT3 races of the season. To add prestige to a race that is already unique and very special for a Belgian team like Team WRT, this year the 24 Hours of Spa will celebrate its centenary anniversary. It was in 1924 when the legendary race, now in its 76th running, took place for the first time. The anniversary will be duly celebrated with many side events and race exhibitions which will gather a great number of the men and machines having written history in the Ardennes.
While it is important to remember the past, the present remains the main focus. This will be only the second round of the season in the Endurance Cup of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, but the one awarding the most points. At the moment, after the opening round at Circuit Paul Ricard, Team WRT lies in fourth position in the Pro standings and sixth in the Bronze Cup, and the games are completely open.
The Belgian squad will field its usual three-BMW M4 GT3 entry. In car #46, the one which took fourth in France, will be Raffaele Marciello, Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi, while car #32 is entrusted to Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts. In car #30, competing in the Bronze Cup with the OQ by Oman Racing livery, Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann will be joined by Calan Williams, as a fourth driver is foreseen by the sporting regulation in this class for the 24-hour race. To mark this special edition, cars #32 and #46 will sport a special livery inspired by the emblematic BMW cars entered in the 80’s and 90’s with, among others, Thierry Tassin at the wheel.
The objective for Team WRT is to fight at the top, seek a third win, and strengthen BMW’s supremacy in this race. 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 Ickx, a 21-year-old Jacky who would become the great champion we know 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.
WHAT TEAM WRT SPA WINNERS SAY ABOUT THE BIG RACE
On a special occasion like this year’s 24 Hours, it seems interesting to hear what former winners say about this unique race and what is their bond with it. Former race winners, there are quite a few at Team WRT, starting from those who are in management positions today. Pierre Dieudonné, Kurt Mollekens, Thierry Tassin, and Vincent Vosse: together, they can claim no less than 65 starts and 8 wins.
Team Principal 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.
Raffaele Marciello has a rational view of things: « I see Spa, together with Le Mans and the Nürburgring, the top 24 Hours race in the world and it is definitely the biggest GT3 race, also because of the amazing track. Winning it two years ago, after having been close in previous years and having been a poleman, felt like a reward. What do you need to win it? Certainly, a good BoP, and then to stay out of trouble, which is difficult because of traffic, of having to pass slower drivers in similar cars. You have to stay calm, and also cope with the night and weather conditions that can change rapidly as we know. The objective is to stay in the lead lap until the last hour, and then you fight. »
Quite obviously, Maxime Martin has a more emotional relationship with the race: « For me, the 24 Hours of Spa is the most important race, it means home race and also a family history that has been spanning over two generations. This will be my 18th participation, I’m almost a veteran by now, and I have won it only once. I’ve often been in a good position to win it but I have been also quite unlucky. Still, I love this race more than any other. When I won it in 2016, it was a great personal satisfaction, and I also felt proud to continue the family tradition. There is no golden receipt to win it: you need a good car, a good team, good teammates, a faultless race, and some luck, like for any other 24-hour race. »
Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe – Endurance Cup – Round 2 – Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa, Belgium, 29-30 June 2024