GT2 Europe

Total 24H of Spa: BMW still in command after 12 hours

© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq

At the halfway point of the 63rd Total 24 Hours of Spa BMW Motorsport is still in the lead. The Dirk Werner, Dirk Müller and Dirk Adorf driven BMW has a one-lap lead over the entire field and was also the quickest car on the track after posting a 2:22.710 on lap 264.

The seventh hour was again a very wet one as the rain came down heavily again. But this did not stop the BMW from maintaining the lead in the Total 24 Hours of Spa. The nr 79 was still far ahead of the Phoenix Racing, despite the darkness and the rain.

As it was raining Marcel Fässler started to reel in the BMW M3 E92 and in some laps he took back seven seconds on the BMW. Just after he had closed the gap to 38 seconds Fässler returned to the pit, only to come out in fifth overall. AF Corse’s nr 2 Ferrari moved into second and third was the nr 16 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche.

But Fässler did not give up and would soon be back in the hunt for the lead BMW. Behind them there was bad luck for the lead ProSpeed Competition Porsche. Richard Westbrook collided with the Brussels Racing Aston Martin and a heavily damaged Porsche was the result. The unplanned pitstop meant the end of the team’s aspirations of a race win as it cost them 10 laps. The BMW nr 78 also hit trouble again in the pit.

At 01.19 the safety car was sent out again when the nr 67 United Autosports Audi went off at Les Combes. The cars were behind the safety car for some eight minutes and as they returned the BMW was still in a commanding lead. Behind the nr 79 though the gap between second, third and fourth was just ten seconds.

The ProSpeed nr 13 came back out after another longer pit stop, but it stalled on the pit exit. Phoenix Racing suffered a puncture and had to come in to replace it, which meant it dropped to fourth overall. So after 242 laps and 11 hours it was the BMW M3 in the lead, ahead of the AF Corse Ferrari and the IMSA Matmut Porsche 16.

Just before 3.30 a report came that there were debris on track at the Raidillon and moments later Mark Patterson reported he had been hit and there was damage to the car. The American returned to the pit where his team replaced the left rear body panel, which was missing, and did some planned changes. In all they lost 9 minutes.

As the BMW came in for it’s eleventh stop the lead went to the nr 2 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Eric van de Poele, but just before the halfway point of the race Dirk Werner passed the Ferrari out on the track and took back the lead from the Ferrari.