Eventually the festivities surrounding the Spa 24 Hours were cleared and the main event could get underway. While only one year younger than its more popular cousin, the Le Mans 24 Hours, it's an equally impressive event. For more on the 66 cars filling the grid this year, see Spa 24 Hours - The Crowds and the Cars - or continue scrolling for a recap of the eventful 2013 Spa 24 Hours. The opening lap gave a clue as to the carnage that would follow. Pier Guidi's Ferrari went spinning up the hill at Radillon after getting squeezed out onto the 'marbles'. Somehow the pack avoided him, averting disaster at least once. No such recovery was possible a few laps later...Alex Buncombe was pitched into the wall at 120 mph (where I was standing), when his Nissan's stub axle failed...I ducked pretty sharply after snapping this photo. It gave the TV commentators something to laugh about, as can be seen HERE. One thing that was really unusual for Spa, was that the promised "biblical" rain storms never arrived! In racers favor, the weather pattern took a deluge to the north of the region. In fact, the weather was unusually hot and humid. Anyone working in those hostile conditions was earning their money (I should know). On track, the rate of attrition was high - perhaps as a result of the fierce pace set at the outset by Stefan Mücke in his Aston Martin first, and then by the HTP Mercedes and the Marc VDS BMWs. Besides the crash, the major casualty early on in the race were the McLarens. All of whom seemed to suffer problems of a greater or lesser degree - it was most unlike McLaren to have such faults. As the daylight ebbed away, a new contender, the Manthey Porsche, got on terms with the pair of Z4s and the Mercedes. This was going to be an interesting night... One young man whose performance attracted attention as the night fell was Jann Mardenborough, in the GT Academy Nissan. Posting a series of seriously quick lap times, he is marked down as a star of the future... Sunset came, followed by night - rarely seen during racing in the Ardennes. While the battle between the BMWs, Porsche and Mercedes continued on track, the fans found other diversions - a concert organised in the lower paddock. And of course there were a few bars and other distractions around... Back on track, racing continued through the night with intermittent showers spicing things up. Around the halfway mark, both BMWs retired - each with a different electrical failure. Now it was down to Porsche versus Mercedes - a Stuttgart local derby. The two cars traded the lead, sometimes on the track and sometimes in the pit stops. It was clear that the Mercedes had the legs on the Porsche, but in 24 Hour races anything can happen. In the end, the Porsche received a drive-through penalty for overtaking under a caution flag. Worse was to befall the fourth-placed BMW which stalled at the pit lane entrance, with just over an hour to go. The engine had failed and that was game over. Almost at the same time, the Ferrari running in third place also appeared in the pits - engine bay on fire, another retirement with the end in sight. The consequence of this means the Kessel would not take the Blancpain Endurance Series title, they'll have to fight for it all over again at the Nürburgring in September. Minutes ticked along and the race drew to a close. At the Checkered Flag, it was the HTP Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Bernd Schneider, Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz who were a lap up on the Manthey Porsche, with the WRT Audi a further 5 laps adrift. This win made Schneider's fourth major endurance victory of the year - not a bad way to celebrate being 49! Coincidentally, it was also 49 years since the previous Mercedes' victory in the Spa 24 Hours. In the ProAm class, the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia took the win, driven by Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin, Alex Mortimer and Toni Vilander. The 2013 Spa 24 Hours was the usual extreme test of man and machine. How extreme can be judged by the high attrition rate - with only 35 of the 65 starters being classified. In the end, we witnessed another enthralling endurance race, roll on 2014. Read more Endurance Race recaps:
