2015 Spa 24 Hours - Part Three of the Triple Crown

August 11, 2015
Story By
John Brooks

The final venue for the 2015 Triple Crown was to be the majestic Spa Francorchamps circuit, and the 67th edition of the Spa 24 Hours. The race has been in the custodianship of Stéphane Ratel and his SRO outfit since 2001. It would be true to say that Ratel has single-handedly revived the race back to the level of its greatest days.

Stéphane has also carried GT Racing forward since he established the BPR Global Challenge in 1994 with Patrick Peter and Jürgen Barth. His greatest creation was GT3, now accepted world-wide as the formula for racing road-based sportscars in both sprint and endurance formats. The performance of the cars is controlled by Balance of Performance (BoP) adjustments, this ensures that no single manufacturer can spend their way to victory.

It also enables cars as diverse as the Ferrari 458 Italia and the Bentley Continental GT3 to race competitively. Factory teams are outlawed in name but tolerated as a reality, though the fig leaf covering this secret is getting thinner by the year. Full-time factory professional drivers and engineers are common in the pitlane but BoP keeps the house in some sort of order. Being a competitive place, there are plenty of moans up and down the paddock that such-and-such car has been favored by the current BoP and why can't I have _________? Despite what the competitors think, for the most part SRO ignore this grumbling and do a pretty good job over the season of evening things out.

The Spa 24 Hours differs from the other two legs of the Triple Crown in that all the cars are drawn from the same category, the class distinction comes in the form of the drivers. According to past performance and professional status there are three classes, PRO, PROAM and AM. Like BoP there are anomalies, but over time these tend to get ironed out.

The 2015 edition of the event kicked off with the grid driving down to the town center of Spa to amuse the locals on the Wednesday before the race. It was a typically Belgian affair, delayed, apparently because of a labour dispute, but no one minded as Belgian beer is very good... and the sun was shining. Did I mention the beer?

Defeat at the hands of Porsche at La Sarthe would mean no repeat of the clean sweep of endurance classics for Audi in 2015, so two out of three would be the next best option. To achieve this, Nürburgring 24 winners WRT had three examples of the latest R8 LMS on hand backed up by a brace of cars entered under the Phoenix Racing banner. The pre-race favorite was definitely the #1 Audi of Laurens Vanthoor, René Rast and Marcus Winkelhock.

The main opposition to the Audi steamroller was anticipated to come from the BMW Z4 pair of Marc VDS, another Belgian team. As the Z4 is being replaced in 2016 by the new M6 GT3, the Spa 24 Hours would be the last chance for this popular car to achieve a win in one of the majors... the team had come close over the past few years but victory had always just been out of reach, could they finally achieve their goal in the race they prized above all others?

Another BMW in the PRO category was the ROAL Racing Z4 with BMW DTM stars, Timo Glock and Bruno Spengler being joined by the legendary Alex Zanardi. Alex was a star both sides of the Atlantic in Formula One and CART, winning two titles in North America. He was involved in an almost-fatal accident in 2001 while racing at Lausitzring. He lost both of his legs as a result but returned to motorsport in 2004 in the FIA World Touring Car Championship, winning several races outright. This inspirational figure went on to win two Olympic Gold medals in 2012 London Paralympics in the cycling events. At Spa his Z4 was heavily modified to enable him to race, he remains an example of determination in the face of the worst kind of adversity.

Making their début in the Spa 24 Hours was a pair of Lamborghini Huracáns, both in the PRO class, no one, including Lamborghini, were sure how they would fare in this endurance classic. However the package has proved competitive in 2015, and when one considers that under the aerodynamics the Lamborghini has the same mechanicals as the new Audi, it is only a matter of time till the results come.

Two Bentley Continental GT3 racers were entered by M-Sport on behalf of the factory. They were some observers outside choice for victory if either WRT or VDS stumbled.

RJN Motorsport represents Nissan and the GT Academy in GT3 and they had cause for optimism, having recently won outright at the Paul Ricard 1000 during the previous round of the Blancpain Endurance Series with the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.

The final factory backed team in the PRO class was Von Ryan Racing and its pair of McLaren 650 S GT3, I looked at this car before its launch when I visited the McLaren factory in 2014 HERE.

Now reaching the end of its career, the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 would still be competitive and ROWE racing's example was another long-odds contender even though it is a true customer program.

The PROAM class was harder to call, but any Ferrari that has AF Corse running it and Gianmaria Bruni driving it, is almost certain to be at the top of the list.

Aston Martin had representation on the PROAM class with factory driver Stefan Mücke leading the way.

Race day dawned and the rain finally arrived, and plenty of it, I can attest that there was a lot of grumbling in the media center from the photographers and plenty of schadenfrude from the scribblers who would stay glued to the timing screens in the dry... but despite the moaning we all trooped out to get ready for the opening lap, 57 cars were due to blast away into the murk and we had to be there to record events.

Eventually proceedings got under way but as bad as it was track-side in the spray, it must have been a hundred times worse behind the wheel. It was a time for survival and cool heads - the race could not be won in the first quarter, but it could be lost.

The Von Ryan Racing McLarens took control of the race from the off, building up a substantial lead.

Inevitably there were incidents that brought out a Safety Car, two in the first hours cancelling out the McLarens' advantage.

There were barriers to be replaced after heavy contact, Karim Ojjeh's BMW somersaulting into retirement after thumping the armco at Les Combes.

The combination of Safety Cars and heavy showers punctuating the dry spells mixed the field up, but as the race settled down and headed towards darkness the #1 Audi assumed control.

Tire choice and the timing of when to switch to dries was critical, leaving the Phoenix Audis on the wrong side of the gamble.

The race took another twist when Vanthoor in #1 got off line while on slicks and sustained a heavy impact with the wall at Stavelot... the yellow paint tells its own story as the mechanics set about fixing the R8. Victory was now out of the question.

The contest was now between the VDS BMWs, #2 Audi and the ROWE SLS Mercedes.

The weather cleared and the forecast was dry for the rest of the race.

Dawn came with the #45 BMW eking out a small lead, but the others in the quartet that had scrapped through the night were in close pursuit.

Disaster struck the leader when the engine failed, but #46 responded by grabbing the lead from the #2 Audi and pulling away. Could Marc VDS finally do it?

Heartbreak for ROWE racing in the final hour when a water pump failed while the Mercedes was running strongly in third place.

The clock ran down and then the Checkered Flag was waved at the BMW Z4, Marc VDS had done it! It was a highly emotional victory for Markus Palttala, Lucas Luhr and Nick Catsburg, for the Belgian team and for the BMW contingent from Munich. It was also an appropriate farewell from the big stage for the Z4 GT3. Audi, BMW and Porsche have shared honors in this year's endurance classics, roll on 2016 for more great racing.

2015 Spa 24 Hours - Part Three of the Triple Crown

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