The Spa 24 Hours is only one year younger than its more popular cousin, Le Mans 24 Hours. While sharing many characteristics, each event has its own distinctive flavor - we leave behind France's vin blanc and rillettes in June to embrace Belgium's frites, mayonnaise and beer in July. Though on a smaller scale, Spa's endurance race is just as much a celebration of speed and courage as it's French counterpart is. One point both races share, that isn't the status quo for racing in Europe, is the participation of the audience. The prologue to both races involves the cars heading to the local city centers and getring up close and personal with the public. This interaction of cars, stars and fans is how dreams are created. Watch out boys, or you'll end up like me...you've been warned! So on Wednesday before the race, teams jack up the suspension on the race cars and they are driven in convoy from the track at Francorchamps to the center of Spa. Upon arrival, they are parked in every available space...I wonder who will pay this parking fine?!? Drivers also assemble for their official briefing and to sign autographs. Afterwards, the whole caravan fires up and drives back to the track, leaving the locals to go back to their beer... This year, the Spa 24 Hours returned to its full pomp and glory with 66 entries arriving for Free Practice. It is now run for GT3 cars, which has been one of this century's success stories for the world of endurance racing. The 2013 Spa 24 Hours is the centerpiece of the Blancpain Endurance Series. As already stated, this is run for cars complying with the FIA GT3 regulations. The GT3 regulations promote a diversity of brands, and the GT3 cars must be based on production road car models available for sale. Performance of the GT3 cars is controlled, by the GT Bureau of the FIA through a Balance of Performance (BOP) ruling that adjusts limits on horsepower, weight, engine management, and aerodynamics - aiming to prevent a single manufacturer from becoming dominant. While that is the theory, as might be expected there are always those moaning about how hard done by they are by the current BOP rulings. Audi won that title this year, though it must be said not without some justification. In order to give every entrant a chance to be competitive, drivers are also graded according to experience and results - with levels ranging from Platinum to Bronze. There are three classes in the Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro, Pro-Am and Gentlemens Trophy - all dependent on driver gradings. This formula seems to be working well. Originally cars were prepared by tuners - but cars are now built and developed by the factories themselves. Control over the product and the chance to create a profit center acting as powerful incentives. As if to reinforce the point that GT3 is successful with a growing market, new cars are said to be coming to the tracks in 2014 from Bentley, Corvette and Viper. The latest rumbles from the new North American endurance series, USCR, indicates that this class of GT will be eligible to run with minimal modifications. As for the 66 cars filling the grids this year - it will come as no surprise to see that the traditional Gran Turismo brands continue to dominate numerically, there were 16 Ferrari 458 Italias on the grid. Porsche was also much in evidence with 11 on the grid...exactly what one might expect in this year of their 911 anniversary. Relative newcomers to endurance racing, but able to trade on their fantastic Grand Prix record, are McLaren. Evidently their salesmen are top notch, as 10 of Woking's finest were on hand. Porsche's former predominance in German GT racing has been seriously challenged in recent times - especially from Audi who swept the board in 2012, winning both the Spa and Nürburgring classics. BMW has also been prominent, with the Z4, and were favorites to take outright honors - especially when it was in the hands of local boys, Marc VDS Racing Team. Of all of the German GT3 brands, the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 contingent has being flying under the radar. Odd really, when one considers their results in 2013. Wins at Dubai, Bathurst and Nürburgring enduros should have made them racing certainties - but somehow they were largely overlooked. More diversity could be found with 4examples of Nissan's supercar, the GT-R. One of those teams being an all gamer crew, all graduates of the GT Academy. Aston Martin has been celebrating its 100th birthday this year and put in serious efforts at Le Mans and Nürburgring, but only 1 full werks car at Spa. Another marque celebrating an anniversary this year is Lamborghini, so it is appropriate that a LP560-4 was part of the show. Before racing commenced, the carnival atmosphere at Spa extended to the grid - where it would appear most of the population of the Liège region was swanning about. Continue onto 2013 Spa 24 Hours Racing Recap... -John Brooks
