Total 24 hours of Spa final hour report

The overall winning Porsche team celebrates

Gary Parravani/AR1.com

‘Just as you thought it was safe to go back in the water’ Dirk Werner had one of those life-changing moments when he put his 79 BMW into the tire wall at Les Fagnes aka Turn 12 with 40 minutes to go. Nobody seemed sure if the driver was simply made a mistake, possibly distracted by the thought of the top step of the podium after having led since the second hour, or if something had failed on the car.

Nevertheless the car made it back to the pit with a damaged front-end and the mechanics went to work with the lap count at 526 for the lead car. The elapsed time from incident to rejoining was less than five minutes but with the chasing 23 BMS Scuderia Porsche and 16 IMSA Matmut 911 only a lap down, the 79 car rejoined in 3rd place ahead of its sister car; not quite the side-by-side crossing the finish line picture they may have once had in mind.

When asked at the post-race drivers’ briefing Dirk Werner simply stated “I was driving already in the safe mode, not taking the curbs, cruising around doing pretty slow lap times, and then suddenly I had to leave the track because something on the car broke. I made it back to the pits and the guys repaired it pretty quickly. It is very disappointing of course."

Romain Dumas the lead 23 BMS Scuderia Porsche driver was much more cheerful having taken 1st overall and summed it up nicely, thanking his pit crew and saying “We had a very nice race. We had a great fight with the IMSA. We work all year together and at the end we weren’t expecting that the BMW was going to have such a problem. We took the victory, for sure [but] we were a bit lucky, and we won the 24hr."

The American contingent headed by the 68 United Autosports Audi R8 LMS, 3rd in GT3, and Michael Waltrip’s 1 AF Corse ALD Vitaphone Ferrari F430, 3rd in GT2, were all buoyant at having finished in the podium places. Zak Brown, co-owner of and driver for United Autosports, wore the largest smile and commented “we’re ecstatic. The 24hr of Spa [is] a fantastic event. A brand new team to have both cars in the top 4 in our class and on the podium, is exactly what we’d hoped for." His fellow #68 driver Eddie Cheever was asked directly about his near miss at ‘the top of Eau Rouge’, Turn 2. To which he replied that “the problem started at the bottom of Eau Rouge and ended at the top. The power steering failed going right, and the car decided to go straight. If you’ve been through Eau Rouge in 5th gear, you’ll know it’s a very unpleasant experience".
EC then added “I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed driving a race car on the limit. It’s opened a lot of windows in my mind and the competition’s been tremendous, and it’s been lots of fun. There are very few circuits in the world that carry the importance that Spa does from a driver’s perspective [and] I hope to see many of these drivers one day at the Daytona 24hrs."

At Spa the drivers are invited to speak in reverse order of classes, so GT2 followed the lesser GT3, and Michael Waltrip, after placing a very creditable third with his team, observed “I’m supposed to be in Pocono this weekend where there are only 3 turns, and y’all got like 20! So I spent most of my time trying to orientate myself with what to expect."

Overall classification (remaining provisional due to technical checking still being carried out at 8pm local time):

Race after 24 Hours

Race classification by Class: