The spotlights have just gone off on the 24 Hours of Le Mans and it’s already time to turn them back on for the 24 Hours of Spa! There is no rest for the world’s GT3 racing elite, who in two weeks will contest the biggest Endurance and GT3 races of the season.
To add prestige to an already unique and very special race for a Belgian team like Team WRT, this year the 24 Hours of Spa will celebrate its centenary. It was 1924 when the legendary race, now in its 76th edition, took place for the first time. The anniversary will be duly celebrated with numerous collateral events and exhibitions which will bring together a large number of men and machines who have written the history of the Ardennes.
While it is important to remember the past, the present remains the primary focus. This will be only the second round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup of the season, but the one that will award the most points. At the moment, after the opening round at Circuit Paul Ricard, Team WRT sits in fourth place in the Pro standings and sixth in the Bronze Cup, and the games are wide open.
The Belgian team will field the usual three BMW M4 GT3s. On car #46, the one that took fourth place in France, there will be Raffaele Marciello, Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi, while the #32 is entrusted to Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts.
On the #30, which competes in the Bronze Cup with the OQ by Oman Racing livery, Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann will be joined by Calan Williams, as the sporting regulations provide for a fourth driver in this class for the race of 24 hours.
To celebrate this special edition, the #32 and #46 M4 GT3s will sport a special livery inspired by the emblematic BMWs of the 80s and 90s with, among others, Thierry Tassin behind the wheel.
BMW M Team WRT, livery for the 24h of Spa
Photo by: WRT Team
Team WRT’s goal is to fight at the top, seek a third victory and strengthen BMW’s supremacy in this race. The German manufacturer is by far the one that has obtained the highest number of victories at the 24 Hours of Spa: 25.
The first dates back to 1965, with the victory of a Formula One driver. The first dates back to 1965, with an 1800ti driven by Pascal Ickx and GĂ©rard Langlois. The following year the winners were a 2000ti, with Hubert Hahne and another Ickx, a twenty-one year old Jacky who would become the great champion we know and a national hero in his country. This year Jacky will be the official starter of the race and will do the official opening lap before the race in the company of his brother Pascal, the oldest living winner of the race.
On a special occasion like this year’s 24 Hours, it’s interesting to hear what former winners of this unique race have to say and what their connection to it is. There are several in Team WRT, starting from those who today hold management roles. Pierre DieudonnĂ©, Kurt Mollekens, Thierry Tassin and Vincent Vosse: together, they can boast 65 starts and 8 victories.
Team Principal Vincent Vosse is probably the person at WRT most emotionally connected to the race: “I grew up a few kilometers from the circuit and since I was a child I went to Spa-Francorchamps to watch the races. That’s where my passion for sports was born motorsports. The 24 Hours has always been a special race, with the largest audience.”
“So, being able to participate was a dream that came true in 1995, and winning it was the fulfillment of an ambition. However, I only made it on my eighth attempt, in 2002, with a Viper, and in the seven participations Previously I only finished the race once. This shows how difficult it can be to succeed in a race like this.”
“Subsequently, I achieved three more podiums and a pole position, narrowly missing out on a second win in 2004, when we were leading with a Ferrari but were slowed down by a technical problem. My last race was in 2010, when I stopped racing to focus entirely on the Team WRT project.”
“Winning again in 2011 and 2014, as a team, after gaining the trust of a great automotive brand, was magical. Since then we have always fought at the front. We want to win again!”.
BMW M Team WRT, livery for the 24h of Spa
Photo by: WRT Team
Sports director Pierre DieudonnĂ© also has a long relationship with “the race”, 17 starts as a driver, one more than Vosse, and something to fix immediately: “In books and on the internet, I am listed as a three-time winner, but not It’s true. The confusion is due to the fact that in 1974-75, when the BMW 3.0 CSi of Luigi Racing won, I was officially registered, but as a reserve driver, and I didn’t take the wheel of the winning cars.”
“I won in 1981, with the Mazda RX-7 together with Tom Walkinshaw. A memorable victory from many points of view: it was the first by a Japanese manufacturer, moreover with a car that did not race in the upper class and equipped with a rotary engine. It was also the last victory of a two-driver formation and the first time that an on-board camera was used in live broadcast on Belgian TV.”
“I had the chance to experience two very different periods of the 24 Hours, as I raced both on the old, long road course and on the new circuit. The old 14km course was very fast and scary, especially at night or in bad weather , and serious accidents were frequent. The fear added to the normal stress of the race.”
“Avoiding mistakes and problems with the car was a necessity because you could pay a very high price. Today it is completely different, it has become a 24-hour sprint race. It is still necessary to be flawless, but today’s cars allow them to be taken to limit for the entire race.”
BMW M Team WRT, livery for the 24h of Spa
Photo by: WRT Team
The Sporting Director of the Hypercar programme, Thierry Tassin, is not involved in the 24 Hours of Spa, but is the member of Team WRT with the most starts, 19, in the race and the most victories, four, all achieved behind the wheel of BMW: the 635 CSi in 1983 and 1986, the 318is in 1994 and the 320i in 1996.
For the occasion, he will drive a 635 CSi in the exhibition events and underlines another fundamental aspect of the 24 Hours: “It is the biggest GT race in the world today, but it has always been a huge event, with enormous resonance. In my time It was an event flooded with spectators and covered by the Belgian press and media like no other sporting event.”
“For a Belgian driver, winning the 24 Hours could be the springboard for a professional career. It was like this in my case, when I won for the first time in 1983. At the time I was racing in high-level single-seaters, in Formula 2, but I was going through a difficult time and was barely known outside motorsport circles.”
“The victory at the 24 Hours relaunched my career and made me become a public figure overnight. I must say that seeing the invasion of the track by the public from the podium is something that took my breath away and that I will never forget.”
BMW M Team WRT, livery for the 24h of Spa
Photo by: WRT Team
Team manager Kurt Mollekens, with two victories from 14 starts, looks amused at his successes: “I won the last edition of the touring car era, in 2000 with a Peugeot, and the last race with GT1 cars, in 2009 with a Corvette, so I’ll ask StĂ©phane Ratel to let me know when he decides to abandon GT3s.”
Jokes aside, he makes an interesting analysis of modern times: “The race has evolved enormously, today it is much more difficult to win it, because it has reached a level of complexity that requires not only real team work, but perfection at every stage and in every detail. This largely comes from the fact that it is a 24-hour sprint race with over 60 cars of the same class.”
“Here there are no different car classes, the more than 60 cars all have the same performance, the same acceleration and braking levels, so the race is extremely tough and overtaking is very difficult, everyone has the same pace and is at the limit to 24 hours”.
BMW M Team WRT, livery for the 24h of Spa
Photo by: WRT Team
The Team WRT lineup for this year’s edition includes two drivers who have already visited the top step of the podium, Raffaele Marciello, who won it in 2022, and Maxime Martin, who won it in 2016 at behind the wheel of a BMW M6, following in the footsteps of his father Jean-Michel with four victories and his uncle Philippe with two.
Raffaele Marciello has a rational vision of things: “I consider Spa, together with Le Mans and the NĂĽrburgring, the most important 24 Hours in the world and it is certainly the most important race for GT3s, also because of the fantastic track. Winning it two years ago , after having come close in previous years and having been a poleman, it seemed like a prize to me.”
“What do you need to win? Definitely a good BoP, and then staying out of trouble, which is difficult due to traffic, having to overtake slower drivers with similar cars. You have to stay calm and also face the night and the weather conditions which, as we know, they can change quickly. The goal is to stay in the lead until the final hour, and then fight.”
Obviously Maxime Martin has a more emotional relationship with the race: “For me the 24 Hours of Spa is the most important race, it means my home race and also a family history that has been going on for two generations. This will be my 18th participation, I’m almost a veteran now, and I’ve only won it once. I’ve often found myself in a good position to win, but I’ve also been quite unlucky. However, I love this race more than any other.”
“When I won it in 2016, it was a great personal satisfaction, and I also felt proud to continue the family tradition. There is no secret recipe to win it: you need a good car, a good team, good teammates, a flawless race and a little bit of luck, like for any other 24 hour race.”
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