Spa Thursday Notebook

***Team WRT boss Vincent Vosse lamented the timing of the red flag in the fourth and final session during Thursday evening’s qualifying, during which both of the team’s Pro cars missed out on Superpole after ending up 21st and 23rd.

***Vosse said: “We had both cars on the way to finish their first lap and we got the red flag. That’s how it is. It’s not a drama. It never helps but it’s not a drama. We know that it will be a long race and that the starting position is not really the biggest issue. We proved that in 2021 when we started last. But of course it’s not fun and it’s not ideal. It always puts you in a situation where you are a little bit on the back foot.”

***Another notable car to miss the top 20 in qualifying was the No. 992 HubAuto Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Patrick Pilet, which qualified 44th overall. Porsche Motorsport Asia-Pacific managing director Alexandre Gibot told Sportscar365 that the drivers complained of handling issues throughout the sessions.

***The Taiwanese squad was forced to complete an engine change after the car overheated and suffered terminal engine damage during Wednesday’s pre-event parade. The team will not receive a grid penalty as the change was completed before Free Practice.

***Rutronik Racing also completed pre-practice engine changes on both the No. 96 and No. 97 Porsches, although Sportscar365 understands that that was done out of precaution and not related to anything that occurred at the parade.

***ROWE Racing’s Augusto Farfus, who along with co-drivers Max Hesse and Dan Harper head into the weekend as Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup points leaders, predicts that the pole-winning lap could be in the high 2-minute 13-second range, owing to the significant lap time improvements due to the circuit’s resurfacing.

***Farfus told Sportscar365: “It’s all changed. Also visual, because you had some bumps, some lines across the track you used as references, now it’s all gone. It’s a bit awkward because it’s like driving a new track on a track you know already. But I think it’s been a challenge for everyone. The track is incredible. You have to drive it to understand how much grip you now have.”

***On the contrary, Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl feels the resurfacing “takes away the strength of our cars a bit,” referring to a reduction in tire degradation on the new surface.

***Wendl said: “We are quite happy with our one-lap performance, and we are also happy with our long stint performance, but we feel that in the past years, this was a very demanding track on the whole stint [on the tires]. With this circumstance, with this high-grip tarmac, so I think it enables this function for also our competitors. We have very low deg and I expect that we see a close race.”

***ROWE team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf revealed that the hearing for the appeal his team filed with regards to the ending to this year’s Nürburgring 24 is set to take place on July 10.

***Kenny Habul, who is missing Spa due to business commitments, confirmed to Sportscar365 that he and his SunEnergy1 Racing team will return to action in the next Intercontinental GT Challenge round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The U.S.-based Australian’s team won the Pro-Am class at Spa last year in a spare Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo following Habul’s back-breaking accident in Pre-Qualifying.

***Habul returned to racing action in December’s Gulf 12 Hours and scored a runner-up finish in this year’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour alongside Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz.

***Earl Bamber Motorsport is also set to contest IGTC’s Indianapolis finale with Bronze-rated driver Adrian D’Silva and two yet-to-be-confirmed co-drivers, team owner Earl Bamber told Sportscar365. The team was at Indianapolis last year, supporting the Grove Racing effort.

***Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles is among the nearly 30 guests of SRO America on hand this weekend. The fifth annual Indy 8 Hour serves as the season finale for IGTC and Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS on Oct. 3-5.

***Sportscar365 understands that IGTC will return to a five-round calendar next year, with an announcement expected at tomorrow’s SRO annual press conference.

***BMW is yet to make a decision on how it will approach the Indy 8 Hour, which it won last year with Team WRT. Motorsport boss Andreas Roos said that the brand has “full focus” on the 24H Spa before it turns its attention to the season finale.

***A fuel sample taken from the No. 22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche after Free Practice was found to not be in conformity, although the team did not receive a penalty after it was discovered that it had accidentally mixed the fuel with diesel and gained no sporting advantage.

***GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser and Corvette GT3 program manager Christie Bagne are both on-site this weekend, as part of a continued fact-finding mission in the global rollout of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

***Ford Performance global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook and global sports car manager Kevin Groot are also at Spa-Francorchamps, in support of the Ford Mustang GT3’s Spa 24 debut with Proton Competition and drivers Christopher Mies, Dennis Olsen and Fred Vervisch. Rushbrook hinted that the car could make its Bathurst and Nürburgring 24 debuts as as early as next year.

***A Manthey Racing spokesperson told Sportscar365 that the Meuspath-based squad is providing Pure Rxcing with engineering support at Spa. The two entities are linked together through a joint LMGT3 entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

***Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS regular Brad Schumacher was diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus after arriving in Spa for his event debut, but plans to still race with the help of a Belgian sports doctor who previously helped pro cycling athletes cope with the virus during events. The Australian is due to share the No. 38 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Olivier Bertels, Armand Fumal and Julius Adomavicius.

***Maxime Martin has unveiled a special helmet design for the weekend paying tribute to his father Jean-Michel, who won the race four times (1979, 1980, 1987, 1992). The half-and-half design features Martin’s own, regular blue and white color scheme on one side and his father’s black and white colors on the other.

***The ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3 that Martin drove to victory in the 2016 edition of the race is on display in the “Gallery of Time” exhibition located on the roof of the pit building. Also included is the Peugeot 806 minivan that current Conquest Racing team principal Eric Bachelart raced in 1995.

***All three winning members of the Martin family (Jean-Michel, Philippe and Maxime) are part of the batch of inaugural inductees into the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa Hall of Fame, which was launched by SRO on Wednesday. The other inductees include the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB), five-time race winner Eric van de Poele, Paul Frere and BMW, the race’s most successful manufacturer with 25 wins.

***Two-time race winner Bernd Schneider is on-site in a double capacity at Spa. The German serves as a brand ambassador for Mercedes-AMG while also working with Landgraf Motorsport in a coaching role on the No. 16 Uno Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***Friday’s track action is headlined by the Superpole session, which kicks off at 3:45 p.m. CEST (9:45 a.m. EDT). A 30-minute warmup session is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. EDT), which is the final opportunity for teams to take to the track prior to the race.

John Dagys contributed to this report