Lamborghini’s Pepper Hoping “Fourth Time’s The Charm” at Spa

Jordan Pepper is hoping the ‘fourth time will be the charm’ as he chases victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa with Lamborghini after a number of setbacks in recent years.

The South African will contest the Ardennes endurance classic as part of the lineup for the No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, sharing driving duties with fellow Lamborghini factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Luca Engstler.

Pepper is lining up for his fourth attempt at the event with Lamborghini, staying on with Grasser after last year after he previously drove for K-PAX Racing and Iron Lynx.

Last year’s race brought Pepper’s strongest finish at the event to date, finishing fifth after starting from pole position thanks to a record-setting Superpole effort from teammate Franck Perera.

“I think personally I’ve always performed really well at Spa,” Pepper told Sportscar365.

“On the one hand the results haven’t been kind to me, but it’s a race that kind of kick-started my career and boosted my career in terms of pure performance.

“Dating back to my first ever Spa in 2017 with Bentley, my performance at this place as well as the Nürburgring that year put me into the limelight with Bentley.

“I’ve always fought for wins here and then had certain various issues.

“Last year was probably our smoothest attack at it. Since I’ve been with Lamborghini, unfortunately, it’s not been very kind at all.

“2022, we had an incredibly strong car that year. We had some penalties from qualifying to the race. Then, obviously, we got to the lead and then some punches put us out of it.

“2023, we had an issue early on which put us out of it. And last year, honestly, we had a great car all week, pretty much executed everything perfectly apart from a fueling issue right at the start of the race which wasn’t in our control.

“That put us on the back foot and from there it was a fight forward.

“What I’ve learnt in Spa is that you have to do everything perfect and have to minimize the mistakes.

“I think on the driving side of it, track limits is obviously one of the most crucial things for us especially with the harsh penalties.

“But I think in terms of preparation and stuff, I think it’s a lot of lessons we could learn last year being in the fight and not executing perfectly.

“I just trust the team, trust my teammates. I think I’ve got two really strong guys. It’s my fourth one with Lamborghini. They always say third time’s the charm, but hopefully fourth time’s the charm this time around.”

Compared to last year, Pepper forms part of a revised lineup with Bortolotti and Engstler coming in to replace Perera and Marco Mapelli, who have instead moved across to the No. 163 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini.

Even with a change of co-drivers, Pepper was confident that Grasser will again be able to fight at the front of the 75-car field during the race.

“I would say we’ve refined the package from last year,” he said.

“We had a good base last year, we were incredibly quick. We were on pole, had the quickest lap of the race.

“Apart from those small issues that we had early on that put us on the back foot and almost a lap down, we had a pretty perfect race and then a late-race track limit penalty kind of took us out the podium fight.

“It’s those lessons to learn [and] to carry forward. A year later, engineering-wise we’ve only strengthened the team.

“Driving-wise, we’ve refined our package a little bit more with this new tire. I think we got the feeling from the test that we have a slightly stronger car.

“I mean, the whole paddock for sure is upping the game every year, but for sure I feel like we’re in a great position.”