Spa Thursday Notebook

***Official track action for the 78th edition of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa began on Thursday with two-and-a-half hours of daylight free practice, a qualifying session to determine the 32 cars participating in Friday’s superpole, plus a further 90 minutes of night practice.

***Ferrari led the way in the first two practice sessions, while the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo was pipped to top spot in the opening qualifying session by the No. 17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, only for the German car to be kicked out of Superpole for disallowed work taking place following Q3.

***That penalty has put two-time race winner Maxime Martin on the back foot for his 20th appearance in the race and he had earlier revealed a special helmet design to commemorate the milestone. The novelty lid features images of all the different cars that Martin has driven in the contest, including the Type 996 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine in which he made his debut in 2006.

***Martin presented the helmet to his father Jean-Michel – himself a four-time winner, including two victories alongside his brother Philippe – in the paddock on Thursday. Both Maxime and his father contested the 2006 edition, with Jean-Michel at the wheel of a Ferrari F430 GT2.

***When asked by Sportscar365 how the event compares to 20 years ago, Martin said the biggest difference was “the amount of top teams you have now.”

***Reigning ADAC GT Masters champion Salman Owega has been named a McLaren GT3 Junior ahead of the 24H Spa. The German has been added to the British manufacturer’s roster along with Dante Rappange and Guilherme Olivera, two of his teammates in the No. 5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. The third, Mikey Porter, was already on the program.

***The latest additions mean that there are now a total of 20 McLaren GT3 Juniors along with six full-factory drivers.

***McLaren Motorsport sporting director Rob Bell outlined a desire to increase the number of drivers on the marque’s books as it looks to expand its GT racing programs. “We’ve just announced that the McLaren Trophy [one-make series for the Artura Trophy EVO] will be racing on the bill at the Le Mans 24 Hours next year and there are more exciting announcements to come,” he told Sportscar365. “So we are going to need more drivers over time. We’re trying to find our next wave of factory drivers. Salman, Dante and Gui are performing well in the GT3 Evo and we want to have a closer look at them.”

***David Pittard says he only found out on Tuesday that he would definitely be tackling this year’s Spa event with the Paradine Competition squad. Although he had completed the Prologue with the team last month, Pittard was not certain that he would be piloting the No. 991 Bronze Cup BMW M4 GT3 EVO in the race.

***The Briton, who won the Nürburgring 24 in 2023, feels like Spa owes him a good result after being unable to contest last year’s race following a qualifying crash for the Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo he was due to drive, and is looking forward to the different challenge of competing in the Bronze class rather than the pressure of the Pro Cup.

***While a glut of fines were handed out to various drivers for speeding in the pit lane on Thursday, including HRT Ford Mustang GT3 EVO pilot Eduardo Coseteng when he was clocked going almost 30 km/h faster than the 50 km/h limit, there were also a host of grid penalties dished out aside from to the No. 17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG.

***Among those penalized was the No. 8 Car Collection Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, which picked up two separate sanctions. First, Niccolo Schiro was awarded a ten-place penalty for clattering into the No. 28 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Pierre Castelein at No Name corner in FP2, while event debutant Reinhold Krahn was found going at 130 kph after a red flag in qualifying, when he should have been at 80 kph, and therefore picked up a further five-place drop to ensure the Porsche will start at the very back.

***A trio of crews were also sanctioned for changing an engine, the No. 80 Lionspeed GP and No. 9 Pure Rxcing Porsches as well as the No. 12 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, and they will have to start the race from the pit lane.

***Other cars to be demoted by five places were the No. 33 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG and the No. 86 High Class Racing Porsche, which had provisionally taken Pro-Am Cup pole, after they were both released into the fast lane too early during qualifying.

***The GT3 category celebrated its 20th birthday last month and a new book covering its first two decades has been launched at the 24H Spa. 20 Years of GT3 Racing: The story of the world’s leading GT sportscar category is the work of Sportscar365 columnist Gary Watkins, who undertook approximately 100 interviews for the book.

***The book covers how and why Stephane Ratel came up with the idea, the rapid expansion of the class, the influx of major manufacturers including Audi, BMW and Mercedes-AMG, and much more. Each marque or tuner to have received FIA homologation for a GT3 racer receives its own chapter. That includes long-forgotten participants such as Ascari, Alpina and Morgan. The 224-page book is published by Evro Publishing and priced at £60 ($80 USD).

Gary Watkins contributed to this report