HRT: Spa Podium Possible Without “Rare” Mustang Issue

Haupt Racing Team CEO Ulrich Fritz believes his squad could have scored a podium in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa without the “rare” drivetrain problem that caused the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO’s retirement.

Arjun Maini, Fabio Scherer and Thomas Drouet had guided the Mustang into contention to the point that it led the race during the night and, even after a drive-through penalty for speeding during a full-course yellow, it was still in the mix until the car ground to a halt with eight hours remaining.

It followed a run of bad luck for the squad after Chris Mies struck a kangaroo in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, Maini spun out on oil in the Nürburgring 24 and he was caught up in an opening-lap pileup in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Monza race when starting from pole.

“It was really looking strong — pace-wise we were there, strategy-wise we were there,” Fritz told Sportscar365 of the Spa event.

“We led the race for more than 40 laps in the night, and then things developed a bit against us.

“We got a drive-through for a FCY infringement ,which we have to take on us and that didn’t help, but still we could’ve fought back because of a safety car or whatever.

“Then we had a technical issue with the drivetrain; we don’t know yet what it was.

“It was one of these rare things with the Ford to be honest. We need to find out what happened, it’s not very typical.

“Maybe sometimes we struggle with performance but reliability is mostly there.

“I think the outright pace in the end would’ve been good enough for a podium.

“Would it have been enough to fight for the win? I don’t know, especially as we know we were struggling in the warm temperatures.”

That misfortune was compounded by the sister No. 65 entry being spun around at the Bus Stop chicane by the No. 5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Guilherme Oliveira when the Mustang had led the Silver Cup class for much of the race and ran in the top-ten overall.

The Ford was comfortably clear of its class rivals until pitting just before an FCY in the 17th hour, which dropped it a lap behind the overall leaders and drew the McLaren onto its tail.

Fritz said the Silver class win “was there by far” until the collision, from which the Mustang had to limp back to the pits for repairs and ultimately finished fifth in the division, two laps behind the victorious Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

“We were really in a solid lead and then we get kicked out by a competitor,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen but there’s only so much you can do about it.

“It’s one of those moments where you can say if, if, if. We just need to come back next year and try to get more out of it.”

Despite the frustrations, Fritz reckoned there were still plenty of positives from the team’s second appearance in the Belgian endurance classic fielding Fords.

“You always have to take what is positive out of it and I can see we had a great team performance,” he added. “We didn’t put a foot wrong on strategy, we didn’t do any pit stop infringements or whatever.

“We were spot on, the car was spot on, the car was quick and everything else that happened was outside of our control.

“It doesn’t make sense to grieve about that because otherwise it will just pull you down and energy-wise it doesn’t help you.

“If you are resilient to keep on knocking on that door, I’m pretty sure somebody will open the door one day.”