Heart of Racing Leads 12H Spa at Halfway

Heart of Racing by SPS led the Hankook 12H Spa-Francorchamps with half of the race completed, holding a narrow advantage over Sainteloc Junior Team.

The No. 27 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, piloted by Ian James, Gray Newell and Roman De Angelis, took the checkered flag 7.702 seconds ahead of the No. 26 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Erwan Bastard, Paul Evrard and Antoine Doquin after six hours of racing.

The leading Mercedes made its way to the front from fourth on the grid and led 42 out of 188 laps of a race taking place in changeable conditions.

Competitors in the Ardennes circuit twice experienced rain showers, first occurring after 45 minutes before the downpour later returned in the second hour of the race.

Herberth Motorsport ran third in the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Modena Motorsports’ No. 16 Porsche driven by Francis Tjian, John Shen, Benny Simonsen and Mathias Beche in fourth position.

JP Motorsport, making its series debut with the No. 69 McLaren 720S GT3 of Christian Klien, Patryk Krupinski and Norbert Siedler, completed the top five after working its way up from 40th on the grid.

CP Racing took the checkered flag in sixth position, ahead of the No. 11 Hofor Racing Mercedes driven by Michael Kroll, Chantal Prinz, Alexander Prinz and Maximilian Partl.

The No. 930 HRT Performance Porsche 992 GT3 Cup, notably driven by Adam Christodoulou, sat eighth as a second 992-class car entered by Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors and the No. 90 E2PRacing Porsche 911 GT3 R rounded out the top ten.

A number of GT3 contenders encountered issues during the first six hours and will start tomorrow’s second portion of the race on the back foot.

The No. 21 HAAS RT Audi of Mathieu Detry, Stephane Perrin, Frederic Vervisch and Olivier Bertels lost two hours due to damage suffered in a collision with the barrier at Raidillon after starting the race from pole position.

Both of Land Motorsport’s Audis hit trouble at various points, with the No. 55 car headlined by Audi factory driver Christopher Mies involved in multiple incidents.

The car became in the gravel beached at Fagnes, spun in the rain approaching Eau Rouge and made contact with a GT4 runner at Les Combes.

That last incident, resulting in a 20-second penalty for the No. 55 car, also involved the No. 1 Scherer Sport PHX Audi. That car later had to pit twice due to severe vibrations.

The No. 34 Land Audi, meanwhile, dropped to 17th after making a precautionary stop due to spiking gearbox temperatures. It was running in sixth place at the time.

The No. 416 Buggyra ZM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Aliyyah Koloc, David Vrsecky and Adam Lacko led the GT4 class by a margin of 45 seconds over the No. 427 Lionspeed GP powered by SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport driven by Daniel Miller, Patrick Kolb and José Garcia.

The Hankook 12H Spa-Francorchamps returns to action on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET)

RESULTS: Hankook 12H Spa-Francorchamps (Part 1)