Red Camel Sails to Dominant 992 Endurance Cup Win

Red Camel-Jordans.nl cruised to victory in the third annual Michelin 992 Endurance Cup at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps with a winning margin of over four minutes.

Rik Breukers took the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup across the line to deliver the team’s first victory in the Creventic-organized event. Breukers shared the car with his father Ivo and brother Luc, as well as Fabian Danz.

The Pro class entry dominated the 12-hour race, leading 241 of the 287 completed laps.

Rik Breukers shot up to the head of the nine-car field at the drop of the green flag but was quickly slapped with a drive-through penalty for a false start. The Red Camel crew overcame the penalty to cycle back up to the lead after the first set of pit stops.

The early decision from race control was not the only setback for the winning squad, as the No. 9 entry encountered problems with its in-car radio in the opening stint. The team was forced to use a makeshift pit stop signal board to communicate with its drivers for much of the race.

The Dutch team benefitted from the misfortune of its Pro class rival Mühlner Motorsport when its front-right wheel detached while leading. The pole-sitting No. 21 Porsche lost several laps across a pair of pit stops to repair the damage and mounted a respectable recovery drive to sixth place at the flag, five laps down from the leader.

Mühlner could have benefitted from issues for other teams, but the race finished with no retirements and only a handful of incidents which limited the team’s ability to fight back up the field.

A single safety car period was brought out near the midpoint of the race for a stranded No. 78 Speed Lover Porsche. This bunched up an already stretched out field, giving Theeba Motorsport by Quanloop EST1 Racing driver Paul Meijer an opportunity to jump Luc Breukers at the restart.

The FIA-Silver rated Meijer held the lead for a period before a driver change saw Rik Breukers put back into the Red Camel machine. The two-time Rolex 24 at Daytona class winner chipped away at Theeba Motorsport’s gap to eventually retake the top spot.

The Red Camel squad continued to extend its advantage for the rest of the race to eventually finish nearly two laps ahead of the No. 22 Theeba Motorsport Porsche.

AF Motorsport – which had taken the pole on Friday before a post-session penalty dropped it down the grid – completed the podium in third thanks to some aggressive late-race fuel saving for Dylan Pereira.

MM Racing had held third position for several hours towards the end of the race, but was forced to dive into the pits for a fuel stop in the dying moments of the contest.

The Belgian team only arrived at the circuit on Friday morning ahead of qualifying as it was delayed travelling to Spa after competing in the 24 Hours of Zolder last weekend.

As a result, it failed to participate in either free practice or qualifying and had only limited running in a rain-soaked night practice on Friday evening.

The lack of track time didn’t seem to effect the team’s performance as it was able to mount an impressive comeback drive from the back of the field and claim victory in the Am-S class.

The No. 920 Chazel Technologie Course entry rounded out the top five.

The AM-B class win went to LMR Motorsport, which ended the race in seventh behind Mühlner.

HRT Performance’s No. 928 Porsche claimed eighth position a lap adrift of the LMR crew, with Speed Lover rounding out the field a few laps behind after its off-track excursion earlier in the race.

RESULTS: Michelin 992 Endurance Cup