Weekly Racing Roundup (7.3.23)

Van der Ende, Lessennes Rise to Occasion at Spa

Aside from winning the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, BMW saw one of its GT4 customer teams take victory in the first of two GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club races held at the same circuit last weekend.

Ricardo van der Ende and Benjamin Lessennes claimed top honors in a BMW M4 GT4 (G82) run by French team L’Espace Bienvenue after starting Race 1 from 11th on the grid.

Julien Briche led the 59-car field through the opening stages in JSB Competition’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4, ahead of Gregory Guilvert and Victor Weyrich.

Lessennes had advanced to sixth by the time the mid-race pit window opened, but after the driver swaps van der Ende emerged with their L’Espace Bienvenue BMW in third.

A second-half safety car period kept the front-runners close together, with van der Ende lining up for the restart behind Guilvert’s Sainteloc Racing Audi co-driver Christophe Hamon and Florian Briche in the JSB Aston.

With seven minutes to go, van der Ende launched past both Hamon and Briche on the Kemmel Straight and went on to win by just over five seconds.

The second 60-minute race was held in wet conditions on Saturday and saw the Xwift Racing Toyota duo of Etienne Cheli and Antoine Potty take their second win of the year.

After a few early safety car laps due to a wet track, Pavel Lefterov led in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport ahead of two BMWs including the L’Espace Bienvenue car.

Van der Ende dropped from third to eighth during the opening stint, however, and Cheli was one of the drivers to get past him in a change for sixth.

At the head of the field, Lefterov lost the lead to Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport’s Berkay Besler shortly before pitting, and Besler’s co-driver Tom Edgar remained in charge once the stops had shaken out.

Potty, meanwhile, was up to second in the Xwift Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo and overtook Edgar for the lead down the inside at Pouhon with 14 minutes remaining.

Team Speedcar Audi driver Benjamin Lariche also got past Edgar’s Borusan BMW near the end to take second, as Potty sped away to a five-second margin of victory.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2

Other Racing Action & News

***Chris Chia and Lorcan Hanafin won both races at the Bangsaen Grand Prix in a B-Quik Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. A total of seven GT3 cars took part in the headlining sports car race at Thailand’s premier street race meeting, while Audi Sport factory driver Markus Winkelhock finished third and fifth in the two 60-minute contests.

***Only one of the two planned McLaren Trophy Europe races at Spa went ahead as Saturday’s contest was canceled due to poor weather conditions. Friday’s race went the way of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge.

***Among the announcements made during SRO Motorsports Group’s annual press conference last weekend were the schedules for GT4 Europe, the Intelligent Money British GT Championship, FFSA French GT and the Fanatec GT2 European Series.

***GT4 Europe’s calendar for next season includes a first-ever round in Saudi Arabia, as part of the undercard for the Jeddah 1000km in November. Support slots during the GTWC Europe meetings at Paul Ricard, Misano, Spa, Hockenheim and Monza are also bookmarked. The non-championship 6 Hours of Rome race for GT4 cars will be held on Oct. 19-20 next year.

***There is one to-be-announced circuit on the 2024 FFSA French GT calendar, meaning that Val de Vienne or Ledenon could be dropped considering they are the two venues from this season’s schedule that are not provisionally listed. The campaign is again due to start at Nogaro in late March, followed by the TBA round, then Spa (June 22-23), Magny-Cours (Aug. 24-25), Dijon (Sep. 14-15) and Paul Ricard (Oct. 5-6).

***Ratel announced during the press conference that SRO is planning to introduce a global GT4 manufacturers’ classification next year, in a similar vein to the global GT World Challenge that accrues points from GT3 series in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

***Spa will return to the British GT schedule after being replaced by Portimao this year. The Belgian track’s return heralds the comeback of the SRO Speedweek event one week before the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. British GT will head to Oulton Park (March 30-April 1), Silverstone (April 27-28), Donington Park (May 25-26), Spa (June 22-23), Snetterton (July 13-14), Brands Hatch (Sep. 7-8) and Donington again (TBA).

***GT2 Europe is set to appear at Paul Ricard, Misano, Spa, Hockenheim, Monza and Barcelona next year, supporting GTWC Europe at all circuits except for Spa where the series will form part of the SRO Speedweek. Previously, GT2 would support a mixture of series such as British GT, French GT and ADAC GT Masters. Red Bull Ring, Dijon, Portimao and Valencia are no longer on the calendar.

***Next year’s GT1 Sports Club powered by Curbstone will visit four circuits including Circuit of The Americas. A tentative schedule for the non-competitive sessions featuring track-only hypercars consists of Paul Ricard in April, COTA in May, the Nürburgring in July and Barcelona in October.

On this weekend: FIA World Endurance Championship (Monza), IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park), DTM, ADAC GT Masters (Norisring), NLS (Round 5), 24H Series (Estoril)