Toksport WRT Planning 24H Spa Entry with Porsche

Toksport WRT is planning to field an entry into the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps next month, although team principal Seyhun Duru indicated it remains to be seen if it will be a Pro-class bid.

The German team is in its first year with Porsche in GT3 competition and recently fielded a factory-supported entry into the Nürburgring 24 Hours, where it retired from accident damage after being hit by a ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3.

In addition to its Nordschleife effort, Duru told Sportscar365 that Toksport is also looking to field a Porsche 911 GT3 R at Spa, as the two 24-hour races in Belgium and Germany form a major part of its calendar.

“We are planning for this year,” Duru said.

“Normally we are planning to do the two big races at the Nürburgring and Spa.

“Racing on the far continents is not easy for us because we are also doing lots of testing. And the Nürburgring 24 is already quite heavy at short notice.

“We could go straight to Daytona and Dubai because discussions had already started about changing brands. But we would like to do these two big races.

“We will see, with the new car, what we are going to do.”

Duru remained on the fence on whether its entry into the Belgian classic will be a Pro entry, similar to what it ran at last weekend’s N24.

There, its driver crew consisted of Julien Andlauer, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, but it is currently unknown if it will receive a similar level of support at Spa.

Duru stated that a potential Pro entry is ‘under discussion’ with Porsche and that Toksport is “trying to be there somehow.”

“Spa 24 Hours is a beautiful race and everything is highly professional,” he added. “All of the teams want to be there, which is quite clear.”

Porsche currently has one full-season Pro entry in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup, which is fielded by Dinamic Motorsport.

GPX Racing is also expected to be on the grid at Spa as part of its previously-announced Intercontinental GT Challenge effort.

Sportscar365 understands that more Pro cars from the Stuttgart-based manufacturer could be present as well.

Should Toksport WRT gain a place on the grid at Spa, it would mark a return to SRO racing after it initially moved away from the series after last year.

Duru explained that the team initially chose to move away from GTWC after SRO implemented changes to its driver rating system, which made it harder for the team to field Silver-class entries as it had done previously.

KCMG Also Likely to Join Spa Grid

In addition to Toksport WRT, the KCMG squad has indicated that it is likely to also field an entry at Spa.

Team manager Matt Howson confirmed to Sportscar365 that a Spa bid is to be expected for the Hong Kong-flagged organization, although he stressed that an official announcement would follow at a later date.

Howson remained hesitant to specifically talk about any other race plans further down the line, explaining that the final say over the team’s direction lays mostly with team owner Paul Ip.

“Everything is on the table,” he said.

“I would love to be more specific, but the main thing is that over the last two years the team has been developed to a level that we can take on pretty much any program with any manufacturer and we’re happy we’ll get up to a high level.

“Clearly the market for GT3 and LMDh is changing a lot and there is a lot of uncertainty so we believe that in the latter part of the year, certain things will become more clear.

“Then we can start to have a bit more medium-term vision, especially as the world is coming out of COVID.

“So all of these are things which are not to be decided right here and now but clearly, the ambition from the team owner is very high.

“It’s certainly not going to be a downscaling or anything like that; it will be continuing to push harder and for more success.”

KCMG made its Rolex 24 at Daytona debut in January and finished third after battling with fellow Porsche team Pfaff Motorsports on the final lap.

Its 24 Hours of Spa record consists of 18th place in 2019, 13th place in 2020 and fifth position last year.

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report