AF Corse Dominates Pro-Am And Gentlemen Trophy At Spa

AF Corse claimed victory in both the Pro-Am Cup and the Gentlemen Trophy classes in the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

The No. 53 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Andrea Bertolini, Marco Cioci, Louis Machiels and Niek Hommerson was the first Pro-Am Cup entrant to cross the line, finishing sixth overall.

For Bertolini, Machiels and Hommerson it’s their second class win at Spa-Francorchamps, having won the 2012 Pro-Am Cup as well.

“It was a sprint race during 24 hours and that was cool,” Cioci said. “At the start we lost a little bit of time, a lap and a half. We trusted in the result, we pushed and it was a great battle with a lot of cars.”

Bertolini added: “Every race here in Spa is different. We also won in 2012, last year were were in P1 and then we had the crash three hours from the end. We were last, one lap and a half behind everyone, but the team did a really unbelievable job like always.

“This year was really tricky, I have never seen something like that what happened in the first six hours.”

The No. 90 Scuderia Villorba Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Andrea Montermini, Francesco Castellacci, Stefano Gai and Andrea Rizzoli controlled most of the race, but a starter motor problem meant that Prancing Horse dropped out of contention.

With the No. 90 Ferrari gone, the lead went to the No. 53 Ferrari, with the No. 79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3 of Andrew Smith, Alasdair McCaig, Oliver Bryant and Alexander Sims still within striking distance.

Ecurie Ecosse, however, were unable to fend off the AF Corse Ferrari and the gap between the two cars increased from a couple of seconds to over half a minute after 24 hours.

Third across the line was the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari of Steve Wyatt, Michele Rugolo, Craig Lowndes and Andrea Piccini. The Ferrari finished a lap behind the two leaders.

AF Corse also dominated the Gentlemen Trophy class, with the No. 51 Ferrari 458 Italia of Peter Mann, Alexander Talkanitsa, Francisco Guedes and Cedric Mezard claiming a convincing victory.

Talkanitsa took the car across the finish line, completing 502 laps.

Team Parker Racing’s Audi R8 LMS ultra, driven by Ian Loggie, Julian Westwood, Carl Rosenblad and Leo Machitski, finished in second place, five laps behind the race winner and just over 19 seconds ahead of the No. 49 AF Corse Ferrari 458 of Yannick Mallegol, Jean-Marc Bachelier, Howard Blank and François Perrodo.

RESULTS: Total 24 Hours of Spa