Championship Leaders Hit Trouble in Early Stages at Spa

Image: SRO

The top three leaders in the Blancpain Endurance Series Pro Cup drivers’ championship have all hit trouble in the opening six hours of the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

Defending Blancpain GT Series champion Laurens Vanthoor crashed his No. 1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS out of the lead just moments before the points-paying six-hour mark.

Minutes later, the championship-leading No. 23 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 lost nearly ten laps in the garage after making contact with another car.

But perhaps the biggest hit came just after 11 p.m. local time when Andy Meyrick crashed his No. 7 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 hard at Les Combes, after trying to overtake the Emil Frey Jaguar.

The accident resulted in the seventh safety car period of the race, with Meyrick being transported to the medical center for precautionary checks.

While both the Audi and Nissan have rejoined the fight, it appears the No. 7 Bentley’s race is over, having been stranded on track.

The latest series of developments has given the No. 99 ROWE Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Stef Dusseldorp the lead, ahead of the No. 45 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 of Dirk Werner.

Remarkably, just over one-quarter of the race is in the books in what’s been an incident-filled enduro.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John