Garage 59 Looking to Repeat Last Year’s “Impressive” Run

Marvin Kirchhoefer said he’s aiming to replicate “one of our strongest and most impressive jobs as a team” in last year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa in this weekend’s contest with Garage 59.

The McLaren factory driver qualified the No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo on pole last year but the car he shared with Benjamin Goethe and Joseph Loake dropped out of contention with a puncture during the night that put it off-kilter on strategy.

It therefore finished in sixth place, which was still the McLaren’s best 24H Spa result, when Kirchhoefer felt a podium was possible.

The sister No. 58 car was then leading the Gold Cup class when it too suffered a puncture with just ten minutes of the race remaining that meant it finished second and 12th overall.

Kirchhoefer said that performance means he heads into this year’s race full of confidence, describing Spa as always being one of the McLaren’s strongest circuits.

“If we have the same pace again, which I have no doubt, I really hope we can make it a good one this year,” he told Sportscar365.

“We know Spa is almost a sprint race now because it’s pretty much flat-out now every single lap and that should help us.

“We also know Spa can bring a lot of surprises, the weather is never guaranteed, you need a bit of luck on your side.”

While Kirchhoefer is now paired with Loake and Dean Macdonald in the Pro class, Goethe has moved into the Gold Cup entry alongside Tom Fleming and Louis Prette, but is aiming for a strong outright finish.

The trio have already taken an overall GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS podium this year after finishing third in the Paul Ricard Endurance Cup season-opener.

“Obviously we want to get the result in the Gold class but we’re also focusing quite a lot on the overall result and championship,” Goethe told Sportscar365.

“Last year we were on pole there and I think that shows how quick the car can go around that track. I think we have a really good chance of getting a result.

“Pretty much everywhere we go now, we’re pretty competitive — some tracks more than others, but we’re always in the conversation of top-ten, top-five, podium or even the win. It’s exciting being able to fight for results at every race.”

Goethe added that McLaren has been working to hard to resolve the reliability issues that have long been one of the car’s weak points.

He said results like winning the LMGT3 class in the Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which was just the team’s second outing the series, show that effort has paid off.

“They’re doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure the reliability is up to standard and up to standard for these tough 24-hour races,” he said.

“It hasn’t gone particularly well in the past in the long races but last year we had some really good results in the endurance races and this year also.

“McLaren have made some really big steps forward over the last couple of years to improve that point of the car.

“It’s always been quick but it’s been a bit of a sore point for the manufacturer but think it’s now looking really well.”