HRT Hopes it’s “Eaten All the Bad Luck” Ahead of Spa

Haupt Racing Team managing director Ulrich Fritz hopes the Ford Mustang squad has “eaten up all the bad luck” and can score a strong result in this weekend’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

It has been a frustrating year for the team within its major endurance racing programs as strong results for the Ford Mustang GT3 in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, Nürburgring 24 and GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup, when starting on pole at Monza,  have all been denied amid various unfortunate incidents.

It was an errant kangaroo that Chris Mies struck that cost HRT at Bathurst, while Arjun Maini spun out on oil on the Nordschleife and he was eliminated at the start at Monza when a move from Maxime Martin triggered a multi-car pileup that also forced out Silver Cup polesitter Finn Wiebelhaus’ Mustang.

“What happened in Monza is just a not so very nice but clear statement of how humble you always have to be,” Fritz told Sportscar365. “You can start every race from P1 to P3 and not make it to the first corner without any fault of yourselves.

“We just hope with Nürburgring 24 with Arjun’s oil spill and he lost the car, and with what happened in Monza, and with what happened to us in Bathurst with the kangaroo we have eaten up all the bad luck now and hopefully we can go into a solid 24 Hours of Spa.

“But you always have to be humble and stay on the ground and it’s not only about your own performance, it’s also about what happens around you with the oil, the weather, the strategy, with competitors, with technical gremlins, we’re just trying to be as prepared as possible.

“Last year we would’ve been on the podium with the Silver car but 20 minutes prior to the end of the race a stone from a gravel bed just proved to be game over.”

With the chances of such freak occurrences magnified over the longer distances, Fritz admitted that he therefore doesn’t “embrace” 24-hour races particularly much “because they’re so out of our control.”

“As a team principal, you always like to control everything and, the moment you can’t do it, you’re just a passenger,” he added. “You can only be as prepared as possible and take it from there and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Maini, who is piloting the squad’s Pro class car alongside Fabio Scherer and Thomas Drouet, believes a strong result is possible and was encouraged by last month’s Spa Prologue.

“Coming from pole position in the same championship [at Monza], we’ve shown we’ve improved the car and that’s something that you get excited about especially going into such an amazing race,” he said.

“We already had quite good pace last year in the race so, with the EVO package, we’re definitely looking forward to finding some solid pace and fighting at the front.

“I think the base was already quite strong, so we’re optimistic.

“We had a good test but it’s very difficult to know where we are because of how these tests go in GT events. From what we saw, we felt quite comfortable and confident in the test.

“We have all the tools we need we just need to find the absolute right performance, timing and strategy and then I think it should be a strong event.”

The Pro class car is joined by a Silver Cup entry that is spearheaded by Wiebelhaus, who scored Ford’s first DTM podium at the Lausitzring last weekend, alongside Eduardo Coseteng, Maxime Oosten and Max Reis.

Fritz has added motivation for the team to score a strong result this year as his uncle Dieter Glemser, who won the race in 1971 at the wheel of a Ford Capri, passed away earlier this month aged 87.

“Ford has been winning these races a few times in the 1970s with the Capris and the Escorts and for me there’s also a bit of motivation behind it because in 1971 it was my uncle who won the race and he passed away recently,” said Fritz.

“He was also the guy who was responsible that I ended up in motorsport so it would be a mega story, also for the team and for Ford.”