Race Restarts After Lengthy FCY Period at Halfway

Photo: Kevin Pecks/SRO

The Total 24 Hours of Spa has reached its halfway point with the race restarting after another long Full Course Yellow and safety car period and worsening weather conditions.

The race was neutralized when Tatsuya Kataoka went into the tire barrier with his Goodsmile Racing & Type-Moon Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Increasing rain showers caused the race to remain under FCY after repairs had been completed, leading to almost an hour in yellow conditions.

Racing got back underway with 12 hours, 12 minutes on the clock, with Fred Makowiecki out front for ROWE Racing.

The Frenchman has an eight-second lead over Mikhail Aleshin’s SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3, while Black Falcon driver Luca Stolz is ahead of Dinamic Motorsport’s Andrea Rizzoli in third and fourth. 

A number of top-20 cars have now completed their mandatory five-minute technical stops, dropping them down the order, while some of the cars that did so earlier in the race are edging back into the top ten. 

The top six, which is completed by Maxi Buhk and Vincent Abril in the factory GruppeM and AKKA ASP Mercedes, are all on roughly similar strategies now, due their next stops very shortly after the 12-hour mark.

Oman Racing with TF Sport had led the Pro-Am Cup for several hours despite starting from the back of the grid.

AKKA ASP’s No. 90 car is out front in the Silver Cup, having passed long-time leader Attempto Racing when Steijn Schothorst stopped on the side of the track from the class lead in Hour 8. 

Am Cup pole-sitter Barwell Motorsport is still out front in its class, meanwhile.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.