Spa Friday Notebook

***GRT Grasser Racing Team’s Franck Perera broke a 16-year-old circuit qualifying record for GT cars at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa with his 2:13.718 lap in the No. 163 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. It eclipsed Pedro Lamy’s 2:13.923 time set in a Larbre Competition Saleen S7-R GT1 car that scored pole for the event in 2008.

***Additionally, he also narrowly set a new record for the fastest-ever GT3 lap at the Ardennes circuit in all championships, eclipsing a 2.13.724 that Vincent Abril posted in an AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 in qualifying for an International GT Open round in 2020.

***Perera said: “It’s amazing because I’m not so young. I’ve been here quite a lot, so it’s emotional to reach this place in qualifying. We know it’s not like a joke, Superpole. Everything will happen this weekend and it’s important to have a good car in the race. But for sure it’s always nice to be able to be lucky to fight for Superpole with so many good cars and good teams.”

***Lucas Auer, who lost out to Perera by a mere 0.060 seconds, was happy with his performance in Superpole despite being beaten to the top spot. The Austrian told Sportscar365 that he was aware that his opening lap was likely to be his best effort. “Normally in Spa, it should be the first lap as it’s a long track and a long out-lap,” he said. “My peak was just perfect in the first lap and [that is] how it should be.”

***Six cars that took part in Superpole have been given post-session time penalties for violating Article 41.6h of the sporting regulations.

***The article states that “each car will be given a pit exit time starting with the car in 20th position in the combined qualifying classification, at one-minute intervals. Each car must cross the pit exit timing loop within a ten-second window of this time, from five seconds before to five seconds after its target time. Cars which cross the pit exit line before or after this time will be given a penalty by the Stewards, which will be equivalent to the time by which the car missed the window.”

***As a result, the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, No. 23 Phantom Global Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, No. 28 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and No. 22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche have dropped to the bottom of the top 20. The No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo has been placed back from 11th to 13th, while the No. 92 SSR Herberth Porsche loses two places and will start tenth. Click Here for updated qualifying results.

***The No. 91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche and No. 991 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 will be forced to serve a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty at the race director’s instruction during the race after both teams opted to carry out an engine change after Thursday evening’s qualifying session.

***SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel hosted the company’s annual press conference on Friday afternoon (pictured above), revealing the 2025 schedules for Intercontinental GT Challenge, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, GT World Challenge America, GT World Challenge Asia and GT World Challenge Australia, among other developments.

***CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa general manager Laurent Gaudin revealed that pre-event ticket sales are up by 25 percent compared to last year. Ratel added they have established a goal of doubling attendance figures over a three-year span, building on last year’s 80,000 spectators.

***A new trophy honoring Belgian driver and journalist Paul Frere will be awarded to the highest-placed finishing Belgian driver in the 24 Hours of Spa, beginning this weekend.

***Frere, who was also inducted into the newly created CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa Hall of Fame earlier this week, is credited with reviving the event as a touring car race in 1964 after it had not been held for a decade. The race has run annually ever since, including this weekend’s centenary edition.

***While Valencia is set to host the third FIA Motorsport Games this October, Ratel revealed plans to take the event outside of Europe for the first time in 2026. Sportscar365 understands that discussions are currently underway in South America.

***An expected development to next year’s IGTC season will be the exclusion of the Independent Cup for the Nürburgring 24, which would result in Bronze-rated drivers entered in the class for the four other rounds, including the recently announced Suzuka 1000km. The category’s drop-score stipulation would also be removed as a result.

***SRO Asia boss Benjamin Franassovici told Sportscar365 that he expects a capacity grid for November’s FIA GT World Cup in Macau, an event SRO is charged with the organization of entries. It’s understood 21 cars is the event maximum. Franassovici hinted that an additional GT3 manufacturer could join alongside last year’s brands Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche.

***Ratel, meanwhile, revealed that he’s heard rumors of two additional brands looking to build GT3 cars in the future, including “a small constructor” similar to but not Ginetta, and another that’s a “bigger” manufacturer.

***Longtime IGTC regulars GruppeM Racing has announced the creation of the Elite Racing Circle by GruppeM program in collaboration with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, as part of which the German manufacturer will produce a limited series of 20 specially designed Mercedes-AMG GT2 PROs.

***The 20 owners will be able to take part in six to seven VIP events per year on circuits in Europe and Asia with coaching from Mercedes-AMG drivers. Orders are open for the cars now at an undisclosed price, with delivery expected to begin in the third quarter of 2024.

***Valentino Rossi is optimistic that he will be able to challenge for his first 24H Spa podium upon his third attempt with Team WRT, having finished sixth last year.

***Rossi said: “I think last year was already quite a good race for us, because we finished sixth but we were always there, not so far from the podium. We needed a little bit more speed last year because we were not fantastic. Looks like this year we are in better shape with the car. The feeling is better. You can push more in the car and with the new asphalt and better grip, the car works well.”

***Live coverage of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa will be available on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, beginning Saturday at 4:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. EDT). The full-season commentary team of David Addison and John Watson are joined by Ben Constanduros and Ryan Myrehn, who will also be on pit lane duty alongside Antonia Rankin. Bruce Jones and Martin Haven, meanwhile, will be on the night shift.

***In addition to English, French, Italian and German versions, the live stream will be also available in Dutch, Portuguese and Chinese for the first time.

John Dagys contributed to this report