Spa Post-Race Notebook

***Comtoyou Racing’s victory in the centenary edition of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa marked the second time in the event’s history that Aston Martin came out on top. The two victories were separated by 76 years, as St. John Horsfal and Leslie Johnson won in 1948 behind the wheel of an Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports.

***The result also ended a 40-year win drought for British brands in the race, dating back to the 1984 edition in which Tom Walkinshaw, Win Percy and Hans Heyer drove to victory in a Jaguar XJS.

***Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi all became first-time winners, as did Comtoyou. The team’s victory, in only its second start at the event, marks the first time since BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS in 2015 that a Belgian outfit won on home soil.

***Additionally, longtime co-drivers Thiim and Sorensen won a 24-hour race together for the first time. The two drivers already held separate 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins and captured a pair of GTE-Pro world titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship together.

***The No. 7 Comtoyou crew jumped to the top of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup drivers’ standings with 46 points, with Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse second for ROWE Racing ten points behind.

***BMW scored a 1-2 with regards to points in the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers’ standings, with the No. 32 Team WRT crew of Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts the highest-placed finisher ahead of the No. 998 ROWE machine driven by Farfus, Harper and Hesse.

***Now on 69 points, the Bavarian brand moved back past Mercedes-AMG to regain second place in the standings. Porsche, despite scoring the fewest points out of the three registered brands at Spa, has retained the lead at 80.5 points. Points from round two at the Nürburgring 24 remain provisional until a decision has been reached on ROWE Racing’s appeal, the hearing for which will take place on July 10.

***Although both drivers didn’t score at Spa, Laurens Vanthoor and Ayhancan Guven provisionally remain atop the drivers’ standings with 37.5 points. Matt Campbell is closely behind on 37 points, while podium finishes at both the Nürburgring and Spa have pushed Charles Weerts into title contention at 34 points.

***Lionspeed X Herberth driver Antares Au secured his second consecutive Independent Cup victory after finishing 22nd overall aboard the No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R, driving alongside Alexander Fach, Martin Rump and Alessio Picariello.

***As the two other Independent Cup entrants (Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Adrian D’Silva) failed to finish, Au has provisionally moved to the lead of the standings on 37,5 points.

***In addition to CrowdStrike by Riley’s George Kurtz and Colin Braun, former Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS driver Anthony Bartone picked up Silver class honors in the No. 3 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG. It marked Bartone’s first major endurance race win after claiming victory in International GT Open competition earlier this year in Portimao.

***Bartone said: “I’ve only been doing this for two years. It is just a pleasure to work with everyone at GetSpeed and my co-drivers James, Yannick, and Aaron did everything they could to get this for us. I had good stints. It was a little tough with the changing conditions from wet to dry and back. I think we lacked overall pace in the dry, but it just came down to staying clean and minimizing mistakes and having good pace in the rain.”

***Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl accepted the Coupe Du Roi, which is awarded to the manufacturer with the best overall performance factoring in the five different classes. The German brand also won the Gold Cup with the No. 777 Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed entry of Al Faisal Al Zubair, Dominik Baumann, Philip Ellis and Mikael Grenier.

***Despite that, the Stuttgart brand experienced a tough race which saw all of its contending Pro entries retire. “As far as the race for overall victory is concerned, it didn’t go as we had imagined,” said Wendl. “Our Performance cars had the pace to finish on the podium. Unfortunately, we lost all three entries in the most difficult conditions. But to finish this extremely demanding 24-hour race as the most successful manufacturer makes me all the more pleased and we are proud of the Coupe Du Roi.”

***Fred Vervisch, Christopher Mies and Dennis Olsen finished 19th overall in the No. 64 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, encountering no major reliability issues during the car’s 24H Spa debut. “We don’t quite have the pace to fight for victory at the moment, but we’re not giving up,” said Vervisch. “To finish in the top 20 in the toughest GT race in the world is an excellent result. But we want more. Now, it’s all about squeezing out a bit more performance.”

***HAAS RT endured a challenging debut outing in the Belgian endurance classic, with neither of its two Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs reaching the finish line. The No. 28 car, which the team rebuilt after a crash for Simon Gachet in night practice, retired with a gearbox-related issue while the No. 38 machine was involved in multiple incidents.

***Sportscar365 understands that the Antiguan-flagged, Belgian-based squad, which debuted in GT3 racing last year, is set to continue its relationship with Audi for a third season in 2025.

***While both of WRT’s Pro entries made it to the finish, the No. 30 OQ by Oman Racing BMW retired on Sunday morning after suffering a suspected engine issue. “In terms of pace, especially in the rain, we were right there, which is encouraging and gives us hope for the upcoming races,” Jens Klingmann said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t bring it home for the team. We didn’t achieve our big goal of getting to the Bronze podium, but we can still be proud.”

***SRO reported a weekend attendance figure of 99,500 spectators, up from the 83,677 spectators that were on hand for last year’s 75th running of the Belgian endurance classic.

***Bathurst 12 Hour event director Shane Rudzis and Supercars’ head of broadcast Nathan Prendergast attended last weekend’s event in what was a “very fruitful” event with engagement from “all vehicle brands” to discuss opportunities to be represented on the 2025 grid according to Rudzis. The Australian enduro will open next year’s IGTC season on Feb. 2.

***Rudzis said: “We are currently working through our sporting and technical regulations, and it has been fantastic to get feedback from the teams and other parties to plan the 2025 event. Our goal is to have these finalized in July for race entries to open.”

***This year’s IGTC season will close out with the Indianapolis 8 Hour on Oct. 5, which will double as the season finale for GT World Challenge America. The next Fanatec GT Europe event is a Sprint Cup round at Hockenheim on July 21, followed by the next Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring one week later.

John Dagys contributed to this report