Spa Thursday Notebook

***Night practice was canceled after rain arrived at Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday evening. The downpour dramatically impacted qualifying, which saw a Bronze Cup Porsche 911 GT3 R set the outright average pace and 13 Pro cars miss out on Superpole.

***As of Thursday night, it is unclear if the canceled 90-minute practice session will be compensated for later in the weekend. The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS sporting rulebook states that all drivers “must complete at least two timed laps” during night practice that are within 130 percent of the session’s fastest lap.

***Kenny Habul went to the hospital for precautionary CT scans after experiencing soreness following his accident in Pre-Qualifying according to a SunEnergy1 Racing spokesperson. The Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli points leader went off at Raidillon late in the afternoon session. SunEnergy1 did not take part in qualifying.

***Raffaele Marciello’s hopes of taking a fourth consecutive 24H Spa pole position were dashed by the mixed conditions as the Swiss driver’s No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo only ranked 23rd.

***Bathurst 12 Hour event director Shane Rudzis, and Repco Supercars Championship and Bathurst 12 Hour motorsport operations manager Paul Martin, are on-site this weekend. It is the first international trip by the 12-hour organizers since the pandemic, for discussions with teams to compete in next year’s Australian enduro.

***The event, scheduled for Feb. 19, is expected to be confirmed as the opening round of the IGTC season during Saturday’s annual SRO Motorsports Group press conference.

***SRO America once again has a large delegation of staff at Spa, including President and CEO Greg Gill, general manager Staci Langham, VP of marketing and communications and business development Robbie Montinola, series stakeholder and race steward Peter Cunningham, as well as Ash Vandelay, who is broadcasting throughout the weekend on SRO America’s Twitch channel.

***Gill told Sportscar365: “We’ve seen the excitement of having North American drivers here in the past, like Tim Pappas, Samantha Tan and George Kurtz, but when you look at [U.S.] teams like GMG and Riley that are now here with GT3 entries, that’s exciting for us. We think it’s a great opportunity for our SRO America clients, in keeping the way the calendar is set, to give them opportunities to experience Spa, either as tourists or as competitors.”

***SRO has done away with the incremental application of penalties for breaching track limits at Spa, with an offending vehicle now getting five punishment-free infractions before a 30-second time penalty at its next pit stop for the sixth breach. The track limit counter is reset every six hours.

***At Spa last year, the first two track limit violations after a pit stop went unpunished, while the third carried a five-second penalty. The time penalties then increased incrementally for each further track limits offense. Another change is that track limits are tallied up per car and not per driver.

***ROWE Racing team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf described the new tally system as “very strict and very direct” but also observed: “I think they’re pretty clear they want to avoid [breaches] because of the gravel beds, putting gravel on track, etc. I think they just want to make sure the cars stay on the track and cause as minimum Full Course Yellows as possible.”

***Naundorf, meanwhile, downplayed the factor of Balance of Performance playing into the outcome of the race. “I don’t think BoP will be the major factor here for winning the race or making a good result,” he said. “I think this shows the quality of the SRO to be able to do a BoP.”

***While having only driven together once before, in the 2018 California 8 Hour at the wheel of Black Swan Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, GMG Racing by Car Collection Motorsport co-drivers Jeroen Bleekemolen and Patrick Long first raced against each other in the Belgian world junior karting championship in the late 1990s.

***Bleekemolen told Sportscar365: “We raced karts together at the age of 14. Our careers cross over a lot. [Fernando] Alonso won it so you can tell who came furthest from us!” The Dutchman’s last 24H Spa appearance came in 2018, also with Black Swan.

***The No. 23 Grove Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R is a replacement chassis after an accident during the official 24 Spa test days last month. Additionally, Bullitt Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 is a brand-new chassis after a fire at the Paul Ricard 1000km.

***The fire damaged an Aston chassis that had been brought in for Paul Ricard round to replace one that was in turn written off in an accident at Raidillon during the test. It is understood that Bullitt plans to repair the fire-damaged chassis for future use.

***The No. 92 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R is the same chassis that Dennis Olsen raced in last weekend’s DTM round at Zandvoort. Manthey’s Thomas Preining-driven DTM car was used at the Nürburgring 24.

***Manthey managing director Nicolas Raeder told Sportscar365 that he hopes the tight turnaround between Zandvoort and Spa won’t be a detriment to the team’s performance this weekend. The same crew operates both programs. “In the end, it’s better if you can prepare a car two weeks before,” said Raeder. “Hopefully we are not compromised. But you have to be fair to yourself.”

***Raeder is eager for Manthey EMA to do the final round of the NLS season but admitted that it’s difficult to arrange considering it falls within the DTM schedule. “With two chassis, you cannot promise so much,” he said. “It’s not good if you only do two races before the N24. We are compromising a lot the 24-hour [next year] if you do not drive [this year].”

***Audi Sport Team Comtoyou is using the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II chassis that did the Nürburgring 24 with Audi Sport Team Car Collection. Another N24 chassis, the Audi Sport Team Land example, is now being used by Audi Sport Team Sainteloc at Spa.

***Lucas Auer told Sportscar365 that he feels ready to tackle his first 24-hour race since an accident in practice for the Rolex 24 at Daytona that resulted in four months on the sidelines. “To be honest I prepared well,” said Auer, who is driving for Mercedes-AMG Team Al Manar Racing. “I’ve now done my second DTM [round] in the pocket… so it’s good preparation.”

***BMW Motorsport boss Andreas Roos has ruled out building a car to SRO’s GT2 platform in the short-term, alluding to the fact that the German manufacturer doesn’t currently have a road-going equivalent model that would fit the platform’s ethos “When you talk to Stephane Ratel, he wants to see super sports cars in GT2,” he said. “At the moment we don’t plan to do a GT2 version of the M4, so there is nothing planned at the moment.”

***Last year’s winning Mercedes-AMG is on display in the manufacturer’s hospitality unit in the paddock, along with an example of the roadgoing Mercedes-AMG One hypercar.

***Several track-only hypercars are on display in the GT1 Sports Club powered by Curbstone paddock and some of them are taking part in the five scheduled track sessions. Three Lamborghini Essenza SCV12s, a McLaren Senna, a Praga Bohema and an Apollo Intensa Emozione are on show.

***Another car in the GT1 Sports Club paddock is the McMurtry Speirling, which is making its continental European debut this weekend. The one at Spa is the same model that broke the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb record last year, although it won’t take part in the Spa track demo.

***Team WRT is yet to finalize its full driver lineups for the next IGTC round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Vincent Vosse indicated that his team ‘haven’t thought about’ whether Valentino Rossi will be part of the driving squad. “Ask me on Monday,” Vosse told Sportscar365, regarding the team’s participation in the race.

***Pole position for the 75th edition CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa will be settled in the Superpole session that starts at 3:35 p.m. local time (9:35 a.m. ET) on Friday, having been moved from its traditional evening slot shortly before the event.

***Although real-world track action is limited on Friday, several drivers will be taking part in the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series race in the paddock at 6 p.m. for a chance to earn real-world championship points for their teams in GTWC Europe combined.

John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report