WRT Looking to End Ten-Year 24H Spa Winless Streak

Team WRT should aim to “kill” a ten-year winless streak in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa according to team principal Vincent Vosse.

The Belgian squad has two previous race wins in the Belgian endurance classic, having won the race in 2011 and 2014.

That second win, with an Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Markus Winkelhock, Rene Rast and Laurens Vanthoor, remains the last victory to date for the team.

It came close in previous years, most notably losing out to Iron Lynx in 2021 after a dramatic, late-race pass by Alessandro Pier Guidi on Dries Vanthoor in wet conditions.

“It’s an important race and every year we try to win it,” Vosse said.

“At the end we are lucky to every year be in a position to try to win. Let’s kill this ten years of not being able to finish where we want to finish.

“It’s probably one of the hardest 24 hour race to win and this is the proof of it.”

WRT’s presence at the event is notably smaller compared to previous years, having run four cars last year and even fielding a five-car operation during its last year with Audi in 2022.

Vosse indicated that it was a conscious decision by the team to go for a more compact effort at Spa amidst a busy 2024 season that also sees the team compete in two classes in the FIA World Endurance Championship simultaneously.

“We are already doing quite a lot,” he said. “Having three cars, the three cars we are running in a championship it’s a perfect situation. It’s what we want to do. We have enough.”

Roos: ROWE’s Defending Winner Status “Doesn’t Change Anything” for BMW

While WRT hasn’t stood on the top step of the Spa podium in a decade, BMW won the race four times in that period with Team VDS, Walkenhorst Motorsport and ROWE Racing.

The latter of those three teams took BMW’s most recent Spa triumph when Nick Yelloly, Marco Wittmann and Philipp Eng came out on top last year.

BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos noted that BMW’s status as current race winners ‘doesn’t change anything in terms of pressure’ as it seeks to secure back-to-back wins.

To date, the German brand is one of five manufacturers to have managed consecutive victories in the race’s GT era, a feat that has also been achieved by Chrysler (2001, 2002), Maserati (2005, 2006), Audi (2011, 2012) and Porsche (2019, 2020).

“For me, it doesn’t change anything because especially at these pinnacle events, we always come to win these races,” Roos told Sportscar365.

“I think our BMW M4 GT3 showed already from the first year on that it can win races and championships and we enter all races basically to win them.

“To be honest, it doesn’t change for me anything in terms of pressure. We have very well prepared teams. They know how to win there. We have very good driver lineups.

“So for us, it’s like we want to win the race, but we are also realistic. The competition is super high, you need to be also a bit lucky. To get everything sorted, not being involved in any crashes.

“Hopefully it’s not like last year that we lost two cars in one one accident.

“For sure, things like this can happen, but shouldn’t happen. I think when we have a good race, we can play a role in winning the race.”

BMW is carrying good momentum into Spa, leading both the Endurance and Sprint Cup standings in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS.

ROWE’s second car, driven by Augusto Farfus, Max Hesse and Dan Harper, won the Endurance Cup opener at Paul Ricard while WRT has been victorious in all but one Sprint Cup race so far this season.

“It’s running well at the moment in GT World Challenge, I have to say,” Roos said.

“I would be super happy if we can fight again for a good result and a good victory. This is what is always important for us.

“Having a level playing field between the cars and then you need to do your job right.

“You need a bit of luck and then either you win or as long as you can fight for a good result. I think this is our main goal.”