It was a case of right place, right time for Aston Martin as the manufacturer secured its first victory in the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa since 1948.
In the centenary edition of the leading GT event in the world, it was Belgian squad Comtoyou Racing greeting the flag for the latest generation Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s first major success with drivers Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorenson and Nicki Thiim.
It came in dramatic fashion as the leading AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 was blocked at the entry to pit lane by the stopped Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 allowing the Aston Martin to take the lead.
The AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 shared by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera finished runner up after entering the final hour in prime position to secure Ferrari’s second victory in four years, but the pit lane delay cost the team dearly.
Emerging in fifth, Pier Guidi charged the Ferrari to second ahead of the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts after a 30s penalty was placed on it in the 14th hour.
As for the local interests, Arise Racing GT’s Jaxon Evans traded his regular Ferrari 296 GT3 for Phantom Global Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R for the event and 26th was the result, five laps off the lead.
The other contenders failed to finish as Martin Konrad lost control of the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG at Eau Rouge flipping it on its roof on lap 114. Prince Jefri Ibrahim, Jordan Love and Alexander Sims were to drive alongside Konrad.
Brendon Leitch’s race also ended early when the EBM Porsche was involved in an incident on lap 76 in what was an entry shared by Earl Bamber Adrian d”Silva and Kerong Li.
Bathurst local Brad Schumacher started the Haas RT Audi he shared alongside Olivier Bertels, Armand Fumal and Julius Adomavicius, but a mechanical problem led to the entry’s retirement on lap 73.
The next round of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS is part of the Shannons SpeedSeries round at Queensland Raceway on August 2-4.