24 Hours of Spa - Francorchamps : race report
It has been a terrific 24 Hours race, with lots of thrilling moments, lot of rain, disappointments and excitements. A race of 24 hours at Spa Francorchamps requires the maximum from the cars and tyres, from drivers and also from the teams.
After the first false start, the race has "taken off" immediately, with the JMB Ferrari 550 - Pirelli of Philipp Peter, that has made the first time in the warm up ahead of the Force One Chrysler Viper, which closed the gap with the leading positions in the first laps with lots of great over takings. In N-GT category the Ferrari 360 JMB behaved very well with a great Andrea Bertolini in recovery up to the second position.
The situation in GT category after the first six hours of race, the first step where championship points are awarded, saw an excellent JMB Ferrari 550 in first position (5 points gained), ahead of Viper of team Larbre and the Ferrari of BMS Scuderia Italia. Also the Chrysler Viper - Pirelli of team Force One and the Viper of team Paul Belmondo Racing - Pirelli, in fifth and sixth position respectively, gained the first points of the race. In N-GT the leader was Ortelli on the Porsche GT3, but the Porsche - Pirelli of team RWS gained 2 points in fifth position.
The race has continued during the night under a heavy rain, with the safety car that has intervened many times because some harmless accidents or the track completely flooded. At four o'clock in the morning, after twelve hours of race, other championship points were awarded: five at the Viper of team Larbre Competition first at this point, four at the JMB Ferrari 550 - Pirelli, in second position, and three at the Viper of team Belmondo - Pirelli. In N-GT category, in which dominated the Ortelli's Porsche, other two points were awarded to the reliable RWS Porsche.
During the morning, at last without rain, the situation become stabilized, but, after 18 hours and 345 laps of race, the engine of JMB Ferrari 550 - Pirelli suffered the long distance, and interrupted the great race of Fabio Babini, that was very happy to have found great performances and reliability on his Ferrari 550. Until that point, in fact, the JMB Ferrari had astonished for the performances that it had supplied. In reliability topic, the Pirelli P Zero racing tyres have supplied to all the teams the maximum performances in different conpounds and tread: they have been utilized in all the combinations, for dry, humid and wet track condition, without any problem although the long duration of the race.
At the end of the race, with many secluded teams, the Ferrari's reliability team BMS it has allowed to win the race in GT category. Very good satisfaction for team Belmondo - Pirelli that arrived on the GT podium in third position. In N-GT, the superiority of the Porsche of Freisinger Motorsport it was confirmed another time: the Porsche 996 GT3-RS of Ortelli, Lieb and Dumas completed 479 laps of the circuit in the 24 hours, finishing eight laps ahead of the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello, with the Seikel Porsche third. In the Championship classification, Freisinger have the lead in both N-GT titles, while BMS have taken an unreachable lead in the GT Teams Classification, with four rounds remaining.