This Saturday and Sunday you can watch the 66th edition of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the Blancpain Endurance Series race that can call itself undoubtedly the biggest race in the world, exclusively dedicated to GT3 cars.
During the weekend of 26 and 27 July 2014 no less than 60 cars representing 11 different brands will be fighting for victory at the legendary circuit of Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Ardennes. Including iconic long distance racing makes such as Porsche, Ferrari, Audi, Lamborghini, McLaren, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Jaguar, Bentley and Aston Martin.
The longest race of the season will see titans ART Grand Prix and M-Sport Bentley battle it out, with only a point separating the French and British teams. Despite M-Sport's Bentley Continental GT3 sitting just behind the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the team standings, M-Sport's Andy Meyrick, Steven Kane and Guy Smith lead the drivers' championship - ahead of the ART Grand Prix outfit.
However, as this is ultimately the biggest race of the season, Blancpain will be handing out points at the end of the six and twelve hour marks during the race in the Ardennes - not only at the end of the race. This will be important, especially with the championship being so close.
McLaren have a somewhat checkered history in endurance racing, whereas this will be the first 24 hour outing for the M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 - with the car's longest race to date being the Gulf 12 Hours at the end of last season, which even then was actually two six hour races bandaged together. There are far more experienced teams on the grid, such as Audi, BMW, Nissan and Mercedes.
It is an Audi team, Sainteloc Racing, that sits third in the Pro Cup standings - with Mercedes' three-car HTP Motorsport team just behind in the premier class, looking to take another victory in Spa as they have done before. The 2013 winning trio of Maximilian Gotz, Maximilian Buhk and Bernd Schneider are back with the team, albeit in different cars to last year - the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.
The Blancpain Endurance Series grid is split into three classes, Pro Cup, Pro-Am Cup and the Gentleman Trophy. The Nissan GT Academy Team RJN outfit currently lead the Pro-Am Cup, the very same team who has been barred from the British GT Championship for being 'too good for amateurs.' If they are to add another consecutive victory, taking the running total to three, then they will have to beat the largest class on the grid - one that has been bolstered up with extra entries.
These extra entries include BMW works racer & former GP3 driver Alexander Sims who will compete with Ecurie Ecosse. Stefan Mucke, Darren Turner and Pedro Lamy who will join Aston Martin squads Beechdean AMR, MP Motorsport AMR and Leonard Motorsport AMR respectively.
Lago Racing will enter an all-Australian crew of Roger Lago, Steven Richards, Steve Owen and David Russell in the only Lambo on the grid. Speaking of Aussies, V8 Supercars legend Craig Lowndes will race with the Maranello Motorsport team in a Ferrari 458 as part of AF Corse's four-car Pro-Am cup team alongside fellow countryman Steve Wyatt and Italians Michele Rugolo and Andrea Piccini.
Top 10 grid positions after Super Pole:
- Vanthoor/Winkelhock/Rast, WRT Audi, 2.18.710s
- Danyilw/Knap/Guidi, AF Corse Ferrari, 2.18.756s
- Duseseldrop/Afanasiev/Massen, HTP Mercedes, 2.18.924s
- Ortelli/Sandstrom/Guilvert, Sainteloc Audi, 2.18.989s
- Miles/Stippler/Nash, WRT Audi, 2:19.032s
- Smith/Meyrick/Kane, MS Bentley, 2:19.093s
- Schneider/Primat/Verdonck, HTP Mercedes, 2:19.166s
- Korjus/Soucek/Estre, ART McLaren, 2:19.316s
- Klingman/Hassid/Catsburg/Thiriet, TDS BMW, 2:19.334s
- Howard/Adam/Mucke/Lloyd, Beechdean AMR, 2:19.491s
We hope to welcome new and regular Blancpain GT Series live stream viewers this weekend to witness the Total 24 Hours of Spa counting towards the Blancpain Endurance Series with us. The race gets underway on Saturday at 14:30 GMT (16:30 CEST) with the checkered flag shown 24 hours later.
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Images:
Blancpain Media Services
Blancpain Media Services
