TBK-Light.com

Time for my annual topic again
Mr. Stéphane Ratel decided to drop the GT1's for the 24 Hours this year because he doesn't see any endurance-future with them anymore (he's also more than happy now ACO have decided to drop them as well). The GT1 WC will have their races ahead of the 24 Hours, bit of a mixed feeling for me. So the 24H-race is now GT2-GT3-GT4 + some national GT's. Shaping up to be one of the more open races of the last couple of years, with a battle between Porsche - Ferrari - Audi - BMW and maybe Ford as well shaping up, including A LOT of big names on the cars.

Stream/live timing
Think you will have a stream which will run at the same time as the TV channels over here:
http://www.gt2europe.com/live.php
http://www.total24hours.com/24h-spa/nl/videolive2.cfm

TV

(credit to Mattzel for this)
Maybe some local TV channels will pop up as well later on, will search and post them.

Schedule:
http://www.total24hours.com/24h-spa/doc ... hedule.pdf

Timing (CET)
http://www.total24hours.com/total24hour ... t%2055.pdf

Entry list
:GT2:
1 AF Corse/Vitaphone - Michael Waltrip/Robert Kauffman/Niki Cadei/Marco Cioci - Ferrari F430 GT2
2 AF Corse/Vitaphone - Eric vd Poele/Toni Vilander/Gianmaria Bruni/Bert Longin - Ferrari F430 GT2
4 ProSpeed Competition - Louis Machiels/Paul van Splunteren/Niek Hommerson/Phil Bastiaans- Porsche 997 GT3 RSR
7 Trackspeed - David Ashburn/Carl Rosenblad/Sebastian Asch/Tim Bergmeister - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR
13 ProSpeed Competition - Richard Westbrook/Marc Goossens/Marco Holzer/Marc Lieb - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR
16 IMSA Performance - Richard Lietz/Raymond Narac/Patrick Pilet/Patrick Long - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR
17 IMSA Performance - Christophe Bourret/Pascal Gibon/J-P Belloc/Richard Balandras - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR
23 BMS Scuderia Italia - Romain Dumas/Martin Ragginger/Jörg Bergmeister/Wolf Henzler - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR

:GTN:
58 VDS Racing Adventures - José Close/Erik Qvick/Karim Al-Azhari/Raphaël van der Straten - Ford Mustang FR500
66 JetAlliance - Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer/Vitus Eckert/Marco Seefried/Martin Rich - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
78 BMW Motorsport - Jorg Müller/Pedro Lamy/Uwe Alzen - BMW M3 E92
79 BMW Motorsport - Dirk Müller/Dirk Werner/Dirk Adorf - BMW M3 E92
81 Gravity International - Romain Grosjean/Vincent Radermecker/Ron Marchal/Diego Alessi - Mosler MT900R
91 Level Racing - Philippe Broodcoren/Bruno Barbaro/Christoff Corten/René Marin - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
92 G2 Racing - Björn Grossmann/Cla. Sdanewitsch/Stéphane Clareton/Cédric Mezard- Ferrari F430 GT3
100 First Motorsport - Raymond Coronel/Jeroen Schothorst/Hoevert Vos/Harrie Kolen - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S

:GT3:
50 Phoenix Racing - Anthony Kumpen/Marcel Fässler/Lucas Luhr/Mike Rockenfeller - Audi R8 LMS
51 Phoenix Racing - Henri Moser/Alex Margaritis/Marc Hennerici/Andrea Piccini - Audi R8 LMS
52 Mühlner Motorsport - Armand Fumal/Jérôme Thiry/Mark J. Thomas/Gianluca de Lorenzi - Porsche 911 GT3 R
53 Mühlner Motorsport - Jürgen Häring/Taki Konstantinou/Gilles Vannelet/Arnaud Peyroles - Porsche 911 GT3 R
55 Sport Garage - Romain Brandela/Gaël Lesoudier/Thierry Pignaud/Thierry Stepec - Alpina GT3
56 Sport Garage - André-Ala. Corbel/Thomas Duchene/Christian Beroujon - Alpina GT3
60 ProSpeed Competition - Rémy Brouard/Philippe Nozière/Christophe Kerkhove/Ludovic Sougnez- Porsche 911 GT3 R
61 ProSpeed Competition - Maxime Soulet/Julien Schroyen/Jos Menten/Oskar Slingerland - Porsche 911 GT3 R
63 BRS Aston Martin Racing - Pierre Grivegnée/Chris. D'Ansembourg/Jérôme Demay/Pierre Merche - Aston Martin DBRS9
64 BRS Aston Martin Racing - Eddy Renard/Jeffrey van Hooydonk/Koen Wauters/Tim Verbergt - Aston Martin DBRS9
67 United Autosport - Mark Blundell/Zak Brown/Emil Assentato/Eddie Cheever - Audi R8 LMS
68 United Autosport - Stefan Johansson/Mark Patterson/Alan Li/Richard Dean - Audi R8 LMS
71 RPM - Alex Mortimer/Peter Bamford/Matt Griffin - Ford GT3
72 W Racing Team - Greg Franchi/Vincent Vosse/Frank Biela/Frank Stippler - Audi R8 LMS
73 W Racing Team - Kurt Mollekens/Stéphane Lémeret/François Verbist/Stéphane Ortelli Audi R8 LMS
74 W Racing Team - David Tuchbant/Christian Kelders/Jean-Luc Blanchemain/Fred Bouvy- Audi R8 LMS
84 Reiter Engineering - Peter Kox/Marc Hayek/Ettore Bonaldi/Jeffrey Lee - Lamborghini LP560 GT3
85 Gulf Team First - Fabien Giroix/Frédéric Fatien/J-P Valentini/Anthony Beltoise - Lamborghini LP560 GT3
86 Gulf Team First - Didier André/Gregoire De Moustier/Mike Wainwright/Roald Goethe - Lamborghini LP560 GT3
98 Marc VDS - Eric de Doncker/Renaud Kuppens/Markus Palttala - Ford GT3
99 Marc VDS - Bas Leinders/Maxime Martin/Marc Duez - Ford GT3

:GT4:
58 Team Jota - Simon Dolan/Sam Hancock/Roger Willis/Joe Twyman - Aston Martin Vantage GT4
62 RJN Motorsport - Rob Barff/Lucas Ordonez/Alex Buncombe/Chris Buncombe - Nissan 370Z GT4
69 Speedlover - Patrick Deblauwe/René Brugmans/René Brugmans/Jean-Michel Gerome - Porsche 997 GT4
70 Speedlover - Sebastien Viale/Michel de Coster/Pascal Nelissen-Grade - Porsche 997 GT4

I really don't like Stephane Ratel.

Sincerely, I think it will be a good race. Porsche, BMW, Audi and at least one Ferrari could offer a good race. And at least many different manufacters will be in starting grid.

Was hoping for more GT2 cars, but looks to be a good grid, despite not having any GT1's.

JMW had the race on their calendar with the Vantage, but dropped out. Too bad the Vettes don't come over and go for overall victory

Following the testday, the fastest GT3's are on par with the GT2's. 2-times Spa winner Kurt Mollekens (on the Audi with Ortelli) picked me up to drive to the testday and had a little chat, he guesses that the GT3's will lose about 2-3 seconds on pure pace

NIce poster aswell!

I wanna see how Mike Waltrip does in that Ferrari. That should be fun.

_________________
-Joe.
Atlanta United FC | Cincinnati Reds | Atlanta Falcons | Tennessee Titans

Make that two! I was standing in the pitbox with him during the testday, was pretty funny actually to see that NOBODY knew who he was.
Couple of hours later he was already chatting up a pretty hot Italian girl in the paddock

how Mikey really feels

Will thursday practice be free entrance again?

Yep

Just read an interview with Waltrip, will translate it later because it's actually quite funny to read

Addition to the entry list, Romain Grosjean with a Mosler

In a gravity car?

Genii capital?

Yes, they have been racing with that Mosler in Belgium since 2007 I believe

Michael Waltrip:
"Normally I wasn't going to do this race, even though I do know the reputation of Spa-Francorchamps. At the start of the season I did the 24 Hours of Dubai together with the co-owner of my NASCAR team, Rob Kauffman. All went well until our car had a heavy crash and we were out of the race. Rob then told me: "We should do this again!" and we went looking for other 24 hour races on the calendar, and pretty soon we decided it was going to be Spa.

I barely had time to check some clips on the internet before I got here for the testday. My eyes got pretty big when I first got to drive on the track. Especially that corner, Eau Rouge, must have been the craziest thing I have ever done in my life so far! I kept going full throttle because I thought I'd never reach the top. That was a little bit of a mistake because I barely managed to keep the Ferrari out of the barriers. Then there was a long straight (Kemmel) and I was pretty sure I would have to turn left after it...wrong. This track is incredibly difficult for a new guy like myself, the combination of a lot of fast corners and the massive amount of difference in height. We do two road courses in NASCAR, Watkins Glen and Sears Point, and they also have level difference but absolutely not comparable to Spa. I will need time, a lot of time, to get to know this track.

When my team and I are racing in NASCAR, we are always under huge pressure to get results to please sponsors and fans, so I consider this to be a nice "holiday". I really like the atmosphere of this track and I hope we will not make ourselves ridiculous. Niki Cadei (teammate) knows the car and the track so I hope he can let us make some progression. If we are able to finish this race, I consider it as a victory."

Updated entrylist with the provisional official one released today, some additions + some strong rumours added by me.

While this race is difficult to follow, the GT3 battle looks like it could be awesome so I'll be doing my best for sure.

Nascar drivers! lol

Still tracking his progress could be fun. Will be be the Milka Duno of Spa or will he be able to drag a half decent result..?

I don't think he will be really slow. He has done a ton of road races in NASCAR, so he does know how to turn right. I think it will be more a case of trying to adapt to endurance style racing. As I understand it, his teammates are also amateurs at this sorta thing. So I think it will be an interesting experience with traffic, weather and night driving. And obviously Spa is somewhat different to Dubai.

Little surprising update to the entry-list, Bartels (Mr Vitaphone) and Camathias are gone from the #2, replaced by Toni Vilander and more than decent Belgian Bert Longin. We've suddenly got ourselves another big favourite due to this. Wondering though how much Vitaphone's involvement is gonna be now that Bartels is no longer on the car..unless there are even more surprises to come