After an eventful night, Porsche is within striking distance of the top group in the 911 GT3 R of the KCMG customer team at the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race. The starting number 47 of Maxime Martin, his Belgian compatriot Laurens Vanthoor and the Briton Nick Tandy took fifth place after 18 hours. She is one lap behind on the 7.004 kilometer Grand Prix circuit after 370 laps. The second best nine-eleven is the car of their team-mates Josh Burdon (Australia), Alexandere Imperatori (Switzerland) and Edoardo Liberati (Italy) in eleventh place.

The 24 Hours of Spa got off to a wild start. After the first four hours of racing with 84 laps completed, the best Porsche customer teams are looking promising in positions seven, nine, twelve and 15. Schnabl Engineering’s 911 GT3 R with the French works driver Fred Makowiecki as well as Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Dennis Olsen (Norway) have ploughed through the field from P25 to seventh place. Josh Burdon (Australia), Alexandre Imperatori (Switzerland) and Edoardo Liberati (Italy) even managed to charge from 37th on the grid to ninth place with their 500+PS Porsche fielded by the KCMG squad.

The initial phase of the endurance classic was interrupted by a serious accident in the Eau Rouge/Raidillon corner combination, in which Rutronik Racing’s entry became entangled. While the Porsche driver Kévin Estre was unharmed, this marked the end of the race for the Frenchman and his teammates Richard Lietz (Austria) and Sven Müller (Germany). Shortly after the 50-minute full course yellow, heavy rain resulted in hectic activity in the pit lane. Later, the 7.004-kilometre Grand Prix circuit dried up, making it necessary to switch back to slicks. Various drive-through penalties for disregarding the track markings threw the best-placed Porsche customer teams down the field time and again.

An unfortunate yellow phase around midnight had cost the 911 GT3 R-Armada the direct connection to the leading vehicles. After that, a lot of bad luck cleared the ranks of the participants with the over 500 hp sports car from Weissach. At around 3:00 in the morning, the number 22 GPX Racing car had to go into the pit for a repair stop because there was a problem with the steering. At around 5:30 am, Earl Bamber (New Zealand) and factory drivers Matt Campbell (Australia) and Mathieu Jaminet (France) withdrew the car.

For long periods of the night, the 911 GT3 R from Schnabl Engineering assumed the role of spearheading Porsche and was consistently in the top 10. Shortly before 4:00 in the morning, however, the “Eau Rouge” curve came to an end Contact with another vehicle, which meant the premature end for Michael Christensen (Denmark), Dennis Olsen (Norway) and the French works driver Frédéric Makowiecki.

From then on, the two racing cars from KCMG and the start number 54 from Dinamic Motorsport kept the flags of Porsche upright. After a tactically clever technical pit stop under yellow, during which the front axle brake is usually exchanged, Tandy, Vanthoor and Martin even had a return to the leading lap within reach. When the competition was able to complete the at least four-minute service stop during a “Full Course Yellow” shortly before eight o'clock in the morning, this hope was not fulfilled for the time being.

Dinamic Motorsport withdrew both Porsches from the race before the 16-hour mark. The number 56 car of Mikkel O. Pedersen (Denmark), Andrea Rizzoli (Italy) and works driver Romain Dumas (France) slipped in the results list due to several penalties, among other things. The sister vehicle of Klaus Bachler (Austria), Christian Engelhart (Germany) and Matteo Cairoli (Italy) initially lost time due to a brake repair, then the alternator had to be replaced. In the absence of a chance of success, it was also stopped prematurely.

The final eight hours on the “Ardennes rollercoaster” hold an additional challenge in store for the best-placed Porsche: Nick Tandy and Maxime Martin have to complete the remaining distance in pairs. Her passenger, Laurens Vanthoor, had an accident in the paddock and was taken to hospital for a closer examination to be on the safe side.

The live stream of the event
Spectators can watch the 24-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps on the website http://www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com in a free live stream. Live timing is also available there.

Quotes on the course of the race so far
Sebastian Golz (Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R):“Unfortunately we lost a lot of vehicles due to accidents and technical defects, but we were repeatedly thrown back by fines. That's why we're not right at the forefront at the moment. But I also have to say that our KCMG customer team is doing an excellent job. Unfortunately, in a yellow phase, they were unable to return to the top teams as they had hoped. But we're not giving up at this point, there are still eight hours of racing ahead of us. ”

Nick Tandy (KCMG, Porsche 911 GT3 R # 47):“I did a triple stint that night and was able to enjoy the honor of driving from dark to dawn for the first time here in Spa - that was really cool. The other great news: our Porsche works great. The track conditions suited us and the guys from KCMG did a really good job setting up the 911 GT3 R for the race. ”

Josh Burdon (KCMG, Porsche 911 GT3 R # 18):“It's really ok. We started from 37th place and knew that there was a lot of work ahead of us. We were able to fight our way up to 15th position relatively quickly. Everything is going very well. Our car is more competitive in the race than it was in the practice sessions. We are currently in the tenth or eleventh place and there is still a long way to go. We want to really attack again in the last few hours. ”

All results at www.total24hours.com/results.