ELMS - AO by TF Win 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

The no14 AO by TF Oreca-Gibson of Jonny Edgar, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz secured their first ELMS victory in Belgium, a perfect weekend for the American team after starting the race on pole position.  A race long battle ensued with the 4 Hours of Le Castellet winners Inter Europol Competition kept everyone on the edge of their seats and Deletraz crossed the line just 1.1 seconds ahead of Tom Dillmann after four hours of competition.

 

The LMP2 Pro/Am win went to the no83 AF Corse crew of Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere, the reigning champions claiming their second-class victory ahead of the no20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson.

 

Matt Bell and Adam Ali claimed their second LMP3 win in a row for Eurointernational.A trip into the gravel trap at Les Combes for Bell early in the race meant that they had to work hard and fight their way back up the order, with Ali taking the chequered flag 14 seconds ahead of the no31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier.

 

The LMGT3 win went to the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari, with Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson handing over the car to Daniel Serra to bring home a lap ahead of the rest of the class field.It was a Ferrari 1-2-3 with GR Racing finishing second and AF Corse third.

 

RACE START

 

The 43 cars got a clean start, with all the competitors making around the first corner at La Source without incident.Jonny Edgar in the pole siting no14 AO by TF led the cars down the hill to Eau Rouge, with the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Sebastien Alvarez getting ahead of Manuel Maldonado in the no65 Panis Racing for second place.

 

John Falb got ahead of the LMP2 Pro/Am field at the start in the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca, with Giorgio Roda in the no77 Proton Competition also moving up to second ahead of the pole sitter Rodrigo Sales in the no29 Richard Mille by TDS.

 

COOL Racing’s Miguel Cristovao moved up into the lead of LMP3 on lap 1, ahead of Michael Jensen in the no15 RLR MSport Ligier, with Torsten Kratz moving up in the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine.Kratz moved up to second on lap 3 and was soon challenging Cristovao for the lead.

 

Hiroshi Hamaguchi managed to hold on to the lead in LMGT3, keeping ahead of the no50 Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen and the no59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin of Derek Deboer.

 

After 15 minutes the first of four Safety Car periods was declared when the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari driven by John Hartshorne collided with the no10 Vector Sport Oreca and spun across the track into the barriers.The no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca also spun in avoidance of the spinning Ferrari. Hartshorne climbed out of the car unaided.The damaged Ferrari was removed and racing resumed after 15-minutes.

 

Edgar and Alvarez resumed their battle for the race lead at the restart, with the no37 COOL Racing of Lorenzo Fluxa and no65 Panis Racing fighting for third place.

 

In LMGT3 the no85 Iron Dames Porsche of Sarah Bovy had moved up to third place, with Matt Griffin in the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari in 4thfrom the back of the grid.Bovy and Griffin swapped places twice as they both challenged Laursen in the no50 Ferrari for second.

 

In LMP3 the second placed no17 COOL Racing Ligier spun at Raidillon, rejoining in 9thin class as a result.In LMP2 Pro/Am, John Falb was still holding the lead for Nielsen Racing, just 1.5 seconds ahead of Gorgio Roda in the no77 Proton Competition.

 

The battle for the lead in LMGT3 was heating up as the no50 Formula Racing Ferrari was passed by both Sarah Bovy and Matt Griffin, with the no85 Porsche soon challenging Hamaguchi in the no63 Lamborghini.

 

They went side by side into Les Combes but Hamaguchi held the position.On the next lap Bovy tried again but Griffin saw his opportunity and tried to pass the Iron Dames Porsche.Bovy’s car touch the back of the Lamborghini, got on the kerb and touch the no55 Ferrari, spinning them both across the grass.Laursen also had to take to the grass to avoid the two cars, putting the no50 Ferrari into the barrier.

 

The result was both the no55 and no50 Ferraris were forced to retire and the no85 Porsche had some front end damage but Sarah Bovy was able to continue.The second Safety Car period was preceded by a Virtual Safety Car.

 

The race went green again, but only for five minutes after the no63 Lamborghini had been pushed wide onto the grass at Turn 1 by an LMP2 car.Hamaguchi recovered but the no85 Iron Dames Porsche was able to close the gap into Eau Rouge as a result.Bovy went to pass the slower Lamborghini, but they collided and both cars ended up in the barriers.

 

In a separate incident the no11 Eurointernational Ligier driven by Matt Bell had been hit from behind at Les Combes with the Ligier spinning into the gravel.Luckily Bell was able to recover the car just as the Safety Car was deployed for third time.

 

The race went green once again after the two cars were recovered but the race was suspended once again less than 15-minutes later as the no29 Richard Mille by TDS of Greg Saucy and the no50 Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen collided at Eau Rouge and ended up in the barriers.The Virtual Safety Car was followed by the Safety Car, with racing resuming with two hours left on the clock.

 

Luckily the second half of the race was uninterrupted. Th eno14 AO by TF Oreca was still leading with Robert Kubica at the wheel, the no83 AF Corse of Alessio Rovera was leading LMP2 Pro/Am,Torsten Kratz was still leading LMP3 in the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine and the no59 Racing Spirit of Leman of Casper Stevenson was at the head of the slightly depleted LMGT3 field.

 

Kubica built up a solid 20 second lead during his stint as Vlad Lomko had to deal with the close attentions of Ritomo Miyata in the no37 COOL Racing Oreca, the Japanese driver challenging at every turn.

 

After the next round of pitstops the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari was now driven by Esteban Masson, the French driver pushing up the order to take the lead ahead of the no60 Porsche of Matteo Cressoni.Cressoni’s race came to an end when a rear left puncture forced him slowly back to the pits, with Davide Rigon moving up in the no86 GR Racing Ferrari.

 

In the final hour of the race Louis Deletraz took over the lead car but the no43 Oreca, now with Tom Dillmann at the wheel was keeping the pressure on closing the gap to just over 4 seconds and Malthe Jakobsen in the no37 COOL Racing in third, 6 seconds further back.Job Van Uitert in the no28 IDEC Sport was moving up the field and was soon up to 4thand closing on the leading trio.

 

The no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Wyatt Brichacek was leading LMP3, with Adam Ali moving up the order in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier.The Canadian went into the lead and pulled away from the rest of the field to take the chequered flag 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

 

The no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari had a huge lead, with Daniel Serra taking the final stint to take the chequered flag one lap ahead of the rest of the field to record the first win for Kessel Racing since Aragon last season.

 

The LMP2 Pro/Am battle went down to the wire with the no77 Proton Competition and no20 Algarve Pro Racing both ahead of the no83 AF Corse Oreca.However, the two cars headed down the pitlane for late fuel stops. AF Corse was on a different strategy and Matthieu Vaxiviere crossed the finish line 17 seconds ahead of the no20 Oreca.

 

The overall victory was claimed by Louis Deletraz in the no14 AO by TF but was pushed all the way to the line by Tom Dillmann in the no43 Inter Europol Competition, the pair being split by just 1.1 seconds at the flag.The no28 IDEC Sport Oreca claimed the final podium position, Job Van Uitert crossing the line 31 seconds behind the two leading cars.

 

The next race will be the 4 Hours of Mugello on Sunday 29 September, the penultimate race of the 2024 season.

 

Results are HERE