From Green Hell to the Ardennes rollercoaster : IGTC hits half-distance at 24 Hours of Spa

An incredible month of endurance racing concludes this weekend when a record number of entries contest the world’s biggest GT race: the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

The dust has barely settled on the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring where BMW, Augusto Farfus and Kelvin van der Linde notched up their second Intercontinental GT Challenge victories of the season. They now make the short hop across the border into Belgium where 43 of Spa’s 75 cars are eligible to score IGTC points.

Those totals represent the greatest-ever gathering of GT3s for a single race and the largest Intercontinental entry since the globe-trotting GT series was established in 2016.

Of IGTC’s registered manufacturers, Mercedes-AMG enjoys a slight numerical advantage with 12 cars, while BMW and Porsche are also well represented with 11 apiece. Nine Ferraris complete the list of potential points-scorers, 15 of which feature Pro driver line-ups.

ROWE’s victory at the Nordschleife plus WRT’s Bathurst one-two leaves BMW 23 points ahead of its German rivals in the manufacturers’ standings. Its early success is also reflected in the drivers’ table where Farfus and Van der Linde are seven ahead of their factory colleague Raffaele Marciello, who was also a winner last weekend, and another 17 clear of the first non-BMW driver: Ayhancan Güven.

Intercontinental’s list also features three Independent Cup entrants, two of whom happen to be the class’ last two title winners. Reigning champion Antares Au makes his first IGTC appearance of the season with Rutronik and Porsche, while 2023 victor Jonathan Hui drives the Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari. There’s also Independent Cup debutant Ralf Bohn who forms one-quarter of Herberth’s Bronze crew. All will be eager to make up ground on current points’ leader Kenny Habul who, along with Adrian D’Silva, makes his next IGTC start at Suzuka.

As always, manufacturers’ points are only collected by each marque’s two highest finishers, while drivers score on the basis of their final IGTC position.

Entry list is HERE