Stage is now set of the anniversary running of the Spa 24 tomorrow
Friday, June 28, 2024
Having been blessed with fantastic weather around the Ardennes circuit throughout the track sessions so far, the real business began yesterday evening with the first of four Qualifying sessions that would be used to determine each cars starting position except for the top twenty who would move onto the later Superpole session on Friday.
Bolstered by Aston Martin Racing’s biggest Partner team participation in recent years saw all seven 2024 Vantage GT3’s take part, starting either within Q1 or Q2 depending upon the number of drivers aboard each car giving us a representation in all classes.
Starting from the rear of the grid, the #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport Bronze Cup entry of Tim Creswick/Bijoy Garg/Mex Jenson and Ben Green had the slowest time of the seven with a combined time worthy of a P58 grid slot. Slightly further up was the #11 Comtoyou Racing Bronze Cup entry of Kobe Pauwels/John De Wilde/ Dante Rappange and Job Van Uitert who claimed a P54 slot.
In P51, was the #12 Comtoyou Racing Silver Cup AMR entry for Nicolas Baert/Sebastian Ogaard/Esteban Muth and Erwan Bastard with their sister #21 Silver Cup entry of Charles Clark/Matisse Lismont/ Xavier Maassen and Sam Dejonghe further ahead again in P40.
The #35 Silver Cup Walkenhorst entry of Romain Leroux/Lorcan Hanafin and Maxime Robin will start from P38 to complete the Aston Martin Racing powered entry outside of the top twenty runners.
To earn that accolade, both the #34 Walkenhorst Pro Class entry of Ross Gunn/Henrique Chaves and David Pittard and the #7 Comtoyou Racing Pro entry of Nicki Thiim/Marco Sorenson and Mattia Drudi finished within the top ten in P10 and P5 respectively to go again on Friday.
This time running within the full heat of the day, the #34 Walkenhorst driven by Chaves and the #7 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Drudi both clocked best lap times worthy of a top ten place before eventually dropping down to P12 for the #34 and P13 for the #7 car at the end after timing corrections were made to the final order.
The next biggest test for all runners will be to make it safely around turn one at La Source for the first time on Saturday afternoon before continuing to do so for the next twenty-four hours. Anything can happen – and usually does and that doesn't even include what Mother Nature can add into the mix!!
Photo credits – Series / Team / social media
