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Spa Francorchamps

Proximus

05/08/2001

24 Hours Preview

3 By 24

© Janos Wimpffen

To the sports car racing devotee the calendar revolves around the Le Mans 24 Hours. The year always begins with the Daytona 24 Hours and that is usually enough when it comes to the twice-around-the-clock grinds. But that third twenty-four hour classic is always lurking around the back of the minds of followers of our favorite cars.

Nestled in the Ardennes, the famed Spa Francorchamps circuit first hosted an all-day event in 1924, merely a year after the French race’s debut. The Belgian version has had longer gaps since then, thus the 2001 edition will only be the 53rd running. For most of its post-war history the race has been run exclusively for Touring cars, ascribing to a variety of specific national and international formulae. But sports cars have featured prominently at various junctures.

Some might say that Belgian race has forever lived in the shadow of the French 24 Hours, but in reality the two events reflect well on the attributes of the two cultures. Le Mans is a proud showpiece strutted brightly in front of the world. The challenging circuit in the cozy Belgian woods allows for a convivial and intimate party with few pretensions. Vin et baguettes are traded for frites et mayonnaise.

The pre-war formulae at Spa roughly paralleled that of Le Mans and catered to large Touring cars. The long lost marque of Bignan won the first race, to be the followed the next year by a Chenard-Walcker, which had also achieved fame at Le Mans. Alfa Romeo began a winning streak in 1928 that continued until WWII, interrupted once by Mercedes.

The wartime ravages were particularly hard in the Ardennes, with Stavelot eventually becoming the headquarters for General Patton’s army. The original circuit connected Stavelot with the other two villages of Francorchamps and Malmédy. After the war, this broad triangle was cut back to the “classic” 14-kilometer configuration on public roads that places Spa Francorchamps into its proper historic context.

The downhill start line led rapidly into the very daunting and ascending Eau Rouge bend. This was followed by a series of high-speed turns high on a ridge and a long sweep near Malmédy. Then came one of the fastest straight sections in motor racing, Masta. It incorporated a kink through a small settlement. Unlike the broad pavement on N138 south of Le Mans, the Masta straight is barely wide enough for two cars to pass at normal road speeds. Then came the daunting Stevelot hairpin, out of the village and back into the woods for more sweeping turns towards Blanchimont and eventually the extremely tight La Source hairpin.

It was here that some of the great Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 battles were waged during the Golden Days of Sports Car Racing, the old Group 5 era. Here in 1971 Derek Bell put his 917 on pole with a lap speed of 259 k.p.h., but Jo Siffert ran even faster during the race with a lap of 261 in his Porsche. It was won by the immortal Pedro Rodriguez, who with co-driver Jackie Oliver averaged 249 k.p.h. - over 1000 miles of racing - including rain. That record stands to this day as the fastest road race ever.

The present Spa-Francorchamps was constructed in the late 1970s and unlike its nearby counterpart in Germany, Nürburgring, the remodeled Belgian venue has retained much of the character of the original. La Source and Eau Rouge are much as they were before. Up on the ridge towards Malmédy, the new track leaves the public road section at Les Combes and drops into a small valley before rejoining the backside of the old setup at Blanchimont. The run to La Source is interrupted by a very rectangular chicane named the Bus Stop. The nomenclature has forever been applied to similar racing features elsewhere.

The post-war history of the 24 Hours began in 1948 with a race catering to all-out sports cars. It presented Aston Martin with their first international endurance victory. The following year brought a very new marque onto center stage, Ferrari. The race was not held again until 1953 when it was a round in just established World Sports Car Championship. Nino Farina and Mike Hawthorn wheeled a Ferrari 375MM ahead of a field that included separate classifications of Sports and Touring machines.

This time there would be a longer gap, with the race not resuming until 1964. It has been held ever since and it would be reserved for Touring cars for most of those years. During the 1960s, Volvos, Cortinas, Minis, Renaults, and Opels would grace the grid. A Mercedes 300 SE won the revival, but then came two straight BMW victories, the first two of 21 for the Bavarian manufactuer. A familiar surname was on the top of the podium in 1965. Pascal Ickx was the co-winner in a BMW 1800, to be followed twelve months later by his son Jacky in a 2000 Ti. Today granddaughter Vanina is hoping to be the third in the family to finish first.

It is now long forgotten that the early Porsche 911 was also homologated as a Group 2 tourer and in that guise won the race from 1967 through 1969. Interspersing the domination of BMW were some glory years of the Ford Capri, scoring five wins total in the early and then the late 1970s. From 1979 to 1981 the race counted in the obscure World Challenge for Endurance Drivers that attempted to link Spa with events in the IMSA and World Manufacturers Championships. The Touring Car theme continued through the 1980s with a Mazda RX-7, Jaguar XJS, Ford Sierra, and Nissan Skyline bracketing victories by the BMW 635 and M3.

The old Group C series had ended in 1992 and there was a stillborn attempt to start a GT based championship the following season. Long-distance Touring car racing was also flagging and a home was found for the Grand Tourers at the Spa 24. As expected they towered over the sedans and a Porsche Carrera came away victor. However, the race was shortened as the nation was plunged into mourning upon the death of the Belgian King.

The remainder of decade saw a return to the old formulae of Touring car racing and BMW wins, the string finally being broken in 1999 with the first of two consecutive Peugeot laurels. The return to GTs in 2001 means that of all the previous winning marques, only Porsche could possibly repeat their previous success. Grand Touring cars have had experience at Spa more recent than 1993. The following season the fledgling BPR series, predecessor to the FIA GT Championship, held a 4-Hour event as a prelude to that year’s 24 Hours.

Many names familiar to sports car racing fans have graced the winner’s circle at Spa. Hans Stuck, Erwin Kremer, Claude Ballot-Lena, Tom Walkinshaw, Gerhard Berger, Pierre Dieudonne, Bernd Schneider, Steve Soper (twice), Jean-Pierre Jarier, Christian Fittipaldi, David Brabham, Jo Winkelhock, Peter Kox, Jörg Müller, Didier Theys, Emmanuel Collard, and Didier de Radigues have all won the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours.

This year’s entry list includes the two most successful drivers of the race, both vying for their fifth victory. Both will be with the Carsport Holland team. Jean-Michel Martin is the veteran, taking a Ford Capri to first with his brother Philippe in 1979. The pair repeated the feat the following year and Jean-Michel also won in 1987 and 1992. He will be in Viper number 3, while Thierry Tassin co-drives number 5, hoping to add to his totals from 1983, ’86, ’94, and ’96. One of the “Bentley Boys”, Eric van de Poele, won the Belgian classic in 1987 and 1998. This year he teams with the lone Rafanelli Ferrari.

Another two-time winner is Marc Duez, joining FIA GT points leaders Bouchut / Belloc in the Larbre Viper. Frederic Bouvy has been on the winning Peugeot crews the past two years and his hope for a “three-peat” rests with the number 11 Belmondo Chrysler. One of his co-drivers both last year and this is Didier Defourny. The third member of the 2000 winners is Kurt Mollekens, the young Belgian among the drivers of the very new turbo version of the Porsche 996. Another former winner is Eric Helary and he will be here with the no. 12 Belmondo entry.

Dieter Quester first won this race in 1973, co-driving with Toine Hezemens, father of Mike, in a BMW CSL. The Austrian returned to first place twice more. He’s back again, but now in an N-GT class car (RWS Porsche no. 77) and is probably not likely to match the record of Martin and Tassin

The conversion of the race to a GT format and its inclusion in the FIA GT Championship has proved to be a double-edged sword. It has raised the race’s stature in the overall motor sport pantheon, but the length of the race versus the usual 500 kilometer events in the series has left many regular entrants nervous. Despite dangling a double points bonus, some, most notably Lister, have opted to absent themselves. This makes it probable that the British team cannot reclaim their series championship.

The 24 Hours will still be an important showdown with two of the leading teams in the point chase, Larbre Competition and Carsport Holland. The French team will add a second Viper to their strength against the Dutch group that is hoping to gain from the local knowledge of Tassin and Martin. Belmondo Racing may benefit the most as they will likely pass Lister for at least third in the hunt. In the end, Rafanelli will bring one of their Ferrari 550s, which have so pleasantly shaken up this year’s GT grids. The withdrawal of the second Maranello car allowed Duez to be snatched up by Larbre. Rounding out the otherwise slim premier class are two Belgian-entered Vipers and also the locally stabled new Porsche.

The Larbre team have dropped their two-class attack and are concentrating on the GT division. This leaves N-GT bereft of those two regulars. Also opting out among the “under-class” are EMKA and MAC. Some normally two-car teams have decided to place their eggs in a single basket, seemingly a counter-intuitive, although more economical, approach when it comes to true endurance racing. These include Art Engineering, Haberthur, and RWS. On the other hand, Freisinger continues with a three-car entry and Perspective has their lone 996. Importantly, team points leaders JMB Competition have both of their Ferrari 360s present. David Terrien and Christian Pescatori collectively hold onto the drivers' lead and are joined here by Andrea Garbagnati.

N-GT also includes several cars seen sporadically during the season, most notably the Seikel Motorsport Porsche. They include the only two North American drivers in the field, Anthony Burgess and Philip Collin, who are the team’s regulars in the ALMS and Grand-Am, respectively. From China, Gammon Megaspeed will be starting only their third FIA GT event of the season and Cirtek Motorsport will be making their first appearance outside Britain since the Sebring round. PSI Motorsport will run a regular GT3R in addition to their turbo and another Belgian team plus a German squad will round out the N-GT category. Interestingly, one of the drivers of DD Racing's entry is Scotland’s Marino Franchitti, a British GT regular and brother of CART star, Dario.

The length of the race and the allowance of up to four drivers per car has caused some musical chairs among the crew lineups. Courage regular Sebastien Bourdais has joined the Larbre team. Nigel Smith has gone from Freisinger to Perspective, as he had done at Le Mans. With Autorlando out, Andrea Chiesa has switched to Freisinger. One of that team’s regular drivers, Xavier Pompidou, is being joined in the no. 58 Porsche by an interesting lineup including Vanina Ickx and DAMS Cadillac specialist, Christophe Tinseau.

This leaves only 26 cars among the two main classes for a race which has often started as many as 70. To pad the grid the regulations have opened up to allow a variety of other GTs. In the preceding months there had been discussions about inviting both stock and tubeframe saloon cars, but those ideas were quashed. In the end the remaining cars have been lumped into two categories. Group 2 consists of entries eligible for the FFSA GT and other National GT formulae. Group 3 includes cars from a variety of single-make series.

Eight teams have answered the call in Group 2 and they at least add a fair bit of variety. Once more a Marcos will be seen in the FIA GT, with former Spa 24 Hour winner Bernard de Dryver on the De Almenara Motorsport team. Elsewhere will be seldom seen items like a Gillet and a Renault Spider, as well as a Honda NSX. Completing the expected grid of 40 starters will three Diablos from the Lamborghini Trophy series, as well as two variants of Porsches and a Lotus Elise. Interest among the Lamborghinis will focus on the no. 93 car that will have former F1 constructor and Le Mans winner Gerard Larrousse on the driving strength.

A gambler may place long odds on this being one of the classic editions of the fabled race. Then again those that are sympathetic to the vagaries and nuances of sports car racing’s mercurial history may see the seeds of some unique twists and turns to add to the lore of long-distance motorsports.