Spa Francorchamps Proximus 05/08/2001   The 24 Hours Part 3   © Janos Wimpffen Hours 4-6 The fourth hour begins with a slight tire problem out on the course for the Seikel Porsche. The Marcos busts its tire at the bus stop and stalls temporarily. At 19:20, the no. 4 Viper comes in smoking. Joost Custers, the bright-eyed fellow, had noticed it smoking slightly about a ½ hour ago. From the looks of the crew work it appears to be coming from behind the motor, perhaps the gearbox or clutch region. After three minutes it returns to the race with Martin at the wheel. This moves the Ferrari up to second place behind the no. 3 Dutch Viper. Big drama comes five minutes later as the no. 4 Viper appears to have blown a seal and spins on its own oil. It comes to a rest in the tires at the end of the short chute in the valley. Seconds later the no. 10 Belmondo Viper encounters the slick and plants a substantial kiss on the nose of the stranded car. The French car with Kumpen aboard continues while Jean-Michel Martin emerges unscathed from the now savaged Dutch Chrysler. Wisely, the course goes under full caution while the mess is cleaned up. One of the potential winners becomes the first retirement. After a very brief interruption the race resumes with Tassin easily reopening the gap to van de Poele. At 20:00 the Marcos spins awkwardly at La Source. It causes little interruption at the slow spot as the rest of the field goes well wide. For the first time the race has settled down from its torrid pace. The gap to second place is now over 100 seconds, with another 45 back to the third place Larbre Viper. The only remaining healthy Belmondo car is in fourth, about another 13 seconds in arrears. Then comes the finely running Seikel entry, well clear of the other Cat. 2 runners. It was soon displaced by another Viper, the no. 26 Silver Racing car that has been doing very well, if largely unnoticed. The other Larbre Viper is now doing much better than earlier in the event and is up to seventh place, just ahead of the N-GT leading Freisinger no. 57 GT3R. The ninth overall, second in N-GT, no. 77 RWS Porsche is keeping station about 29 seconds further down. Rounding out the top ten is the third place N-GT Porsche of Art Engineering. Leading Category 2 is the red RTL vehicle, with one of the two blue Festo entries rapidly catching up. What, has the FIA allowed in some late starters? Actually, these are three hot air ballons that have drifted over for a close-up view of the course. One of them nearly touched down at Eau Rouge before firing a blast up its chimney. Most of the top ten in the motor race have been running trouble free while second ten includes cars which have either been delayed or belong to the slower class runners. The GL PK Viper, PSI Porsche turbo, and JMB Ferrari are running in 11th through 13th respectively after slight delays. Then comes the next group of N-GT contenders, no. 58 Freisinger and no. 55 Perspective Racing Porsches. Second in Cat. 2 is the no. 78 PSI GT3R, which comes in for a routine stop at 20:20. This elevates one of the all-Belgian Category 2 Porsches, that of Renstal Trommelke (no. 80). The Cirtek car is next, having running well but slowly. Slipping a down a tad have been the no. 59 Freisinger and no. 66 Gammon N-GT Porsches. Then comes the Category 3 leader, the no. 95 Frei Lamborghini. Amazingly, all of the Diablos are doing well. The Marcos is struggling and is in the garage. The Renault not quite dead last, thanks to the delayed Belmondo no. 11, but the little Spider is circulating about 30 seconds per lap slower than the leaders and is some 40 tours down. 20:35. Are the dykes of Holland about to burst? The exhaust note roughens on the no.3 Viper and it comes in for a five-minute halt. It drops down to fourth as the Ferrari moves back into the lead, 63 seconds clear of the Larbre Viper and another 22 ahead of the Belmondo entry. At 20:50 comes the Ferrari’s routine stop, placing the Larbre car into the lead for the first time. It is able to pull out a few seconds on the Ferrari as the 550 returns to speed. The no. 10 Belmondo Viper has been having brake cooling problems, possibly the result of its intimate encounter. The no. 96 Lamborghini has had gearbox troubles and was briefly stranded on course, while the van de Vyver Porsche (no. 97, Category 3) seems to be having a duff motor and/or gearbox. The Gammon Megaspeed Porsche was given a stop and go for short-circuiting the Bus Stop. The no. 98 Lotus has been going slowly but has only made 3 scheduled stops after 5 hours. The no. 3 car of Hezemans / J. Bleekemolen / Tassin again appears to be running well, albeit two laps down on the leading Larbre car. The Naspetti /van de Poele Ferrari remains in second, some 55 s. down from the Bouchut / Belloc / Duez car. The Silver Racing Viper (chassis C39) that has been doing so well was newly built last November and arrived at the shop in February. The team is owned jointly by drivers Robert Dierick and Eric de Doncker, with early technical consulting coming from Bernard Winderickx. Here at Spa they are working with Racing Box, which explains why the latter team is not here. The relationship is going well and there is the possibility that they may enter the series jointly next season. De Doncker was runner-up in the 1986 moto endurance series and has previously run with Venturis in Belcar and Callaways and Porsches in the old BPR championship. Derick has Touring car and GT experience while this is a one-off drive for the third one on the team, Vincent Dupont. At the PSI stables, the no. 18 Porsche 996 turbo has suffered from oversteer but is otherwise running well. The GL PK Viper is also running steady. The no. 98 Lotus Elise may be on the way out with a bad head gasket. As the six-hour mark passes the story of the race thus far has to be the utter reliability of the field. There is still only one official retirement. It is fully dark and the Larbre Viper (Bouchut) is back on top after a brief lead by the Ferrari during an exchange of stops. Jean-Michel Martin reports that the oil leak on the Viper was from the power steering unit and that when Kumpen hit his car the radiator was broken, causing its retirement. Leaders by class: GT: no. 7 Larbre Viper, no. 5 Rafanelli Ferrari, no. 3 Carsport Holland Viper (not looking good for Lister) N-GT: no. 57 Freisinger Porsche, no. 54 Art Engineering Porsche, no. 58 Freisinger Porsche Category 2: no. 79 Seikel Porsche, no. 80 Renstal Trommelke Porsche, no. 78 PSI Porsche Category 3; no. 95 Frei Lamborghini, no. 94 Land Motorsport Porsche, no. 92 “Segolen” Porsche Addenda to the report: At 22:15 the Porsches no. 94, 79, and 58 all make contact. The Land Motorsport car makes it back to the pits with smoke coming from the front end. The other two aren't moving for the moment. This has brought about the third pace car intervention of the race. Slight clarification on the incident. The no. 58 Porsche was not involved but rather stopped of its own accord with apparent suspension problems. It becomes only the second retirement. The no. 79 Seikel car has continued. All this tosses the N-GT and Category 2 contests into the air. The no. 57 Freisinger car moves into the N-GT lead while the PSI Porsche stands to inherit the head of the Cat. 2 division if the Seikel car is delayed. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport