Yahoo Autos This Weekend’s Spa 24 Hours Will Be a Supercar Slugfest
The CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa is a festival of the world’s greatest supercars running flat-out, door-to-door for 24 hours, rain or shine. And it usually rains.
“Yeah, 70 GT3 cars of equal specs on the track together is action-packed, let's say that,” said Patrick Long, who called us from Belgium the day before the race.
Long is driving a GMG Motorsports 992 Porsche GT3R in the race, but the grid is packed with the greatest supercars ever made: Mercedes-AMG GT3, McLaren 720S GT3 EVO, Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, BMW M4 GT3, Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, and Ferrari 296 GT3.
And while most of the drivers are not as famous as those in F1, they are just about that good in talent.
”Most of the drivers at the front of the grid are all factory guys, and they are F1 talent that you've never heard of that make a living with BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, and they're all just absolute, top-of-the-top specialists. It's a really cool environment.”
Among the drivers you have heard of, in addition to Patrick Long, is nine-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi, driving a BMW M4 GT3.
Pole for this year’s race was set at 2:16.880 by Porsche GT3R driver Matteo Cairoli in a rain-effected qualifying session. The F1 lap record at Spa is still held by Lewis Hamilton at 1:42.252, set in dry conditions.
The race starts Saturday, July 1 at 4:30 Belgium time, 10:30 a.m. EST, 7:30 a.m. PST. You can watch is live here:
