Eight hours before the end, Maxime Martin (BE), Philipp Eng (AT) and
Alexander Sims (GB) in the #99 BMW M6 GT3 were in third place. The
second car in action for ROWE Racing, whose cockpit is shared by Nick
Catsburg (NL), Stef Dusseldorp (NL) and Dirk Werner (DE), is also in
the top 10.
Numerous yellow flags, safety car phases and incidents at the
“Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps” (BE) continue to provide
plenty of excitement. Sims went into the night as the leader and
showed an impressive pace. Martin and Eng also defended first place
for a long time before the BMW M6 GT3 with number 99 came into the pit
for a mandatory five-minute stop to change the brakes on the car.
Afterwards, Sims, Martin and Eng continued to hold their ground among
the front-runners.
The BMW M6 GT3 with number 98 has also completed its mandatory
pit stop. Like its sister car, it made it through the night without
incident. At the half-way point of the race, the ROWE Racing BMW M6
GT3 was still in 16th place, but fought its way back into the top 10
as the 24-hour classic went on. After 327 laps, Werner, Dusseldorp and
Catsburg were in seventh place.
However, the #12 BMW M6 GT3 of Boutsen Ginion Racing is no
longer in the race. A technical defect forced the team to give up
shortly after six in the morning. The race also came to an early end
for BMW Team Italia. After BMW works driver Martin Tomczyk (DE)
temporarily moved up from 47th place into 16th following an impressive
catch-up, an accident forced the team to return the #15 BMW M6 GT3 to
the garage in the initial phase of the race.
Quotes after eight hours in Spa-Francorchamps.
Dirk Werner (#98 BMW M6 GT3, ROWE
Racing):
“We were unlucky with some yellow phases,
meaning that we have dropped back slightly. But the car is still
running perfectly. We are able to put in good lap times. Now it is
important that we stay out of the many minor duels going on. The pace
of the entire field is high, but we need to try to make up ground
quickly. We made it through the night well, that was our aim. Now we
will go at full throttle until the end of the race.”
Alexander Sims (#99 BMW M6 GT3, ROWE
Racing):
“The car is fantastic. However, there was
quite a lot of traffic on the track during the second hour of my
stint, and the tyres were fairly worn on the final laps. But overall
everything went without a hitch and it is a great deal of fun driving
here. The track is still good. We are hardly losing any traction at
all coming out of the slow turns and are able to keep our pace. We
will keep going as we are and hope that it pays off in the end.”