Spa-Francorchamps. BMW M Motorsport is set to contest the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (BEL) this weekend, with a huge, top-class squad of drivers and teams aiming to bring home the 25th overall win in the Ardennes region for the BMW brand. With 24 wins to date, BMW is already the record winner, and the conditions for continuing the success story at the biggest GT3 race in the world are looking very good. In the Pro category, BMW M Team WRT and ROWE Racing with two BMW M4 GT3s each and 12 BMW M works drivers will be doing battle for the top spot on the podium on Sunday. A total of seven BMW M4 GT3s will be on the starting grid.
Belgium’s BMW M Team WRT will be competing with the BMW M4 GT3 for the first time at their home event and are fielding a total of four cars. In the two Pro cars, the Belgian drivers Maxime Martin, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts will be contesting their home race. They will be joined by Valentino Rossi (ITA), Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) and Augusto Farfus (BRA) (details on driver line-ups given at the end of this press release). BMW M Team WRT have been unlucky in this season’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (GTWC) Endurance Cup races thus far and are still waiting for their first podium. In contrast, they enjoyed a very successful first race weekend of the Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch (GBR) with a total of three podiums – including Valentino Rossi’s first in the GTWC. The 24h Spa-Francorchamps is the highlight of the season in both the GTWC Europe and the Intercontinental GT Challenge. In this series, BMW M Team WRT celebrated a one-two result in the previous race of the season in Kyalami (RSA).
ROWE Racing boasts an impressive record both at Spa-Francorchamps and in the current GTWC Europe Endurance season. The team has won in the Ardennes twice (2016 & 2020) and in second place has made it onto the podium a further twice (2018 & 2019). This season, Philipp Eng (AUT), Marco Wittmann (GER) and Nick Yelloly (GBR) lead the driver standings of the Endurance Cup after their victory in Monza (ITA) and third place in Le Castellet (FRA). In second place, the members of the BMW Junior Team and BMW M works drivers Dan Harper (GBR), Max Hesse (GER) and Neil Verhagen (USA) also finished on the podium in Monza, and in third place in the driver standings they are making an important contribution to ROWE Racing’s lead in the team standings of the Endurance Cup.
Away from the Pro category, Team WRT is entering a BMW M4 GT3 in the Gold Cup and one in the Bronze Cup. Walkenhorst Motorsport, 2018 Spa winner, is also contesting the Bronze Cup with a BMW M4 GT3. The 24h Spa-Francorchamps gets underway at 16:30 CEST on Saturday 1st July.
BMW Group PressClub Global
