The BMW M6 GT3 cars run by Walkenhorst Motorsport in the Spa 24-hour race this weekend went in with high hopes, especially after the encouraging results recorded recently in other venues. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for the two cars in the running. After wins at the 24-hours of Nurburgring and the 8-hours of Indianapolis, the Spa-Francorchamps event proved, once again, it’s one of the toughest out there.
Things set off promising for the team. The number 34 car was setting very good times in practice with Nick Catsburg, Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng behind the wheel. The pre-qualifying runs even had the three in first place overall but then the weather changed during qualifying and both cars dropped several positions. That didn’t discourage the drivers though. The #34 car fought valiantly made up some serious ground after the race kicked off but a crash in hour four of the race forced the #34 car to the pit.
“It was a really unfortunate situation that led to my accident. We were in a group of cars and the one in front of me unexpectedly started to go very slowly. I hit it hard and damaged the front of our BMW M6 GT3 very badly. I think that I may not have gauged the situation correctly at that moment in time.”
“I am very sorry about that for the whole team. For me personally, this marks the end of a series of very successful races but I hope that we will be able to go back on the attack at Kyalami,” said Nick Catsburg, after the race
The front end and the radiator had serious damage and even though the car was fixed, it couldn’t complete the race and retired after 107 laps. And if you think this was a sad outcome, the #35 BMW M6 GT3, driven by David Pittard, Martin Tomczyk and Nick Yelloly had an even rougher night.
Martin suffered a serious accident on the Blanchimont turn (one of the fastest on the Spa track) and basically rendered the car unusable. Thankfully, the BMW works driver walked away unscathed.
