SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (21 April, 2024) – In a fitting sign-off, CP Racing has taken overall victory at, what turned out to be, its final 24H SERIES powered by Hankook event, at the 2024 Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS.

The CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster / Shane Lewis), already a three-time outright winner in the 24H SERIES as well as a multiple-time class champion, collected the chequered flag for the final time in the 24H SERIES one lap clear of the 2nd-placed Haas RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II (#1, Gregory Servais / Xavier Knauf / Tim Müller). A gap that belied a truly unpredictable event, during which the 7.004 km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was hit with sun, rain, sleet and even snow!

CP Racing completed 224 laps en-route to victory, impressively, from 23rd on the overall grid. Impressively, no team has taken overall victory from further back on the grid since the Hankook 24H SILVERSTONE in 2016.

“Now I can’t hold [the tears] back!” an emotional Charles Putman explained to radiolemans.com’s Diana Binks. “To win at Spa, in a 12-hour race, with all my guys at our last race… I couldn’t ask for anything more!” 

“This is pretty amazing!” Joe Foster continued. “What an amazing team! I’m so grateful to Charlie [Putman] and everybody. It’s been a wonderful few years in the 24H SERIES with CREVENTIC, and we’re certainly going to miss this.”

Interviewed straight out of the #85 Mercedes, an animated Shane Lewis admitted that the win was not quite as straightforward as the results might suggest…

“I’m just so honoured that Charlie and the entire team entrusted me with finishing the race. Fortunately I could take it pretty easy: everybody did an amazing job and they got me the big lead. But we had a few issues at the end. I had the throttle was sticking on me, about twice a lap every single time, and I really didn’t know if I was going to make it to the end! But we brought it home, and I’m just so proud of the entire team.”

Arguably though, amidst the celebrations, Charles Espenlaub put it best: “It’s like a Cinderella story!”

Behind Haas RT, which completed an impressive recovery drive from 9th overall at half-distance, the Car Collection Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 R (#80, Antares Au / Jonathan Hui / Kevin Tse) completes the outright podium. The German team, having started the event from overall pole on Saturday, had slipped back to 10th – almost two laps down – come the overnight intervention. Blistering pace and meticulous pit work across Sunday afternoon however meant Car Collection finished less than 30 seconds behind Haas RT.

Car Collection Motorsport’s sister entry meanwhile, despite leading the event early on Sunday morning, lost almost 30 minutes to driveshaft failure shortly before half-distance. That, plus a several spins at the Chicane in the changeable conditions, ultimately dropped the #12 Porsche to 18th overall at the flag.

The Herberth Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 R (#91, Ralf Bohn / Scott Noble / Jason Hart) led 77 of the 224 completed laps at Spa-Francorchamps – more so than any other team bar CP Racing – en-route to 4th. The Bavarian team took this morning’s restart from pole position, and, despite the appalling conditions, had started to gap the rest of the field. A spin into the barriers at Pouhon would prove costly however.

E2P Racing (#90, Pablo Burguera / Antonio Sainero / Álvaro Parente) completed a storming drive at Spa to finish 5th overall and secure its maiden GT3-Pro/Am class win in the 24H SERIES. The Spanish team spent almost a full week preparing its Porsche 991.2 GT R for the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS after the chassis was heavily damaged in an accident last time out in Mugello, an effort for which the the Spanish team received radiolemans.com’s coveted ‘Spirit of the Race’ award. 

The result also propels E2P Racing to the top of the GT3-Pro/Am Teams’ standings.

The Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Ernst Inderbitzin) completed an incredible recovery drive from the very back of the grid to finish 6th overall and 2nd in GT3-Pro/Am. One place further back, Juta Racing (#71, Lukas Sundahl / Lars Viljoen / Arunas Geciauskas / Sigitas Ambrazevicius), despite taking the restart one lap behind the leaders, was on course to finish 3rd overall after a meticulous run on Sunday afternoon. Brutally, having been caught out in the conditions, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II had to be recovered from the gravel at Les Combes with less than 20 minutes left on the clock, an incident that ended up dropping the Lithuanian team to 7th overall. 

The Lithuanian team did however manage to secure the final GT3-Pro/Am podium spot behind E2P Racing and the Saintéloc Junior Team, and is now only four points behind in the title chase. 

The Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II (#34, Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff / Tim Vogler / Wiggo Dalmo / Max Edelhoff) finished 8th. The 2009 24H DUBAI winner took this morning’s restart in 3rd, but having pitted for fuel after the opening lap, was on a recovery drive for much of the afternoon. The German team also survives a wheel-banging collision with CWS Engineering’s Ginetta G55 at La Source at three-quarter distance, for which the #34 Audi was handed a 10-second penalty. 

Issues sadly befell both Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVOs entered for this weekend’s event. RD Signs – Siauliai racing team (#69, Audrius Butkevicius / Nicola Michelon / Paulius Paskevicius), which took this morning’s restart from the front row, had been running 3rd overall when terminal gearbox issues struck shortly before half-distance. ARC Bratislava meanwhile (#44, Miro Konopka / Zdeno Mikulasko / Anton Kiaba / Mateo Llarena) had worked its way back into the top 10 following delays on Saturday, but a right rear puncture that left the Lamborghini stranded in the grass at Pouhon ended up dropping the Slovakian team to 26th. 

The EBM Porsche 992 GT3 R (#84, Adrian D'Silva / Shae Davies / Martin Rump) was the first retirement of the day. The New Zealand team completed an incredible rise from 42nd on the grid to 11th heading into the overnight intervention, but completed just two laps on Sunday morning before aquaplaning into the barriers at Raidillon. 

Red Ant Racing has secured a commanding 1-2 finish in 992 at the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS. The Belgium team’s #903 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (Ayrton Redant / Yannick Redant / Julius Adomavičius) led home the sister #904 entry (Brent Verheyen / Peter Guelinckx / Michiel Haverans), with both, after an impressive run, finish 9th and 10th in the overall top 10. 

Heading into next month’s Hankook 24H PORTIMAO (10-11-12 May), the former now leads the latter in the 992 Teams’ standings by 28 points. 

Porsche Baltic (#993, Robertas Kupcikas / Domas Raudonis / Tautvydas Rudokas) put a torrid Hankook 12H MUGELLO weekend behind it with a meticulous run from 13th on yesterday’s 992 grid to 3rd in-class this afternoon, marking the Lithuanian team’s first overall 992 podium in the 24H SERIES. 

Less than two minutes further back, HRT Performance (#967, Nicolas Stürzinger / Amedeo Pampanini / Linus Diener / Kim André Hauschild) netted its second Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS class win in three outings. The German team closed down, and eventually overhauled, series newcomer Hans Weijs Motorsport (#972, Ralph Poppelaars / Mark van Eldik / Edwin Schilt / Paul Meijer) for 4th overall in 992, and the 992-Am win, the latter having been delayed by a spin into the barrier on the Kemmel Straight at half-distance. 

Reigning 992-AM Teams’ champion RPM Racing (#907, Tracy Krohn / Niclas Jönsson / Philip Hamprecht) came out on top of a close fight for the final 992-Am rostrum spot.

Vortex V8 is celebrating the first class win for its brand-new ‘2.0’ lightweight sports car with a determined 1-2 finish in GTX at Spa-Francorchamps. Despite several on-track spins, the #701 2.0 (Lionel Amrouche / Philippe Bonnel / Gilles Courtois) eventually led the sister #702 entry (Arnaud Gomez / Olivier Gomez / Lucas Sugliano) home by six laps. 

With each of its rivals initially hitting trouble, 9und11 Racing (#719, Georg Goder / Ralf Oehme / Tim Scheerbarth / Martin Schlüter) looked set to repeat its Mugello class win in Spa only for power loss issues –the result of a broken spark plug – to cost the Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup MR time in the garage. The German team did however bounce back to finish 3rd in-class, just one lap behind the second Vortex.  

Having already lost close to an hour on Saturday to wheel hub failure Team CMR (#795, Lawrence Tomlinson / Freddie Tomlinson / Michael Simpson) also had to weather an engine issue on Sunday afternoon en-route to 4th in GTX with Ginetta’s new G56 Cup.

The Buggyra ZM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 (#416, Aliyyah Koloc / David Vršecký / Adam Lacko) has taken its second class win in succession at the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, strengthening its position at the top of the GT4 Teams’ championship standings in the process. Though its nearest rival – Lionspeed GP (#424, José Garcia / Daniel Miller / Patrick Kolb / Dennis Bohn) – led GT4 early on, the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport eventually came home one lap adrift to pick-up its second GT4 podium of the season, just ahead of the BMW M4 GT4 of series debutant Hamofa Motorsport (#419, Rob Verhoeven / Kris Verhoeven / Mark Verhoeven).

Having lost time to fuel feed problems on Saturday – plus a five-lap penalty while repairs were affected overnight – Sweden’s ALFAB Racing (#400, Erik Behrens / Daniel Roos) recovered to finish 4th on the 24H SERIES debut of McLaren’s Artura GT4. 

Finally, the CWS Engineering Ginetta G55 (#178, Colin White / Daniel Morris) came out on top of a race-long battle with the SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (#127, Henning Eschweiler / Heinz Jürgen Kroner / Benito Tagle / Christoph Krombach) to secure the Ginetta G55 its second class win at the event. Briefly felled by power loss and coolant issues, the HY Racing Porsche Cayman GTS (#169, Brice Pineau / Jacques Derenne / Bruno Barbaro / ‘Brody’) rounds out the TCE podium.