Spa Six Hours 2024: Masters Endurance Legends & GT Trophy

Stuart Wiltshire leapt to the front on the opening run to Les Combes to stay there for the remainder of the first of two combined Masters Endurance Legends & Masters GT Trophy races at Spa. Mastering the dry-then-wet conditions best, while daring to stay out on slicks, the Peugeot 90X driver waltzed off to a dominant win over Christophe & Werner d’Ansembourg in their Pescarolo-Judd 01, the Belgian father-and-son duo charging up from tenth on the grid after a troubled qualifying session.

“It was quite lonely, I was wondering sometimes if there were any other cars!”, said Wiltshire. “I stuck with slicks. I’m not sure if it was the right decision but it was quite brave. And it paid off. It could have gone worse. I could have ended up in the wall or I could have ended up being overtaken as I was by some of the wet-clad cars. But overall it was a good race.”

“We started tenth, and that is not our normal place”, said Christophe d’Ansembourg. “During the first half, I took the start, we managed to go a little further and gain some places. Rain started, so we decided to pit for rain tyres, which was a quite good decision because after that we were much faster than the others. We came back in the pits slick for my son, and yeah, he did amazing lap times, and we managed to finish second, starting tenth, so we’re happy.”

In third overall, Shaun Lynn lifted LMP2 class honours in the first of the BR Engineering-Nissan BR01s, as he vaulted the polesitting BR01 of Japanese duo Yutaka Toriba/Yuya Hiraki, who were delayed by an early spin by Toriba during the first onset of rain. The Japanese pairing eventually finished fourth, a place handed to them after Matteo Ferrer’s ex-Wayne Taylor Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP was penalised for stopping too short for its mandatory pitstop. Sixth was LMP3 class winner Jack Fabby in the Duqueine-Nissan D08, who beat the Ligier-Nissan JSP3 shared by Alfie Briggs and Ron Maydon. In seventh, the Alvaro Fontes/Matt Graham Morgan Pescarolo-Judd 01 took third in the LMP2 class.

Defending champion Craig Wilkins initially led the Masters GT Trophy race-within-the-race, but when the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo faltered, the Jac & Ties Meeuwissen Ferrari 488 Challenge took over. However, young Meeuwissen was caught two laps from the end by Sean Doyle in the Ferrari 488 Evo Challenge started by Darren Howell. With William Ashmore in the Ferrari 430 Challenge taking a distant third, this was the first Ferrari 1-2-3 in Masters GT Trophy history.

“Yeah, it was dry at the start and wet in the middle”, said Howell. “So I had to change to wet,  it was so slippery out there. Real sketchy. But we did well!”

“I did the start of the race in the dry and after a few laps it started to rain a little. And I was just behind Craig Wilkins, so I had the idea that the pace was right”, said Jac Meeuwissen. “But then just in front of me he spun the car and then it was a little tough. Are we going to wet tyres now or wait a little? I had some doubts but the pit board mentioned they’re all going to rain tyres so I was going to swap the rain tyres as well. I handed the wheel over to my son in first place in class, but Doyle went just a little bit faster than us, so it was second for us.”

“A really good start, we had three laps where we were just constantly overtaking cars”, said Ashmore. “Our car works really well in the wet compared to other cars, it seems. But then the exhaust snapped, so we had to come in, make a very quick repair which took up most of the race. And we got out just for the end of the race. And luckily, just for attrition, we’re third on the podium.”

On a fresh but dry Friday morning the combined Masters Endurance Legends & Masters GT Trophy rolled out for their first race of the day while kicking off the Spa Six Hours races for Masters. Lined up in two separate grids, Endurance Legends ahead of the GT Trophy cars, Yutaka Toriba led away in the first of the Nissan-engined BR Engineering BR01 cars, followed by Stuart Wiltshire in the Peugeot 90X, two more BR01s in the hands of Max and Shaun Lynn, and Matteo Ferrer-Aza in the ex-Wayne Taylor Racing Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype. Among the Masters GT Trophy cars, defending champion Craig Wilkins in the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo led from Darren Howell in the Ferrari 488 Evo Challenge.

Soon, though, Wiltshire put the power down on the Kemmel straight to surge into the lead, with Ferrer making similar moves and Christophe d’Ansembourg in the Pescarolo-Judd 01 that saw a troubled qualifying also making up places. In GT Trophy, Wilkins stayed in front but William Ashmore in the 430 Challenge got ahead of Howell, with Jac Meeuwissen in the 488 Challenge up next, ahead of Peter Reynolds in the Ginetta G55 GT4. Christophe van Riet, however, was quick to come in to serve his drivethrough penalty for a startline infringement in his Mopar-engined Reynard 2KQ.

Into the second lap, Wiltshire remained in the lead, closely followed by Toriba and Max Lynn, with Jack Fabby in the Duqueine D08 LMP3 valiantly moving up into P4 ahead of Ferrer and d’Ansembourg. Alfie Briggs was next in Ron Maydon’s Ligier JSP3, ahead of Alvaro Fontes in the Morgan-badged Pescarolo-Judd 01 in LMP2-spec. The next moment, though, Toriba had dropped away to tenth on the early part of lap 2, while Shaun Lynn came in to visit the pit, as did James Hagan in the ORECA FLM09. Meanwhile, Peter Reynolds in the Ginetta G55 had gone missing at the back of the circuit, having hit the barriers.

With rain reported at the back of the circuit, it was soon apparent what all the mayhem was all about, as some eight drivers in the field had gambled on slicks. Now Wilkins, and Howell also came in for their rain shoes, as did d’Ansembourg, while Wiltshire, Lynn (M.), Fabby, Briggs, Ferrer-Aza, Toriba, Fontes and Meeuwissen (J.) carried on. However, on lap 4, Ferrer and Meeuwissen decided to do the same, as did Georg Hallau in the Norma M2000-1. Meanwhile, Ashmore had pitted his Ferrari with a cracked exhaust and would only rejoin many laps later.

At the front, Wiltshire – bravely staying on slicks – now held a comfortable 29-second lead over Max Lynn, with Fabby now also giving up the chase in order to switch to rain tyres, as the rain began to spread across the track. This elevated Briggs into third, but a minute and 12 seconds away, while Howell led in Masters GT Trophy, from Meeuwisssen, Ashmore and Wilkins, the latter two a lap down.

As the pit window opened, Max Lynn was the first to come, handing over to Marino Franchitti, thus requiring a longer stop because Franchitti’s elite driver time penalty, with Toriba in next to be relieved by Yuya Hiraki. Further back, Hagan, Ashmore and Wilkins were also in, followed in Fabby, Van Riet (handing over to Fred Bouvy) and Hallau. For Wilkins, however, his stop would prove to be terminal.

On lap 8, Wiltshire pitted from his massive lead, while behind him Christophe d’Ansembourg was now up into second but still to pit – which he duly did, followed by Briggs (who would give the Ligier to Maydon) and Lynn (S.). Ferrer was in next, followed by Fontes (handing over to Matt Graham), Howell (making way for Sean Doyle) and Ties Meeuwissen stepping in for father Jac, just before the pit window closed.

With all the stops having panned out, Wiltshire held a comfortable lead of well over a minute to d’Ansembourg (W.), who in turn had Lynn (S.) chasing him some 15 seconds in arrears. Ferrer was fourth, another 15 seconds down,  with Hiraki following almost a minute further back. Fabby and Maydon fought over the LMP3 class lead in sixth and seventh, with Fabby soon taking over the top spot. Graham was eighth, while in ninth Ties Meeuwissen tried to hold his Masters GT Trophy lead over Sean Doyle in the similar 488 Challenge. The Irishman, however, was closing at a rapid rate. In the meantime, Marino Franchitti had decided to call it a day – it was getting too dangerous on slick tyres and the team wanted to save its rain tyres for the second race for which large amounts of precipitation were forecast.

With the cars spaced out as they were, not much changed was expected at the top of the Masters Endurance Legends leaderboard, but Doyle was gaining fast on Meeuwissen Jr, and got the move done on lap 13 to pull into the Masters GT Trophy lead.

At the front, Wiltshire duly reeled off the laps for a dominant win, with the d’Ansembourgs overcoming their qualifying trouble to take second ahead of LMP2 class winner Shaun Lynn and Matteo Ferrer in the Corvette DP. In fifth overall, Hiraki took second in LMP2, ahead of LMP3 class winner Jack Fabby and Matt Graham who lifted third in the LMP2 class. Maydon was eighth and second in the LMP3 class while in ninth and tenth overall, Doyle and Meeuwissen (T.) were the first ones home in Masters GT Trophy, with Ashmore a long way back. After the race, Ferrer was penalised for stopping short of his mandatory pitstop time, and as a result the Italian dropped to fifth behind the Japanese BR01.