[954Stealth]

Bentley, the obvious secret favorite?

The largest class meeting of the GT3 category will be held again this year at Spa-Francorchamps. Also present: (almost) everythin in GT racing by both rank and name.

61 GT3 sports car of eleven manufacturers have been announced for the upcoming weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, the 90th running of the 24-hour race in the Ardennes. GT fans can therefore forfeited to law in gasps, especially since the weather is supposed to be changeable, and thus the degree of difficulty for drivers, teams and cars still increased. So there are all the ingredients for a worthy highlight of the Blancpain Endurance Series available, especially since there are a good dozen of victory candidates.

Bentley with good starting position in GT3 customer sports. Strolling however in Spa of the paddock, will bring this set but only with a wry grin on his lips. To blurs the boundaries between plant use, factory-backed teams and customer respectively private teams at the high quality of drivers and teams.

At the most open in this area Bentley: The core team is the experienced rally troops M-Sport with Malcolm Wilson. Two Pro-cars, money and driver (Smith / Meyrick / Kane and d'Ambrosio / Leclerc / Tappy) by Bentley leave little room for imagination. Although the beefy Continental is not one of the sleekest representatives of his profession, he has a sophisticated aerodynamics and so far has proved remarkable reliability - and that in the very first year of service. Despite two wins in three BES runs suspects the competition that the British have not yet shown their full potential.

Spa 24 Hours: The entry list for the race
Audi and BMW to intensively engage different
Mercedes goes as defending race: Both Maxis Buhk and Götz and veteran Bernd Schneider defeated in 2014 in the HTP-gullwing the BES establishment. 2014 is no longer unites the trio, but HTP has reported three very busy SLS: Buhk / idol / Jafaar, Afanasiev / Dusseldorp / Maassen and Schneider / Verdonck / primate. Two cars of Black Falcon, which seem to be occupied something more heterogeneous, but also have potential to complete the Mercedes Group in the professional class.

Audi, however, has combined the old master of the four rings in Belgium for the season highlight: In the three R8 LMS of the WRT in the Pro standings give the GT-rounder and illustrious guest starters the valance in the hand. Rest / Vanthoor / angle Hock and Stipplers / Mies / Nash are the established BES forces while with Fässler / Tréluyer / Lotterer the Le Mans fraction of the Ingolstadt is launched. Add to that the current in the BES best-placed Audi of Saintéloc with Ortelli / Sandström / Guilvert and the solid ISR-powered car with Basseng / Hamprecht / Salaquarda.

BMW puts everything on one card. Their name is Marc VDS Racing. The Belgian team has reported two Z4, bursting their crews before quality outright. Something other than the overall victory as the goal is for the trio Farfus / Martin / J. Müller and Luhr / Palttala / Werner hardly imaginable. The two Pro-Am cars of TDS Racing are indeed filled with strong top drivers, but will hardly be able to compete for more than a happy podium.

McLaren needs "only" stability
If it was only after the speed, so the victory at Spa would probably only go about McLaren: ART Grand Prix has been heard in the BES of the strongest teams. This will probably not change in the two crews in Spa (Demoustier / Lapierre / Parente and Estre / Korjus / Soucek). But the McLaren has not just a reputation for technical reliability, so that a McLaren win would be the only reason why a small sensation. But be careful: With Von Ryan Racing the British throw a third cars in the field. Here, among other things, the V8 Supercars star Shane Van Gisbergen on board. And the year has already impressively demonstrated in Bathurst, as fast as he can the 12C GT3 whip around a challenging course.

The last Ferrari victory in the 24-hour race at Spa is now already a decade ago: in 2004 won a Ferrari 550 GTS - according to the regulations of the Blessed GT1. This year, though nearly 20 Ferrari 458 are, but none of them is located in the pure professional category. Castellaci / Gay / Rizzoli Villorba Corse are the most uniform and to date in the BES also most successful team of the Italian sports car bedrock, meanwhile, with none of the AF Corse car is always occupied quickly. The same is also true for the Porsche teams.

Nissan is limited with two GT-R and the Academy graduates on the Pro-Am standings and setting a few highlights. Aston Martin is not much more left over: Works drivers mosquito, Lamy and Turner are distributed in the Pro-Am standings and the only Pro-Vantage of Oman is missing Racing with Al Harty / Caine / Yelley probably the necessary punch. Contrary to previous announcements, it is added to any Spa Aston-plant use. The only Lamborghini in the field comes from Australia: The self-propelled team boss Roger Lago has three illustrious compatriots (Russell / Richards / Owen) for his Spa debut in the luggage, so that a finish is probably the minimum target.

Three times points in the Ardennes
At Spa, the long race distance will be awarded a total of three points on reason. In the 6 - and the 12-hour mark half the usual points are output. For the final result after 24 hours there is then additionally the full yield as it is also common in the other runs.

By this point structure especially the regular BES team tactics and weigh between race strategy and important championship points. The "guest driver" can divide their race for the overall victory to himself, however. However, the restriction applies a stint at 65 minutes for all.