After repairing the car from a qualifying accident, SRT led from the start but they would be the first retirement
SRT
Scuderia Ecosse
Davide Rigon
Joel Camathias
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SRT
SRT FORCED TO RETIRE AFTER A BRILIANT START
SPA. The incredible efforts put in by SRT following Christophe Bouchut's serious crash during the qualifying session were to no avail. The team managed to entirely rebuild the car. At 16:00hrs Xavier Maassen did what he had to do, taking a brilliant start and led the pack in the 24 Hours of Spa until forced to visit the pitlane with brake problems. Shortly after that same brake problem forced the retirement of the Corvette C6.R. "After all the misfortunes I want to truly thank and congratulate everyone and my team for the efforts they put in", a disappointed Patrick Selleslagh concluded.
Christophe Bouchut recalls what happened previously. "At the end of the first qualifying session I went off in a serious way. But even after the crash my only thoughts were for the team, the boys had already worked so hard during the previous days. I didn't want to stay in the hospital; I needed to be back at the circuit. They achieved the impossible and the car was race ready."
Following the team's incredible efforts to entirely repair the Corvette C6.R, the trouble free warm-up came as a relief for SRT. The Corvette was running smoothly and was fully in order to take on the start of the 60th edition of the 24 Hours of Spa. "I'm really looking forward to this", Xavier Maassen commented on the starting grid. "I'm going to really prove a few things here and want to make something special out of this race."
Maassen stuck to his promise, blasted away from the starting grid, went from third into first spot and led the field for several laps. Behind him the entire pack comprised out of Maserati, Lamborghini, Saleen and Corvette and the young Dutchman appeared to wipe the slate clean regarding the previous days misfortunes for the team.
Unfortunately a few laps later Maassen went straight on at Les Combes and immediately came into the pits. "Quite clearly there was a problem with the brakes, and this was immediately put right by the SRT staff. The same problem reared its head shortly after with more serious consequences. Our young Dutchman went into the tyres at the Bus stop. The damage was pretty serious and we were forced to throw in the towel, a bitter end to a heavy weekend..", Patrick Selleslagh commented.
The following race for SRT is the sixth round of the FIA GT in Bucharest, Rumania on 23rd and 24th August.
Scuderia Ecosse
The Total 24-hours of Spa endurance race had a few surprises in store for Scuderia Ecosse this weekend but after successfully completing a grueling 503 laps the team crossed the line in 8th place.
Throughout the first twelve hours of the race the team had to cope with a variety of weather conditions that resulted in constantly changing and unpredictable track conditions. As the clock struck 4am on Sunday morning the team, despite having had to overcome a spin, a broken exhaust manifold, electrical problems and blocked air in-takes, was sitting in 6th place. The second half of the race brought new challenges and the team ended up holding onto 8th place for the final six and half hours of the race. The team’s three drivers, Babini, Davies and Monfardini each did double stints behind the wheel and all three managed to push Car 62 to its limit, despite the problems they encountered during this most demanding of endurance races.
After the race Jamie Davies said, “After such a good start and with such a capable car at our disposal it was undoubtedly the difficult conditions that hampered our progress this weekend. It was a tough race and so still to be on the track at the finish was in itself quite an achievement.”
Fabio Babini added, "Once again the team did a fantastic job preparing the car and they were really quick when it came to resolving all of the problems we experienced during the race. The changeable weather meant we had to adjust our strategy very early on and the mechanical and electrical problems we faced made this a long and hard race. But overall I am happy we finished and it was a fantastic experience. ”
As the chequred flag dropped Ferdinando Monfardini commented, “To finish this race is an amazing achievement for me. We all worked well as a team and it is a credit to everyone involved that we crossed the line at the end of the race. It was great to work with Jamie and Fabio again and I felt that I have gained a lot this weekend.”
Team Principal Stewart Roden commented shortly after the race finished,”We had a really good car this weekend and once again all of the guys did an excellent job; unfortunately luck was not on our side. We have made considerable progress with the development of the car this weekend and the support we received from Pirelli was excellent. Getting to the end of any 24-hour endurance race is always something of an achievement so scoring the points we did today is, in some ways, a bit of a bonus.”
A pit stop on the way to GT2 victory for BMS Scuderia Italia
Davide Rigon
5th place, 1st category and, especially, 1st victory in the championship: these are fantastic numbers of Davide Rigon at the end of the first 24h of Spa-Francorchamps, the fifth race of the FIA World GT, at the wheel of the red Ferrari F430 yellow-Team BMS Scuderia Italia.
After seeing blur the satisfaction of the podium on the tracks of Adria and Oschersleben, right into the most important and most spectacular on the circuit as difficult Davide Rigon has succeeded in conquering the highest step of the podium and first win of the season.
"It 'been a spectacular race." Commented Davide Rigon "Once arrived in Belgium the team was loading and know you can do well. At the end of the 24h race of all is in the best possible way: the strategy was perfect as our Pirelli tyres, especially when in my stint I mounted the intermediate compounds and we were able to run 3 sec faster others. Just at that moment we were able to take a substantial margin of advantage. I want ringrazie all the tea and my fellow team for this fantastic success, the first in the FIA World GT "
A Davide Rigon are enough and then only five appointments to achieve the first victory in the world thanks to this great result the Twenty-Rigon rises to fourth place with 33 points.
Joel Camathias
Amazing victory for Joel at the Total 24 Hours of Spa.
Swiss GT ace, Joel Camathias (27), alongside his Italian team-mates Davide Rigon (21), Matteo Malucelli (23) and Paolo Ruberti (33), driving an ultra fast and reliable BMS Scuderia Italia # 77 Ferrari F430 GT provided with extraordinary Pirelli tyres, won one of the most important and prestigious race in the world, the 2008 FIA GT Total 24 Hours of Spa.
The package, drivers-car/team-tyres, did "simply" a perfect job/race, but "simply" doesn`t mean that it has been an easy race, not at all! The weather conditions during the 24 hours were frequently changing and the challenging with the other GT2 competitors were really closed. All of this made the work harder, but everybody there did a great job and managed perfectly this difficult and different situations.
"No words to describe how happy I am! I don`t really know where I should start, but the first thing I see in my mind, it is the happiness that there was around the team after the race. Saying this I can tell you that what we did it has been a real team effort! From the bottom of my heart I`d like to thank my extraordinary team [BMS Scuderia Italia] (We had such a good car!), my excellent team-mates [Davide Rigon, Matteo Malucelli and Paolo Ruberti] and the ultra competitive Pirelli Tyres! Many many thanks!".
We will see Joel back in action with BMS Scuderia Italia squad on August 23rd and 24th at the sixth round of the FIA GT Championship at Bucharest (Romania).