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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nChange was in the air for those anticipating the 2009\nedition of the Spa 24 Hours. In early July that year the FIA had given approval\nfor SRO\u2019s next big step, the FIA GT1 World Championship, a brave venture to\nlaunch in the face of the financial storms that were raging at the time. This\nbold move also spelled the end of the road for the FIA GT Championship which\nhad graced tracks around the globe since 1997, taking GT racing to new heights.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2009 Spa 24 Hours would therefore be the last contested\nby the GT1 cars that had pretty much ruled the roost since 2001 when SRO took\nover as promoters of the Belgian endurance classic. That fact combined with the\neconomic challenges of the time faced by all the competitors meant that the\nfield in the leading class was smaller than in previous years. However, the\nquality of the competitors more than made up for any shortfall in quantity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hot pre-race favourites were the trio of Maserati MC12 GT1s\nentered by Vitaphone Racing, as winners in three of the previous four years at\nSpa, they looked on course to add to their trophy cabinet. The German team\u2019s\ndriver line ups were first class too. In #1 were the reigning FIA GT Champions,\nAndrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels with St\u00e9phane Sarrazin and Alexandre\nNegr\u00e3o completing the quartet. #2 MC12 had regulars Alex M\u00fcller and Miguel\nRamos supported by Pedro Lamy and Eric van de Poele, a record five-time winner\nat the Spa 24 Hours. The final Vitaphone entry had Belgians Vincent Vosse and St\u00e9phane\nL\u00e9m\u00e9ret leading the charge with Carl Rosenblad and Alessandro Pier Guidi also\nin the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The opposition to the Italian supercars came in the shape\nof three Corvette C6.Rs. Local favourites Peka Racing Team gave the crowds\nsomething to shout about and did not lack in speed and experience in the driver\ndepartment with a line-up of Mike Hezemans, Anthony Kumpen, Jos Menten and Kurt\nMollekens. Race day would be Mike\u2019s 40th<\/sup> birthday, what better\npresent than a second triumph at the Spa 24 Hours?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bringing a touch of the exotic to the grid was the C6.R of\nSangari Team Brazil. The car, formerly run under the DKR banner, was crewed by\nex-F1 driver Enrique Bernoldi and his fellow Brazilian Roberto Streit, with\nXavier Maassen the third driver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The final Corvette on the grid was entered by Selleslagh\nRacing Team, long-time supporters of the Championship. Leading their challenge\nwas Vette factory driver and all-round good egg, Oliver Gavin. His teammates\nwere James Ruffier, Bert Longin and Maxime Soulet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The brave new world of the future GT1 class was also\nrepresented on the grid with the Marc VDS Ford GT and a factory backed Nissan\nGT-R. While these novelties attracted much attention, they were considered too\nnew to challenge for outright victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Qualifying sessions were struck by rainstorms of\nbiblical proportions and there was virtually no running in the dry. The grid\nlined up with the Vitaphone Maseratis at the head with the Sangari and\nSelleslagh C6.R pair up next. Then it was the Marc VDS Ford, the final Vette of\nPeka Racing and the GT1 field was rounded out by the Nissan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Maserati phalanx immediately grabbed the lead on the\nrun down to Eau Rouge and headed the field on the climb up the Kemmel Straight\nto Les Combes. If the MC12s thought that they would dominate the race they soon\ndisabused of that notion. Within seven laps it was a Corvette 1-2, with\nBernoldi heading Gavin, while Hezemans was also on the way up the leader board.\nHowever, the weather gods decided to get in on the act and soon heavy rain was\nfalling and that seemed to favour the Maseratis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first two hours the race swung between the leading\nsix cars, then Streit\u2019s Corvette crashed heavily at Raidillon and was out of\nthe race. The rain returned with a vengeance after that with the contest potentially\nbeing won and lost in the pits as much as on track. Getting the right tyre\nstrategy was vital to keeping up the pace, the engineers were as stressed as\nthe drivers. The lead continued to change until just after Midnight when\nBertolini lost control of his MC12 after encountering oil all over the track at\nPouhon. He managed to get the heavily damaged car back to the pits but the\nrepairs would take three hours and cost 67 laps. It later emerged that Hezemans\nwas following the Maserati closely and also spun on the oil but without making\ncontact with anything, that really was a late birthday present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problems at Vitaphone piled up when Pier Guidi was hit\nby a backmarker not long after the Bertolini incident. The subsequent repairs took\nten laps and banished any realistic prospect of victory. Meanwhile out on track\na fantastic battle raged in the darkness between Gavin, Hezemans and Lamy. This\ncontest continued when Soulet, Kumpen and M\u00fcller took over their respective\nmounts at the next set of pitstops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rain gradually disappeared and as dawn broke the\nremaining Maserati began to slowly edge away from the chasing Corvette pair,\nalthough a mighty stint from Gavin yielded the fastest lap of the race,\n2:15.423, and kept his Vette in contention. Then just after 10.00am disaster\nstruck M\u00fcller in the MC12 when the Maserati\u2019s rear right wheel collapsed approaching\nFagnes, damaging the suspension. Despite his best efforts M\u00fcller could not get\nthe three-wheeler back to the pits and was forced to retire on the spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The race had one more act of motoring cruelty to inflict,\nthis time on the Selleslagh Corvette. A breather pipe worked loose, the loss of\noil damaged the engine and the team parked the car in anticipation of\ncompleting one slow lap at the finish, being classified and scoring points\nwould be scant reward for their efforts battling for the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final three hours of the race played out without drama\nat the head of the field till Kurt Mollekens crossed the line to score a\npopular and famous victory. The Peka Racing Corvette hardly missed a beat, the\nonly one of the leading contenders to do so. Eleven laps down, and in second\nplace, was the recovering #33 Maserati, but bitter disappointment would be all\nthat Vitaphone Racing would take away from Spa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final step of the podium was taken by Phoenix Racing\u2019s\nAudi R8 LMS which was running in the G2 class. The crew, Marcel F\u00e4ssler, Marc\nBasseng, Alex Margaritis and Henri Moser had a largely trouble free run. The\nperformance of the Audi gave a clue as to the future direction of the Belgian\nclassic. The Audi was essentially a GT3 car, the race would prosper under that\nformula when it was adopted for the 2011 event. The fantastic entry for this\nyear\u2019s race is proof of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GT1 has signed off at the Spa 24 Hours in the most dramatic fashion, now there was a World Championship to chase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Brooks, August 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wrote this retrospective a while back, intending it to be used for another purpose. Perhaps it should have seen the light of day last weekend when the attention of the GT Universe was focused on Francorchamps. It matters not, like the 2019 edition the 2009 Spa 24 Hours was action packed, this part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[815],"tags":[1565,1566,328,20,1567,1568,185,322,323,934],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21604"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21604"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21621,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21604\/revisions\/21621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/09Spa24_jb_1087-1200x800.jpg\")
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