The #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche took a stellar win at Sunday’s 24 Hours of Spa, starting from pitlane before making up an incredible 64 positions to claim the top step of the podium.
Bastian Buus, Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining all put in incredible efforts to bring the Porsche 911 GT3 R home 12.3 seconds ahead of their closest rival after 24 hours of thrilling racing.
Feller had qualified the car in 16th place, but the trio of DTM drivers had to start from the pits due to an unscheduled engine change.
Despite this setback, they fought hard and avoided incidents in the high temperatures, gradually making solid progress early on as they battled through the field.
The trio stayed out of trouble and with Preining at the wheel, were running fourth before a stellar double-stint from the Austrian propelled the team into the lead around the 19-hour mark, fending off three rivals to emerge ahead.
From there, the lead was only relinquished for pitstops. Preining led by 6.8s with 90 minutes to go, and though it was up to almost 20 seconds around the final hour mark, he crossed the line just over 12 seconds clear of second.
The team beat the previous record for lowest start position for a winner, which was 29th.
It was the ninth victory for Porsche at the Belgian endurance classic, which hosted its 78th edition this year, and the first 24 Hours of Spa win for all three drivers.
Feller said after the race: “I’m very relieved and incredibly proud of the whole team – they deserved this victory. Having to start from the pitlane was, of course, a setback. But we still believed we had a chance.
“That’s exactly what makes a strong team. We’ve been able to write a fantastic chapter in our history. In our sport, you experience more defeats than victories, which is why we’re going to celebrate this success in style.”
There were two more Porsche inside the top eight: The #22 Schumacher CLRT car of Matt Campbell, Ayhancan Güven and Frédéric Makowiecki, which finished fourth, and the #2 Boutsen VDS crew of Dorian Boccolacci, Morris Schuring and Alessio Picariello in eighth.
The #2 car had looked strong early on as the highest-starting Porsche in 16th, and was up three places before a first-lap incident neutralised the racing. It made further progress on the restart, and continued to run well throughout.
Similarly, the #22 car, which started in 18th place was up to ninth after the first 90 minutes of the 24-hour race.
Unfortunately, a collision with the #2 Porsche car while battling for third place earned the trio a five-second penalty and dashed their hopes of a podium finish.
Porsche also had success in the individual classes, and was the most represented manufacturer with 15 entries.
In the Gold Cup, the #10 Boutsen VDS car of Alessandro Ghiretti, Robin Knutsson and Gilles Magnus finished as runner-up.
Lionspeed GP added a second medal to their tally with a third-place finish in the Bronze Cup, this time with the #89 crew of Alex Fontana, Axcil Jeffries, Patrick Kolb and Bashar Mardini.
In the Pro-Am Cup, a second-place finish went to the High Class #86 Porsche, shared by Anders Fjordbach, Kerong Li, Hongli Ye and Bo Yuan.
“This result sends an important signal for Porsche customer motorsport,” said Michael Dreiser, Head of Sales at Porsche Motorsport.
“We had 15 race cars on the grid here. Getting three cars into the top ten is a strong performance, and the victory is, of course, a dream come true for Lionspeed GP.
“Added to this are the strong performances of other customer teams, with podium finishes in the Bronze, Pro-Am and Gold categories – all in all, a successful weekend for Porsche.”
Qualifying
Four Porsche 911 GT3 R made it through to the final Superpole session, reserved for the 32 highest-placed cars from Thursday evening’s qualifying.
Ricardo Feller secured 16th position in the #80 Lionspeed GP car, but due to an unscheduled engine change, had to start from the pitlane.
The #2 Boutsen VDS car started from 16th on the grid, with the #22 Schumacher CLRT car two places behind.
Boutsen VDS’s #10 car managed to qualify for Superpole as the fourth customer Porsche. Battling for class victory in the Gold category, the crew lined up 23rd.
Full Porsche customer team results at the 24 Hours of Spa
Pro Cup: P1 Lionspeed GP (#80) – Bastian Buus / Thomas Preining / Ricardo Feller P4 Schumacher CLRT (#22) – Ayhancan Güven / Matt Campbell / Frédéric Makowiecki P8 Boutsen VDS (#2) – Morris Schuring / Dorian Boccolacci / Alessio Picariello
Gold Cup: P22 (P2) Boutsen VDS (#10) – Gilles Magnus / Robin Knutsson / Alessandro Ghiretti
Silver Cup: P25 (P7) Dinamic GT (#54) – Tanart Sathienthirakul / Francesco Simonazzi / Angus Whiteside / Loris Cabirou DNF Pure Rxcing (#9) – Aleksei Nesov / Alex Malykhin / Max Hofer / Enzo Trulli
Bronze Cup: P20 (P3) Lionspeed GP (#89) – Alex Fontana / Bashar Mardini / Patrick Kolb / Axcil Jeffries P43 (P7) Rutronik Racing (#97) – Michelle Gatting / Antares Au / Martin Rump / Sven Müller DNF Muehlner Motorsport (#123) – Tobias Müller / Armand Fumal / Bayley Hall / Andres Latorre DNF Herberth Motorsport (#91) – Ralf Bohn / Huub van Eijndhoven / Alfred Renauer / Mathieu Jaminet DNF Ziggo Sport (#93) – Jonathan Hui / Christopher Froggatt / Eddie Cheever / Mex Jansen
Pro-Am Cup: P32 (P2) High Class (#86) – Kerong Li / Anders Fjordbach / Bo Yuan / Hongli Ye P38 (P4) Tsunami RT (#79) – Johannes Zelger / Fabio Babini / Hiroshi Hamaguchi / Nico Menzel P39 (P5) Car Collection (#8) – Reinhold Krah / Nicolò Rosi / Niccolò Schirò / Joel Sturm P42 (P6) Razoon (#914) – Edward McDermott / Kenzie Reis Beecroft / Carl Bennett / Bryce Fullwood
