Algarve Pro Racing wins the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

ELMS

Sep 25

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca

Kyffin Simpson, Alex Lynn and James Allen with #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca won a drama-filled 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, increasing the gap with competitors in class and overall championships. Double for Cool Racing winning LMP2 Pro/am and LMP3, Iron Lynx wins LMGTE class since a 10” penalty was handed out to Proton Competition #16 by the stewards after the race.

It all started with a drama at “La Source”

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps.

Early ahead of “La Source” (T1), Manuel Maldonado locked up his #65 Panis Racing ORECA and went straight on, hitting Marino Sato in the #22 United ORECA into a spin and crashing into the side of the #28 IDEC ORECA of Paul Lafargue, which cannoned into the #30 Duqueine ORECA of Rene Binder.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps.

The four damaged cars could eventually restart way behind the pack, which was all benefit for #47 Cool Racing in P3 (from P7), #34 Racing Team Turkey in P4 (from P8), #37 Cool Racing in P7 (from P11) and #21 United Autosports USA in P8 (from P14).

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps.

More incidents interrupted the 4 Hours of Spa Francorchamps (eight times in total) with five safety car and three Full Course Yellow. Two race leaders were involved:

#22 Untied Autorports USA who lead during 16 laps, lost three laps in the garage before the three-hour mark after a piece of gravel from the lap 1 incident jammed the throttle pedal.
#43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca exited the race whilst running third, 8’ before the end of the race.

Lynn, Allen and Simpson with #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca lead 62 laps of the 88 covered. With this second victory (first at Le Castellet), the trio is now extending their lead in the championships to 11 points (from 1 ahead of the weekend).

P2 overall and Pro/am win for Cool Racing

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. COOL Racing #37.

With the last safety car releasing the pack one lap from the end, Malthe Jakobsen, Alexandre Coigny and Nicolas Lapierre on the COOL Racing #37 end second overall, 1.8” behind #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca. The #37 also won in LMP2 Pro-Am.

Racing Team Turkey got P3 after penalties.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Racing Team Turkey #34 Oreca.

Except during certain asynchronous pit stops, Salih Yoluc, Louis Deletraz and Charlie Eastwood with Racing Team Turkey #34 Oreca raced in P4 ending the race in P4. With time penalties handed out by the stewards to #34 Racing Team Turkey (2”) and the #83 AF Corse ORECA (4”) for accelerating too soon out of a Full-Course Yellow, the #34 trio Yoluc, Deletraz and Eastwood were moved up to third overall (second in Pro/am).

United Autosports inherited a podium on green carpet

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. #21 United Autosports ORECA

As a result of the penalties, the #83 dropped to fourth, meaning the #21 United Autosports ORECA has inherited the final podium spot in Pro/am.

Three additional Pro/am in the top 7 overall.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps.

Due to four of the seven open-categorization LMP2s being involved in the first-corner accident and #43 crashing 10’ from the end, three additional LMP2 Pro-Am entries ranked in the top 7:

P5 overall went to #83 AF Corse Oreca driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere, Alessio Rovera and Francois Perrodo,
P6 overall for #19 Team Virage Oreca 07 - Gibson with Alexander MATTSCHULL, Ian RODRIGUEZ, Tatiana CALDERON,.
P7 overall for #20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson driven by Fred POORDAD, Tristan VAUTIER and Bent VISCAAL.

Double for Cool Racing

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. #17 Ligier JS P320 Nissan

Third win this season for Cool Racing in LMP3 with #17 Ligier JS P320 Nissan driven by Marcos Siebert, Alejandro Garcia and Adrien Chila.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps.

P2 in class for #13 Inter Europol Ligier shared by Kai Askey, Adam Ali and Miguel Cristovao.

M. Bell and A. Ali with #11 Eurointernational end third in LMP3.

LMGTE class

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. #16 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19

Despite Ryan Hardwick dominated the LMGTE class with #16 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 and Alessio Picariello crossed the checkered flag first, the #16 trio lost its victory after a 10-second time penalty was applied to Picariello for accelerating too soon out of a Full-Course Yellow.

As a result, the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche was promoted to first, the #50 Formula Racing Ferrari to second, and the #16 dropped to third.

All benefit for #60 team who are now co-leading the LMGTE championships with #16 trio.