BMW Have The Edge In Battle To the Finish

Into the final hour for the 2023 Crowdstrike Spa 24 Hours and the race is still very much alive – though Rowe Racing have taken control at the front.

The #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 has gradually eked out a 20 second gap on the battles behind, Phillip Eng aboard the BMW that took advantage of a strategic move earlier in the race to retain an advantage through a 22nd hour caution period and found the pace to pull away again.

Behind the battle for second place has pulled away from the fourth placed #92 Manthey EMA Porsche.

Nicki Thiim in the #17 Audi finally won a duel for second position with Jules Gounon in the #88 AMG just before the final pit stops for the leading trio, only to lose the slot again in the stops just inside the final hour.

Tom Gamble leads the Gold Cup in the #5 Optimum McLaren, 10th overall and with a comfortable gap to the second placed #30 BMW.

Silver Cup is comprehensively headed by the surviving GRT Lamborghini in 13th but owes us a (final) stop.

Matteo Cairoli (14th overall) retook the Bronze Cup lead in his #20 Huber Porsche from race-long rival Klaus Bachler in the #911 Pure Racing Porsche with a move at Les Combes that saw Bachler run out of racing room and take to the escape road.

Pro-Am meanwhile is quite a battle with the storied effort of the #75 SunEnergy1 AMG holding narrow sway ahead of the #24 Car Collection Porsche (24th and 25th)