Race 2 starts behind Safety Car on a drenched Spa-Francorchamps
Develops into highly entertaining battle for top 3 places
8 Xwift Racing Events Toyota wins another wet race in the hands of Cheli and rain king Potty
Pro-Am victory for #18 TSR Team Spirit Racing Aston Martin (Stegmann/Lungstrass), Am win for #75 Centri Porsche Ticino Porsche (Leutwiler/Jacoma)
The GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club seems to develop its own weather pattern: precisely like the previous round at Circuit Paul Ricard, Race 2 was hit by serious rainfall after a dry and sunny Race 1
Those very tricky conditions saw proceedings get underway behind the Safety Car. But the field was soon released and, even if incidents caused a number of short interruptions along the way, a leading pack of 14 Silver entries engaged in a riveting battle with plenty of lead changes and close racing.
Stefan Bostandjiev must have felt the butterflies when the safety car pitted after the first two laps of the race, but had a great start from pole position to keep the #23 Overdrive Racing Porsche in the lead for the first and very wet quarter, before handing over to Lefterov during a slightly delayed pit window. Meanwhile, some brave racing on the soaked Belgian rollercoaster by – to name just a few – the #1 CMR Toyota (Tierce/Lemeret) and the #3 Team Speedcar Audi (Lariche/Consani) entertained the crowds in the grandstands, enjoying the GT4 racing action while waiting for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, which starts just a few hours after Race 2.
With just 18 minutes to go by the end of the delayed pit window, the #8 Xwift Racing Events Toyota had clearly timed his stop perfectly, and saw a few direct competitors rejoin the track from their stops in his rear view mirror. It gave Antoine Potty wings (or should we say flippers?) once again, and in a series of brilliantly set-up overtakes the Belgian moved the #8 Toyota first onto the podium, then into P2, to finally take the lead off the #12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW (Edgar/Besler) who would eventually finish third. The #3 Team Speedcar Audi (Lariche/Consani) saw a brilliant effort rewarded in second place.
An incident at one of the restarts after a safety car procedure cost Pro-Am championship leaders Guilvert/Hamon the race as they had to retire the damaged #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi. That opened up the battle in class and a solid drive in difficult conditions bagged the first win for TSR Team Spirit Racing in the #18 Aston Martin (Stegmann/Lungstrass). Another stellar performance by the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche (Still/Kronberg) to take second Pro-Am again and round up a strong weekend in Belgium. Third in Pro-Am was the #89 AGS Events Aston Martin (Parisy/Gomar).
No Am victory this time for the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche, as Alban Varutti took second from P36 overall. By quite a margin, it was the #75 Centri Porsche Ticino (Leutwiler/Jacoma) who took maximum Am points. The top GT4 Scandinavia runner at Spa-Francorchamps was the #290 Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden Supra GT4 Evo (Skaras/Holmlund), rounding up the double guest appearance of the GT4 Scandinavia field on the grid of the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club.
With that spectacular finale at Spa-Francorchamps, the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club has now officially reached the halfway point of its 2023 season. With six out of twelve races done, the championship heads to Misano from July 14-16 for Races 7 and 8. A Full timetable for the fourth event of 2023 will follow soon on the series' official website.
