Datum: 12.11.2020 · Sonstige

24 hours Spa 2020 - a razorblade ride

With a 4th place in the Pro Am class the 24h of Spa concluded for Pierre Ehret and his Rinaldi Racing team mates Rino Mastronardi, David Perel and Daniel Keilwitz. The "Corona Edition" of the endurance classic, which took place as late as never before in the history of the race from 24-25.10 in late autumn , ended with the Ferrari quartet in 22nd place overall and as fourth in the Pro Am class. Pierre Ehret will remember this heat as of one of the most difficult races of his career.

"The difficult weather conditions and cold temperatures this year made this one of the most challenging races I have ever done. I only sat in the car for 2 stints and let my professional colleagues do most of the driving. During my stints it rained and drizzled a little bit, which caused the brake points to change every lap and you were constantly sliding. There was actually only one dry line, which made slicks the tires of choice, and off this track you were in constant danger of sliding off."

"The difficult weather conditions and cold temperatures this year made this one of the most challenging races I have ever done. I only drove in the car for 2 stints and let my professional colleagues do most of the driving. During my stints it rained and drizzled quite a bit, which caused the brake points to change every lap and you were constantly sliding. There was actually only one dry line, which made slicks the tires of choice, and off this track you were in constant danger of sliding off."

Despite the fact that the team adopted a conservative strategy, the race was anything but uneventful for the german Rinaldi Racing squad: "Of course there were a lot of accidents in what is, as always, a very high class field. Right on the first lap Daniel was hit by an AMG GT from the Pro-Am class and suffered a puncture, resulting in a 1 1/2 lap gap. We then tried to keep the number of penalties and incidents to a minimum. Once we were caught because of not keeping the minimum fuel time. Then once in my stint I had to have the mirror on the pit adjusted because I couldn't see anything there and almost ran into collisions. We also changed to rain tyres 2 times too early. In retrospect these were minor things, but they accumulated to such an extent that we missed a possible podium place at the end."

The race, which was won by the Rowe Racing Porsche Trio Vanthor/Bamber/Tandy, ended with only 31 of 56 teams finishing. In the Pro-Am class of 12 cars, the Rinaldi Racing Quartet finished the race as the fourth of only 6 teams to cross the finish line. The third placed Aston Martin was 3 laps ahead, while the Pro-Am class was won by the British Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini.

"Given the circumstances, I have to say that in retrospect the team and my colleagues did a great job. That the car ran technically perfect and that my colleagues kept it on the track in these conditions - which became even worse on Sunday in the rain - was not self-evident in the end. The weather played a decisive role in the course of the race this year, given the late date. To be honest, I am glad that this date will remain unique so late in October."

Pierre Ehret will complete the next and last race of the season on November 13th with the 1000km of Le Castellet.