Freisinger wins Spa 24.

[Adam43]

A (NGT) Porsche wins a 24 hour race!

A top win for Ortelli. Hopefully this guy can get a competetive drive at Le Mans next year and challenge for overall honours there again. It would be nice if it was in a Porsche too! If Porsche remembered that they should be serious about Le Mans this guy could be in the middle of a great classic streak making his name in that great sportscar marque as so many of the past drivers have.

A fantastic drive in difficult conditions.

The Ferrari won GT and managed to hold on to 2nd, despite, last a minute scare.

To top it all us who idn't go go tto see a lot of in on telly! Excellent.

[Fiorentina 1]

What a fantastic driver line up for the Freisinger Porsche! I understand that the Larbre Viper could have past the leading Porsche if it wasn't for a gearbox change. The Zakspeed boys finished 1st in class and 5th overall, way to go as well!

[Marcel ten Caat]

Larbre and Freisinger were exchanging P1 from halfway night until around 11am.

Then the Viper suddenly slowed and came into the box.
This was only after it did a complete slow lap, as it passed us on the straight to Eau Rouge on slow speed, so something must have gone wrong after they passed the pitlane entry.)

If the gearbox hadn't failed they would have won...IF

[SALEEN S7R]

The Freisinger team should never have been left out of Le Mans, they could easily have won the GT class. They have shown what they can do this weekend, without Massen too. Still a great win for the Fresinger team and hopefully they will be back at Le Mans for 2004, and then they can win the GT class once more. Great result for Seikel too.

[429CJ]

Yes, that was really outrageous from ACO. Isn't Freisinger the number one Porsche team, since Larbre and Konrad switched to other cars?

[SALEEN S7R]

Some would argue AJR and the Racers group are better. But personally Id say that the Freisinger team and Emka racing are better. Although Emka have yet to prove themselves properly..

[pitviper]

the Viper is a pure beast. amazing after all these years! lol. big congrats to the winning porsche, this is my favourite 911 team and it was good to see an underdog classer take the overall. with the Zakspeed car winning class, this makes the Viper achieving victory 3 times at LeMans, Spa, and the 'Ring, with once at Daytona...now we need to get a couple of cars in the Bathurst 24 (are they legal? lol) and we'll be set! great job by the larbre team, had the rain not slowed them, they would have won overall again, even with the extra time for the gearbox. good show of reliability by the 22 ferrari, and overall amazing race. THIS is what it should be about!!! and funny, there weren't any prototypes...(wink)

pit

[Evil Fuzzy]

Indeed very well done from the Zakspeed team. What makes their class victory, or for that matter even finishing the race, more amazing is that after their engine troubles on thursday (or friday) they replaced the engine with the spare one, which hadn't been revised after the Nurburgring 24 hour race. At the finish line that engine had raced for over 48 hours!

[SALEEN S7R]

Yes very well done to the Zakspeed team. But lets not forget the car is a GT spec machine, ok it wasnt "offically" in the GT class of the FIA GT and therefore won its class. But in reality it was soundly beaten by equal GT class machinery from BMS and Labre.

Still having said that, they would along with the Eclissor Corvette team be a great addition to the FIA GT championship..

[Evil Fuzzy]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Yes very well done to the Zakspeed team. But lets not forget the car is a GT spec machine, ok it wasnt "offically" in the GT class of the FIA GT and therefore won its class. But in reality it was soundly beaten by equal GT class machinery from BMS and Labre.

Not entirely correct. Cars in the National GT class (Category 2) run under different rules than the official FIA GT cars. They've got more weight for one thing. This was also a factor last year when the FIA thightened the rules for the National GT's after seeing a Marcos LM600 run as fast as the FIA cars at a test. A lot of protest rose to this from the National GT teams (the Belgian Vertigo team suddenly wasn't eligible anymore and missed first practice while waiting for the decision of the officials to their protest).
It's also the reason why none of the Biturbo Porsches were seen anywhere near the top of the ranks. The AD Sport Porsche only managed a ninth place overall with an absolutely trouble-free run; that Porsche isn't as fast as a Viper but with the teams experience at Francorchamps and the weather conditions they should have had a decent chance. Team manager Vanierschot said in an interview with Belgian television that he had hoped for a better result, but the rules just didn't make this possible.

[429CJ]

Do Roock Racing have any racing going on these days?

[SALEEN S7R]

Can u tell me the regulations for National GT then? Ive looked on the FIA GT media guide at www.fiagt.com and they do not mention this at any point, either on the media guide or on the website. Until u show me proof I consider the Zakspeed Viper to be the same specifcation as those running in the regular FIA GT GT class.

[KA]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Can u tell me the regulations for National GT then? Ive looked on the FIA GT media guide at www.fiagt.com and they do not mention this at any point, either on the media guide or on the website. Until u show me proof I consider the Zakspeed Viper to be the same specifcation as those running in the regular FIA GT GT class.

At a rough guess, the fact that it was moved from the GT Class to the National class does suggest that there's some difference between the Zakspeed car and the 'regular' FIA-spec Vipers- Bearing in mind that there are some small differences between ACO and FIA regs, maybe that's the root of the issue?

Can anyone who knows more about Zakspeed's Viper fill in any details?

[SALEEN S7R]

Well the commentators, and the rules never mention anything about the National class being differnt than the FIA GT rules. The way I see it is the National class is open to cars of either NGT or GT specification. If a Porsche 911 GT3 RS enters in the National class it would run under the same regulations as the NGT cars, if a Viper enters it runs under the same regulations as the GT cars. After all the Spa 24hrs is a FIA GT event. So therefore they would run to the same rules.

[Fab]

A deserved victory overall for Ortelli-Lieb-Dumas, with the feeling that the line-up is for much in the final result : the team was really homogeneous.

It reminds me how the LM-GT class got the fifth overall at LM in 2001 under the rain...

One thing seeing the results : Viper's not dead !

The C5R on the track this week-end was very nice : too bad that Eurosport didn't show it more... and the final overall result is interresting too...

Great race, great event !

[SALEEN S7R]

Its a shame Eurosport didnt show more of the event. Still hopefully next year it wont clash with Moto GP, WSBK and Tour De France. Or at least it wont hopefully clash with all 3..

[Fab]

One solution : be there on the spot !!!

I may do the trip, if Bernard is up to next year...

[Graham Goodwin]

There were several cars running in the National classes that are ineligible under either FIA or ACO rules for GT / GTS including most of the Porsche 'cup' cars and the Moslers

[E46]

Originally posted by Graham Goodwin
There were several cars running in the National classes that are ineligible under either FIA or ACO rules for GT / GTS including most of the Porsche 'cup' cars and the Moslers

And that fantastic Toledo GT, fast but not very reliable. .

[KA]

Originally posted by Graham Goodwin
There were several cars running in the National classes that are ineligible under either FIA or ACO rules for GT / GTS including most of the Porsche 'cup' cars and the Moslers

Would this include the few cars which late in the day (certainly during race week) migrated from the GT or NGT classes to the National class?- from memory, the Zakspeed Viper, and a couple of GT3RS, (the Ice Pol car and I think the Caradec one?). Unless they were found to be outside the regulations in some way, I can't see any reason for the change,(other than a tactical move to give a better chance of winning the class....)

[dinkytoy]

if a car is not strictly to the FIA regulations the car will be placed in the Group 2 or National GT class.
As the Zakspeed Viper had modified it's rear bodywork section they were moved to the Group 2 - National GT class.
As the organizers of the 24 H of Spa wanted as many car they could get they set up different classes like the Group 2 - National Calss ( No. 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 126, 160, 171) and the Single Make Series class (No. 110, 111, 113, 115, 117, and 118)

[SALEEN S7R]

So if anything the Zakspeed car had a advantage over the other Vipers? It was the same weight as the GT cars after all, and had the same power out-put.

[Graham Goodwin]

Why an advantage?

[SALEEN S7R]

Dinkytoy said that the Zakspeed Viper has modifed rear bodywork. Now Im assuming that the modifications have made the car faster, not slower.

[Graham Goodwin]

Nope, they were done for the 'Ring 24 hours to accommodate a refuelling system which the team couldn't use at Spa.