Report after 17 hours: Fabulous duel WRT - KRK

In our previous summary we declared that even though the DSC cars had left the scene the race was far from over. The rain ensured that WRT and more especially Longin was able to reduce the difference with the leading KRK Mercedes during the early hours. We were given a brilliant duel with the two cars battling it out for hours just to get into the same lap. Thanks to well timed pit stops Longin and Verbist were soon under the rear wing of the KRK muscle car..

To add further tension the pit stops were almost synchronised, important detail: the Audi always called into the pits two or three laps earlier whereby KRK Racing was able to react to the choice of tyres made in the Audi camp. This was definitely a major factor in conditions where the track was slowly drying out and a few sporadic drops were creating some hidden slippery patches. The sequel of the Kumpen-Longin duel was the repeat duel between Retera-Verbist, whereby especially Retera made quite an impression by keeping the difference to 45 seconds for an entire hour. Just before seven Verbist spun in the Villeneuve but the loss was limited to some 10 seconds.

Just after eight the heavens opened and the circuit became the scene for a speedboat race. Cars were just able to keep to the track and lap times never went under the 2:15, conditions which brought back memories of the ten hours of Zolder in 2010. Maassen took full advantage of the conditions and was quickly closing in on the KRK Mercedes.

Notwithstanding the fact that ProSpeed Competition can write off clinching victory (+18 laps) the Liege-based team and especially Marc Goossens and Markus Palttala clocked up some excellent times in these tricky conditions, and were often faster than the leading pair. Behind this battle for the lead with a field of only 13 cars there's very little else on offer, but this has been amply compensated for thanks to this brilliant battle for the lead. Could this be a sixth for Kumpen or a fifth for Longin (to match the record of the first)?

Intermediate ranking with 7 hours to go:
01. #8 KRK Racing - Mercedes SLS GT3 584 laps
02. #1 W Racing Team - Audi R8 LMS + 12.137 seconds
03. #60 ProSpeed Competition - Porsche 996 GT3 RSR + 18 laps
04. #30 Speedlover - Porsche 997 Cup +30 laps
05. #21 Level Racing - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup +37 laps
06. #2 Scuderia Monza - Porsche 997 RS + 42 laps
07. #99 Belgium Racing - Porsche GT3 Cup +49 laps
08. #33 Accent Racing - Porsche 997 Cup +57 laps
09. #252 GHK Racing - Porsche 997 Cup +57laps
10. #71 Skylimit Race Team - Porsche 996 Cup +88 laps

VZW 24u.be - Gordon McKay on Sunday 4 September 2011 at 10:42.