Strakka BMW Leads Spa 12 Hours
Jun 23, 2008

The Strakka Racing BMW M3, co-driven by team regulars Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis, and joined for this one-off endurance event by fellow Briton Christian Vann, worked through from fifth on the grid to lead the BTCS Spa 12 Hours by the half-way stage. Up against a daunting array of specialised “silhouette” and touring cars, the M3 was the front-running conventional car in a race highlighted by major incidents, accidents and mechanical problems.

Peter Hardman had given the team the best possible start by qualifying the Strakka BMW in fifth position overall. With only the highly specialised “silhouette” cars ahead of it on the 52-car grid, the team’s M3 was immediately the leading runner amongst the ‘standard’ entries. “The combination of the BMW engine and Michelin tyres really helped us put in a good time,” said Peter. “I went 2.5 seconds quicker than I’d ever gone round Spa before, and that was just one lap. I honestly believe we could have gone another second quicker.”

The first few hours of the race were marked by a series of major problems amongst the pre-race favourites, with significant retirements by five key contenders. Nigel Greensall, starting from pole in the Chad Racing Peugeot 407 Silhouette, was another to suffer, although his drop down the order would later be followed by a recovery to fifth at the flag. Throughout all this, the Strakka BMW M3 powered on untroubled, and by the end of the third hour was holding a comfortable second place.

With the sun shining brightly over Spa’s forested hillsides, it was perfect racing conditions for the mixed grid of cars. The current format of the Belgian Touring Car Series was established in 2003, and it continues to grow in strength and popularity each season. The 12 Hours of Spa is the highlight in the championship calendar and attracts entries from all across Europe, including an enthusiastic British contingent. Cars eligible to compete range from conventional racing saloons, through specialised touring cars like Strakka’s BMW M3, to the semi-prototype “silhouette” machines, which have the outward appearance of regular road-going cars but are radically modified underneath, with tubular space-frame chassis and heavily re-worked engines.

Five hours into the race and it started to look as through the dramas had eased, but it was a temporary lull. Having escaped the early spate of problems, the leading Delahaye Racing Renault Megane had David Loix in the cockpit when the Belgian came through the chicane to find another car broadside across the track. The collision was inevitable, but the former rally driver managed to get the damaged Renault back to the pits. The team carried out swift repairs, but at a cost of some ten laps.

This left the Strakka BMW to move through into an uncontested lead, and it was a position the trio of Hardman, Leventis and Vann consolidated for the next hour or more. “The car was running like a dream,” said Peter. “I did my first stint, and when I got back in again four hours later, it was as if I’d only just got out. The car was so easy to drive.” As the race passed beyond the half-way stage the BMW’s advantage extended to more than four laps, with British GT driver John Hartshorne second in a Peugeot 406 Silhouette.

Christian Vann was part-way through his second stint and leading comfortably when the first signs of a problem became evident. Smoke filled the M3’s cockpit, and the Walsall-based driver was quick to head for the nearest marshals’ post. “It appeared to be a repeat of the problem we’d encountered in testing at Jerez, when the exhaust overheated and cracked,” said Nick Leventis. “Christian had flames knee-high inside the car!” Extinguishers were used to quell the blaze, but the team’s race was immediately over.

The BMW’s demise handed the lead to John Hartshorne, but the Peugeot would only head the race for about twenty minutes before losing out to the diesel-powered BMW 120 of Dutchmen Jeroen Den Boer and Rob Bergmans. Their custody of the top slot would be equally brief – just four laps – until Vanina Ickx came through to take the lead in the recovering Delahaye Racing Megane. She and co-drivers Frederic Bouvy and David Loix would then hold first place all the way to the finish.

“To have this follow on so soon after Le Mans is a bitter disappointment,” said Nick. “To be leading a race like the Spa 12 Hours is a great achievement, but more than that, we were in a very comfortable position, and were cruising along with a huge advantage. If we’d managed to hold on to that and gone on to win, it would have been a truly memorable result. Even so, the guys have been away from home for over a month now and this has been a fantastic team effort.”

The next outing for Peter and Nick is the Le Mans Classic weekend, July 12th and 13th, when they will be recreating historic scenes from the past by racing an Aston Martin DBR1 and a Ferrari Dino 246. That will be followed by a return to the Peroni Endurance Touring Car Series with Round Five at Misano in Italy on July 20th. “Onwards and upwards,” said a philosophical Nick Leventis. “It’s good that we’ve solved this problem now, with some major races coming up, but I think we’re now due some good luck!”

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© Peter Hardman 2008