British racing driver Joe Osborne successfully completed his first Spa 24 Hours at the weekend (23-27 July) and almost took a PRO-AM class podium on his debut, finishing fourth as the flag dropped at the home to the Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near Liege.
Sharing driving duties with regular team-mates Mark Poole and Richard Abra, Joe was also joined by Darren Turner in piloting the #38 black and red V12-powered machine.
After Turner started the race from 22nd on the grid of 60 cars, Joe took over after two hours and promptly seized the class lead with a consistent pace that outpaced a number of his more experienced rivals in the PRO class.
The 25-year-old, driving the MP Motorsport-AMR Aston Martin, did well to avoid a series of incidents that triggered no less than four safety car periods within the first three hours of the Belgian epic, which forms part of the popular Blancpain Endurance Series.
Taking on the challenging night time stint, the BRDC SuperStar battled through the dark on the treacherous track, emerging as a strong team-mate for fellow Brit, Turner – a factory Aston Martin Racing driver placed with the team to bolster the squad across the longer race duration.
In total, Joe completed over six hours of racing in the prestigious endurance event, and at times ran in the overall lead of the PRO-AM class, but as the race wore on, the Vantage GT3 dropped down to fourth in class, but this was tempered by the fact the all British crew secured tenth place overall, a huge achievement on their first attempt at the mighty event.
The consistent pace of the foursome ensured that the MP-Motorsport car was in the points at all three of the vital points-paying periods, meaning that Joe is now third in the Driver’s Standings on 45 points, up from sixth.
Joe, Richard and Mark now sit 32 adrift of the leaders, Ferrari trio Francesco Castellaci, Stefano Gai, and Andrea Rizzoli (77 points) with a maximum 33 points on offer in the final race of the season at the Nurburgring in Germany (19/21 September).
Quotes
On the event itself:
“It really was a great event, I hadn’t appreciated the scale of it until it took Abra and I 45minutes to get into the circuit due to fans flooding in! I can’t wait to go back.
“Overall we have mixed feelings about the result. Chuffed and happy to be in the top ten overall, but incredibly annoyed to be fourth in class and miss the podium by a place. There was little more we could of done, the car was faultless, and so were the team and the drivers. The team were extremely thorough and had done so much work beforehand with the prep of the car, I’m certain that was a reason why we did so well and got to the end without issue. “
On the early chaos and playing the team game:
“I was absolutely shocked by the violent nature of and the sheer frequency of the accidents. The first two happened when I was in the car, the Russian SMP Ferrari at Eau Rouge looked like a bomb had gone off. Then when I saw Tim Mullen’s crash in the Mclaren, that was even worse; only when I saw it was a carbon tub did I know it was a McLaren. It really brought it home that when Spa is hungry, it bites your ass.
“It’s imperative that you drop your ego and think about the team game. So, instead of looking for extra tenths banging over kerbs, it’s about looking after the car to keep it going for the whole 24 hours.”
On getting through a 24 Hour race:
“The MP Motorsport team have been great all year, there is a really strong atmosphere in the team, so we were able to keep each other going and share a laugh between us all during the night. The double stint I did at night was made more interesting by the fact we tried to double stint the tyres too, it wasn’t the right decision, but sometimes these things happen when you’re trying to move up the order. I managed to stay awake quite easily, especially at the end of the stint when the rear of car the felt like it decided it wanted to break free and run off to the circus.”
On the Pro-Am championship three-way shoot-out:
We now head to Germany with the chance of being champions, it’s a long shot, but to be one of three cars able to win it, we’ve got to get on the front foot and be ready to take the fight to them. We’ve come this far and we don’t want to go away empty-handed, so we’ll be pushing for the class win. Personally I like the Nurburgring a lot and I think it should really suit the Vantage, it’s going to be a long wait until we get there.”