Enzo Ide is competing in the 2012 GT World Championship with AF Corse Ferrari, but this weekend he was also on hand in the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the biggest GT race in the world. The 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is part and parcel of the European Endurance Championship of the Blancpain Endurance Series and the Italian AF Corse Ferrari had entered no less than four Ferrari 458 GT3. One of these was for Enzo Ide, teamed up with the Italian professional drivers Raffaele Gianmaria and Marco Cioci. The British gentleman driver Jack Gerber was the fourth man on board of the Italian muscle car. The quartet drove a brilliant race, but a steering- gear problem ruined their chances.

“We were competing in the Pro/Am class, with the aim of winning and that was an exceptionally heavy assignment. Just for a start there were two strong contenders from within our own team who had the same ambitions. I wanted to follow this route in order to prepare myself fully for next year. I want to go out for a win in Spa and this participation was, notwithstanding the final result, a perfect success in that respect. Why? Well this was a truly heavy participation, with every extreme. The heat on Thursday, with an extremely dirty track during the various practice sessions and then on Saturday the cloud burst, with a full field of 66 cars in probably the most unique competition in the world, are sufficient elements to make me realise that this is a very difficult race. Spa is a unique place and in the years to come I want to focus on this race with a view to winning it.”

For Enzo and his teammates the race itself was split into two parts, namely pre and post steering-gear problem. “The team was satisfied with my driving stints, I didn’t commit any errors and the collaboration was perfect. There’s not much more to add and in fact, up until midday we were going all out for victory and so it was hard fighting, with every intention of reaching the finish, but it was not to be.”

Source : Enzo Ide