A year on from winning the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Nick Catsburg returned to Belgium’s Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps to defend his victory in a ROWE Racing-prepared BMW M6 GT3, which ran competitively before retiring during the latter stages of the race on Sunday (28-31 July).

ROWE Racing fielded a two-car effort with Catsburg joined in the #98 M6 by Stef Dusseldorp and Dirk Werner in a strong Pro class line-up.

In qualifying, which is split into two parts, the first objective is to qualify inside the top 20 to progress to the “Superpole” shootout and Catsburg achieved this by going 19th fastest, to then conclude the session in P14, although this later became seventh when the Mercedes-Benz competitors ahead received penalties for rule infringements.

Raceday and the #98 ROWE Racing entry ran strongly with Werner behind the wheel during the first hour.

The initial intention was for Catsburg to complete a single stint, but an extended full-course caution followed a crash at the exit of the infamous Eau Rouge corner and a change of strategy meant the Dutchman ended up triple-stinting.

Catsburg was able to take the initiative and ROWE Racing ran consistently inside the top six throughout Dusseldorp’s first outing, until day turned to night and a series of unlucky breaks in the pit scheduling in mixed conditions and poorly-timed full-course yellows pushed the #98 M6 down the order and off the lead lap.

A consistent and concerted effort by Catsburg, Werner and Dusseldorp saw them recover to the outskirts of the podium places as the race progressed into Sunday (31 August) as grey skies hung over the Ardennes Forest and rain fell intermittently on the Spa circuit.

With two hours remaining and after eight hours of driving for Catsburg, Werner took over for the final push in fifth position, but, after only a handful of laps, the car retired to the garage with a clutch problem – a sad ending to a strong showing that included a lot of hard work by the entire ROWE Racing team.

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as the sister #99 BMW had been challenging Bentley for the top spot for most of the second half of the race and hit the front on the run to the finish to take a well-deserved win for ROWE Racing, BMW and its drivers, who had collectively put in  great performance.

Catsburg can now confirm that he will compete in the remaining round of the 2016 Blancpain GT Series with BMW Motorsport and the ROWE Racing team, the next outing being Round 4 of the Sprint Series at the Hungaroring, Budapest on 26-28 August.