During his first appearance at the Spa 24h race Nico joined Eric van de Poele (5 victories already!) and Jean-Karl Vernay at the wheel of the Ferrari 458 nr 1. Spa is the most famous 24h race for GT cars but 25 years old Nico from Brussels was not able to show his skills and talent due to mechanical problems.

Qualifying: “It started raining from the beginning; difficult conditions for the Ferraris, less competitive under those conditions. At the end the track started to dry and everybody rushed out. It was nearly not possible to find a clear passage in those few minutes left.” Nevertheless Nico realizes a 4th time but due to a red flag situation he is not able to confirm and ends finally on P20.

On Friday the pilots got the traditional day-off, but discussed their strategy, trained the pilots change, and paid attention to nutrition to be in perfect condition for the race which is physically and mentally very tough.

Nico was chosen by his team to take the start of the race. “On a nearly dry track (only some drizzle) I took a firm but controlled start and could overtake several cars during the first laps. After an incident the safety car came on the track. I drove on P14 but already felt troubles with the power steering, causing dangerous situations and I had to come in. Due to the repairs we lost 20 laps and our chances to win… Afterwards I came back on the track and was happy to be able to drive a double stint of 3h. Shortly after I handed the wheel to Eric another car ran into ours and we had to quit the race”.

“Thanks to the fantastic job by team Vita4One we did all that we could to bring this race to a happy conclusion but racing stays a mechanical sport … Nevertheless I would like to thank my fans, our partner ALD-automotive and their VIP guests for their presence and their support.”

The next race for the Bancpain Endurance Championship will be organized at Magny-Cours (France) on Saturday August 27th.

Source : Nico Verdonck