Total 24 Hours of Spa proved to be the great challenge that Insight Racing with Flex-Box expected. After a flying start in practice, the Danish team was hampered with brake issues during the qualifying sessions.
A lowly starting position did not bode well for the Ferrari outfit, but a 24 hour race is normally not decided during qualifying or the first few hours. As the Insight Racing team experienced, a lot can happen, though.
In a strategic move, the pro driver Martin Jensen should pick up places during the first few hours of the race to lay the foundation for a points scoring result. Three major crashes in the first hours meant something along two hours behind the safety car – thus with no chance of overtaking.
The rest of the race went rather smoothly for the Danish team. A high speed off for Dennis Andersen meant an extra visit to the pits for repairs, luckily without major drama.
Insight Racing with Flex-Box drivers Martin Jensen, Dennis Andersen and Jason Yeomans finished 12th in the Pro/Am class and 23rd overall. 61 cars started the race weekend.
The next race of the BlancPain Endurance Series is the season finale at Germany’s Nürburgring on September 19-21.
Top five in BlancPain Endurance Series, round 4 at Spa-Francorchamps:
1 Laurens Vanthoor, Markus Winkelhock, Rene Rast, Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, Audi R8 LMS Ultra, 527 laps
2 Lucas Luhr, Dirk Werner, Markus Paltalla, BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS, BMW Z4, +7,077 secs
3 Christopher Mies, Frank Stippler, James Nash, Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, Audi R8 LMS Ultra, + 1 lap
4 Stephane Ortelli, Edward Sandström, Gregory Guilvert, Sainteloc Racing, Audi R8 LMS Ultra, +2 laps
5 Maximilian Buhk, Maximilian Götz, Jazeman Jaafar, HTP Motorsport, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, + 4 laps
23 Dennis Andersen, Martin Jensen, Jason Yeomans, Insightracing with Flex-Box, Ferrari 458 Italia, +25 laps
Martin Jensen, driver and Team Manager:
“We arrived with a more or less new car, but quite soon we experienced something odd with the brakes. Suddenly Jason stopped on the track with all four brakes locked. We found an issue with the ABS system and rectified it. Although we managed to get out in qualifying, we didn’t really have the time to set a competitive lap time.
Dennis started out in the car, got a fine start and stayed out of trouble – and there was plenty of it in the beginning. I got in the car soon after in order to try and gain places, but then all went awry with lots of crashes and three consecutive safety car periods. It was necessary with the very violent crashes during the first ours, but very unfortunate for our strategy, as I spent two of my first three hours at sightseeing speed around the track.
All in all it was an ok result. We would have liked to score some points, but the circumstances did not allow us. It was a very tough race – more a 24 hour sprint race to the flag than a classic endurance race. The pace and effort from teams and drivers have been turned up quite a bit since last year.
Finally, the car was fantastic, the team worked well with brilliant pitstops, and it was a great pleasure to share the car with Jason this time.”
Dennis Andersen, driver:
”This year’s 24 hour race was a very dramatic one – especially the first hours that saw a lot of crashes and lengthy safety car periods at a time when we had Martin in the car. This wasn’t the best way to make use of his competencies behind the wheel.
Unfortunately I made a mistake during the night spinning off the track at 200 km/h. I was lucky it only cost us a damaged front splitter on the car, but that meant 18 minutes stationary in the pits for repairs. The team did a truly great job, though.”
Jason Yeomans, driver:
“We had major brake issues in qualifying which slowed us down drastically, meaning we started 42nd. We knew the car would be good in the race after we sorted the brakes and were confident that we could move up the order as the race progressed. Unfortunately there were many accidents and safety car periods which slowed our progress in the first few hours, including a red flag.
My first stint was in the dark which was fine but the lights on the car are not great so it was difficult to see turn in points and apexes. Anyway I managed to keep pushing and make some progress and we stayed safe throughout the night. Unfortunately Dennis had an off in the night when he was distracted by the flashing lights of the front runners.
As morning came, I struggled with grip in my first early-morning stint so we made a little change to the car between my stints and it was great so I was able to really push. The higher temperatures of the day caused us some grip problems and made it tough in the car when you are tired, but apart from that, it was good. The car ran faultlessly throughout the race and we had no mechanical issues or punctures which is testament to the brilliant team at Insight. It was great to be a part of the whole thing, it’s just a shame we couldn’t manage to get on the podium – which I believed was possible – that would have been a great way to thank the team!”