The end of the sixth hour of the 2014 Total 24 Hours of Spa came with the race once more under the safety car. However, on this occasion is was as the race restarted after being held stationary under a red flag for an hour after a horrible crash involving a pair of Ferraris.
The incident involved Vadim Kogay in the #333 GT Corse by Rinaldi entry and Marcus Mahy in the #111 Kessel Racing machine. The red flag was necessary as Mahy was airlifted to a local hospital, the most recent update at the time of writing being that his condition had been stabilised prior to the airlift.
The field was stopped on the track for an hour, save for the #3 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entry which Christopher Mies brought into the pits. The team’s thought was that they could perform work in the pits throughout the red flag, but would only have to serve a single drive through penalty. As the red flag was pulled in the #3 went back out into the lead, but the spectre of the penalty – and the potential for controversy lurking in the background.
Under the red flag Mies led the Sainteloc Racing Audi with the #84 HTP Mercedes in third. Lying fifth at the time was the #77 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS. The team led the race once more before the red flag, Markus Palttala again showing the BMW’s ability to run longer stints than the Audis and Mercedes elsewhere at the front of the race. When they did, eventually, pit they dropped down to 7th with Lucas Luhr at the wheel.
He regained one position before the red flag, when Richard Abra pitted the MP Motorsport AMR from the lead of the Pro-Am Cup class. The lead of the race then passed to Steve Wyatt in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari, before his stop gave the class lead back to the Ecurie Ecosse run BMW. They were ninth under the red flag.
The minutes between the lifting of the red flag and the end of the sixth hour included several pitstops, the order in the classes shuffled once again.
Total 24 Hours of Spa class standings after 6 hours:
Pro Cup
1 – #3 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (Mies/Nash/Stippler)
2 – #26 Sainteloc Racing (Guilvert/Ortelli/Sandstrom)
3 – #84 HTP Motorsport (Primat/Schneider/Verdonck)
4 – #1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (Rast/Vanthoor/Winkelhock)
5 – #77 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS (Luhr/Palttala/Werner)
Pro-Am Cup
1 – #79 Ecurie Ecosse (Bryant/McCaig/Sims/Smith)
2 – #90 Scuderia Villoba Corse (Castellacci/Gai/Montermini/Rizzoli)
3 – #38 MP Motorsport AMR (Abra/Osborne/Poole/Turner)
Gentlemen Trophy
1 – #42 Sport Garage (Bontempelli/Broniszewki/Frezza/Piccini)
2 – #51 AF Corse (Guedes/Mann/Mezard/Talkanista)
3 – #25 Sainteloc Racing (Buffin/Gosselin/Haezebrouck/Rostan)
