The Spa 24 Hours has seen plenty of change since its first iteration in 1924, one year after the inaugural around-the-clock event at Le Mans, and not just to its famous undulating ribbon of tarmac. The event formed part of the SportsCar World Championship in 1953 and 1981, but for most of its history, it was a touring car event as the European Touring Car Championship’s crown jewel before taking on its current guise as a GT race in 2001.
The onset of the GT3 era a decade later has bumped its appeal up a notch or two, as the biggest GT3-only event going regularly draws a bumper grid of 60-plus cars that are all capable of producing the same lap time depending on their calibre of drivers.
Whereas Le Mans recently endured several years of minimal manufacturer representation in the top class, the Spa 24 Hours hasn’t faced the same issue with outright wins spread around between five different manufacturers since 2011. Audi and BMW lead the way on four, Mercedes and Porsche have two apiece while Ferrari scored its first since 2004 with its stunning late triumph in 2021.
Given its years of tin-top domination, BMW has comfortably the most wins of any manufacturer in the race’s history, so perhaps it was only fitting that a third win this year made Philipp Eng the most successful driver of the closely-fought GT3 era so far. Only Eric van de Poele (five), plus four-time winners Jean-Michel Martin and Thierry Tassin, have won it more than the amiable Austrian, a part of the lineup every time a BMW has crossed the line first since his maiden triumph in 2016.
Each has been with different team-mates too. He was joined in the winning M4 GT3 this year by Nick Yelloly and Marco Wittmann, Eng’s second victory for the Rowe team with which he gave the M6 GT3 its first major accolade in 2016 alongside Martin’s nephew Maxime and Alexander Sims. The now 33-year-old also prevailed in a one-off entry fielded by Nurburgring specialist Walkenhorst in 2018 with Tom Blomqvist and Christian Krognes, a result that put the team firmly on the map.
Eng’s record is perhaps even more impressive given he’s not entered the race every year, putting his conversion rate with BMW at three wins from five starts (his first with McLaren pro-am team MRS GT Racing in 2013 ended in a DNF). So, what is his secret?
Source: Autosport