24h of SPA : Karim Ojjeh Race report

A well-deserved Podium at the infamous Spa circuit – FINALLY!

FP1: it was honestly a “total” disaster.  The schedule only allowed for 25 minutes.  With three red flags it only lasted 10 minutes!!!  Thank God I knew the circuit well.

FP2: building up the confidence especially at Raidillon – 240 km/h before the hill, small lift and up you go!

Qualifying: obvious frustration at times due to traffic. Rather than stopping to get a clear lap, I decided to keep pushing and to find my rhythm.  It paid off as I qualified P3 !

24H of Spa : Qualifying race

I really need to work on my starts.  I lost close to 5 positions at the start on the first corner.  There was a big crash after the first corner behind me and cars spun in front of me at Les Combles, the first chicane. Full Course yellow (all cars at 80 km/h) was deployed followed by the safety car (all cars behind the safety car).  By the time all the cars were evacuated we only had 8 minutes to race. I managed to step up my game after the restart and finished P5, with the fasted lap of the race!

24H of Spa : main race

All the usual suspects were in the front.  I had a better start at P5 but still got passed by 4 cars!!!  Another major accident occurred at the final chicane of the first lap and it took the marshals close to 20 minutes to move the car, leaving us only 12 minutes of racing.  At the restart behind the safety car, I was P6 and put my head down!  3 laps to go, I passed 2 cars in one lap, thus P4. The third place car was 5 seconds ahead.  At the end of this next lap, I caught up and passed him in the last chicane. I was too far to catch the other cars, but finishing P3 was a great result!

You can watch the last 15 minutes of the race here :

Cheers and enjoy the pictures !

Karim Ojjeh