BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS have won the Total 24 Hours of Spa. The winning car was the No. 46 BMW Z4 driven by Nick Catsburg, Lucas Luhr, and Markus Palttala. Audi teams WRT and Phoenix took the second and third places.

The race started yesterday afternoon in rainy conditions. McLarens of Von Ryan Racing were leading the early moments of the race. The defending winners in the No. 1 car of Audi Sport Team WRT took the lead before the two-hour mark by not pitting for slick tires when the track was drying. That decision paid off as soon it started to rain again and everybody had to pit for wet tires.

The No. 1 Audi was leading the race until Laurens Vanthoor went off after almost six hours of racing and the car lost six laps while being repaired. The No. 99 Mercedes of ROWE Racing inherited the lead from them.

The track had dried during the night and remained dry since then. The No. 45 BMW of Team Marc VDS and the No. 2 Audi of Team WRT had overtaken the No. 99 Mercedes during the night. The No. 46 BMW had lost time in the evening by switching to slick tires too early but it had caught the No. 99 Mercedes by the morning. The No. 46 also had to serve a drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags in the morning, which also cost it time.

The BMWs of Team Marc VDS were the fastest cars in the morning. The leading No. 45 was pulling away from the No. 2 Audi and the No. 46 had overtaken the No. 99 Mercedes.

Then at just under six hours to go, the No. 45 BMW spun and couldn't continue. The No. 2 Audi inherited the lead but soon Nick Catsburg in the No. 46 BMW overtook it to take Team Marc VDS back into lead.

Since then the No. 46 BMW lead the race in front of the No. 2 Audi and the No. 99 Mercedes. The No. 46 was increasing its gap to the No. 2 and the No. 99 didn't have the pace to challenge the No. 2. The No. 99 seemed also to be safe from the fourth-placed No. 5 car of Audi Sport Team Phoenix. But with only 45 minutes to go, the third-placed Mercedes had to retire because of an issue with the electronics and too high water temperatures in the engine systems. That promoted the No. 5 Audi to third place.

An entry worth noting is the No. 240 car, BMW Racing Against Cancer. It was a car of Team Marc VDS driving three stints of 24 minutes, raising money and getting awareness for the Belgian Foundation against Cancer.

Another notable entry was the No. 9 BMW of Roal Motorsport, driven by Alex Zanardi, Timo Glock, and Bruno Spengler. The two-time CART champion lost his legs in a racing accident in 2001 but has been able to continue racing with a specially equipped car. This was his first participation in a 24-hour race. The No. 9 car was in the top 10 before a mechanical retirement just an hour before the finish.

In the end, the No. 46 car of BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS won the race with a gap of one minute and 21 seconds to the No. 2 car of Audi Sport Team WRT. The No. 5 car of Audi Sport Team Phoenix took the third place, one lap behind the winner. The winner of the Pro-Am Cup class, the No. 47 Ferrari of AF Corse, had a strong race and finished fourth overall. The win of the Am Cup class went to the No. 24 Audi of Team Parker Racing, finishing 14th overall.

This was the first Spa 24 Hours win for the Team Marc VDS drivers. Luhr and Palttala drove for the team last year when they finished second. This is the last year the team is running the BMW Z4 as the manufacturer will replace it next year with a new M6 GT3 race car.

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Kalle Tyynelä is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @FINdyCar.

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About the author
Kalle Tyynelä
Motorsports and alpine skiing writer. Also interested in tennis and sports business.