Porsche and Dumas triumph at Spa

Porsche ne s?était plus imposée au classement général des 24 Heures de Spa depuis 2003, lors de la première victoire de? Romain Dumas. Cette année-là, le Cévenol, en s?imposant à bord d?une Porsche 911 GT3 RS, avait déjà réalisé un exploit aux côtés de Marc Lieb et Stéphane Ortelli. En effet, les trois hommes avaient gagné avec une voiture de la catégorie NGT, face aux GT1, en profitant des performances de la Porsche sous la pluie.

Seven years later, Porsche returned to success at the same time as Romain Dumas. Once again, the Alésien was not driving the fastest car, the BMW M3 being more efficient. But an exit of the car of the leaders (Dirk Werner, Dirk Adorf, Dirk Müller) half an hour from the end of the double clock allowed the crew of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR n°23 of BMS Team Italia to seek victory.

Romain Dumas, Jörg Bergmeister, Martin Ragginger and Wolf Henzler therefore won the 24 2010 Hours of Spa and, at the same time, won the FIA ​​GT2 European Cup. But, for Romain Dumas, the feat lies elsewhere. The Frenchman became the second driver in history to do the double, the same year, 24 Hours of Le Mans – 24 Hours of Spa, after Luigi Chinetti (1949, with a Ferrari 166 MM).

Romain Dumas therefore joins the honor roll of endurance races, following this extraordinary performance. In addition, this Sunday, the official Porsche driver won his sixth 24 Hour race in the general classification, not counting the category victories: 24 Hours of Le Mans (2010), 24 Hours of Spa (2003, 2010), 24 Hours of Nürburgring (2007, 2008, 2009).

« I am obviously very happy to have won, confides Romain Dumas. It was a difficult edition because I was not at my best with a bad migraine on Saturday evening. In addition, we had to drive in the rain. It was a waiting race. There were five cars on the same lap, we had to not make any mistakes. We didn't do any. We didn?t have the fastest car and we didn?t expect the BMW to come out at that point in the race. For Porsche, it was important to win this race after BMW's victory at the Nürburgring. It's like revenge. For me, it?s quite exceptional, especially since no driver had done the Le Mans double? Spa for over sixty years! »

Find a complete report on the 24 Hours of Spa in AUTOhebdo, on sale from Wednesday.