BMW M Motorsport competed in their third 24-hour race in three weeks this past weekend of June 28-29, 2025, in Belgium with the Spa 24 Hour race. In the previous two weeks, BMW teams and drivers had competed in the Nürburgring 24 Hour and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. BMW was in a strong position late in the Spa race for a podium finish but ultimately ended up with three cars in the top ten.
The Spa 24 Hour features only GT3-spec cars and there were a whopping 74 on the entry this year. In qualifying, five M4 GT3 EVO entries made it into the “Superpole” shootout for the top twenty fastest cars from the previous qualifying sessions. Dries Vanthoor initially qualified third in the #31 car, but was penalized for crossing the pit exit loop earlier than the allocated time and moved back.
Spa 24 Hour entries drove through town before the race weekend got underway.
The fastest BMW in qualifying ended up being the #98 M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, and Raffaele Marciello in fourteenth in the PRO class and overall, with the pole going to the #59 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO. In the Silver class, the #42 Century Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO was on the pole, and the #991 Paradine Competition BMW qualified second in the Bronze class.
In the race, it became clear that the BMWs didn’t have the pace to fight for a win, but some of them managed to be competitive with consistent driving and strong pit stops. The #98 car of Farfus, Krohn, and Marciello was the most competitive overall of the BMW entries and were battling for position in the top three late in the race, but Marciello was given a 30-second penalty after the race for exceeding track limits. The penalty dropped from the third to fifth. “It has been a bitter end for us,” said Farfus. “We gave it all. It was difficult to keep the car on track, so I feel sorry for Lello (Marciello). I think a podium was in our reach, but no more. We executed the race very well, apart from this very little mistake with the track limits. The team did perfect pit stops, the strategy and everything were also perfect. It was so close but then so far away.”
BMW had 21 GT3 and GT4 entries over the Spa race weekend.
There were other BMW entries in the top ten overall. The #32 Team WRT car of Ugo de Wilde, Charles Weerts, and Kelvin van der Linde finished seventh, and the #31 team car of Sheldon van der Linde, Marco Wittmann, and Dries Vanthoor finished in eighth. The #998 ROWE RACING car of Dan Harper, Max Hesse, and Philipp Eng was competitive for much of the race but lost ground during a caution period and later had to retire due to suspension damage. The #46 WRT entry of Valentino Rossi, Rene Rast, and Kevin Magnussen (who was making his GT3 debut for BMW) finished in eleventh. The overall winner was the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini. “That was a disappointing race for us,” said WRT Team Principal Vincent Vosse. “I think we BMW M Motorsport teams made the best of the resources available to us. Fifth, seventh, and eighth places reflect the balance of power quite well from my perspective. It’s a shame that we couldn’t fight for victory at our home race this time.”
Century Motorsport finished on the podium in the Silver class.
In the Silver class, the #42 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO driven by Jarrod Waberski, Will Moore, and Mex Jansen finished on the podium in third. In the GT4 Europe race that preceded the 24 Hour, Gabrile Piana, and Berkay Besler won race two in their Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport M4 GT4 EVO and finished a strong fourth in race one.
The Spa 24 Hour was a round in both the GT World Challenge Europe series and the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) championship. Next up for GT World Challenge Europe is a Sprint Cup race at the Misano circuit in Italy on July 18th-20th. The next race in IGTC is the Suzuka 1000KM race in Japan on September 12th-14th, followed by the season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October. With the two rounds still to go in Japan and here in the US, BMW is leading the IGTC manufacturer points over Porsche, and Augusto Farfus is leading the driver points.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
