Augusto Farfus and his BMW Team Schnitzer driving team-mates, Martin Tomczyk and John Edwards, put in a great fighting performance at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – only to end up empty-handed.
As the temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius during qualifying, the trio were only able to make it to 31st on the grid, before putting on an impressive chasing performance in the #42 BMW M6 GT3 during the first half of the race.
Tomczyk began the race in difficult, rainy conditions before handing over to Farfus, who made up plenty of ground with some spectacular overtaking manoeuvres. After six hours, the first point at which points were awarded for the drivers’ standings in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Farfus and his team-mates were already in the top ten.
During the night, the #42 BMW M6 GT3 moved up to third place and seemed to be in with a chance of a podium finish. However, the drivers were not at fault for the accident that occurred just before the halfway point of the race. Edwards was hit from the rear by another car and sent spinning. The damage to the car was so severe that he and his team-mates Farfus and Tomczyk had to retire from the race. Shortly after the accident, the worsening weather conditions saw the red flag come out and the race suspended.
“It is difficult to put this into words,” said a disappointed Farfus. “The race was looking very promising. The track temperature was in our favour and we worked really well together as a team. I think we had a good pace and we did mount a superb chasing performance. The conditions at the end were extremely difficult and it was a very unlucky situation for John. But that’s motorsport.”
