In the pressed race schedule for the second half of the year of 2020, another perseverance filled feature is unavoidable for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps (22-25 October). With ten Mercedes-AMG GT3s, the exhibition and sports vehicle brand from Affalterbach has the largest liability among those that will contend in the 72^nd running of the work of art. One vehicle each for AKKA ASP Team and Haupt Racing Team will race with broadened works backing and positions among the top choices at the seven kilometers in length track in the Belgian Ardennes.

After three platform results from the previous four years, Mercedes-AMG Motorsport is once again reaching skyward for the 72nd running of the Total 24 Hours of Spa: with an immense unexpected at a sum of ten Mercedes-AMG GT3s including two Performance vehicles, a top outcome is the objective at the rollercoaster circuit in the Ardennes.  The head of Mercedes, AMG Customer Racing, Stefan Wendl said about the Spa 24 hour race, “For us, the Spa 24-hour race again ranks among the highlights of the season this year. We are competing with a strong line-up of ten Mercedes-AMG GT3s in order to score both a good overall result and to have success in the various classes. Moreover, for some of our teams and drivers, titles in the GT World Challenge Europe are at stake as well. Similar to the Nürburgring recently, I am expecting a very hard-fought endurance race in which minor details will be decisive. Due to the unusual date in autumn, the share of night time running is bigger than normally which poses an additional challenge to our teams. But we are prepared very well for that, not in the least thanks to the test days at the end of September.”

Close to the Nürburgring 24-hour race, the opposition at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps positions among the features of the GT3 season and has an in like manner excellent passage. To prevail in the solid field of the best GT3 groups and drivers, Mercedes-AMG has entered one vehicle, each one of the AKKA ASP and HRT groups with broadened works uphold. The drivers of these two vehicles have been among the head class in GT perseverance dashing for quite a long time. The #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by Mercedes-AMG Team HRT will have the third-put couple from a year ago race at Spa, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz (both GER) just as the sprinter up from the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, Vincent Abril (FRA) as its drivers.

In the interim, FIA GT World Cup victor Raffaele Marciello (ITA) will be sharing driving obligations in the #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP vehicle with the 2019 Blancpain GT Endurance Cup Silver Cup champions, Timur Boguslavskyi (RUS) and Felipe Fraga (BRA). The two teams have affirmed their elite level by scoring platform completes in the Endurance races of the GT World Challenge this year too. The AKKA ASP Team’s threesome is right now in runner up of the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup drivers’ and groups’ standings and can make sure about additional significant focuses in the title fight at Spa.

With an aggregate of three Mercedes-AMG GT3s, AKKA ASP Team has the biggest section among the Customer Racing Teams. Close to the #88 Performance vehicle, the French group is likewise running the vehicle with beginning number 87 that has previous football world cup champ Fabien Barthez (FRA) among its drivers, just as the number 89 passage. Haupt Racing Team has entered another Mercedes-AMG GT3 that will focus on a top outcome in the Silver Cup and has group proprietor Hubert Haupt (GER) as one of its drivers.

Five further top groups from GT hustling will be assaulting with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 at Spa also. Client Racing Teams SPS car execution, RAM Racing and JP Motorsport are contending in the Pro-Am arrangement while the HTP-Winward Motorsport and Madpanda Motorsport GT3s will fight for a top situation in the Silver Cup positioning. All groups are exceptionally energetic and gotten the opportunity to get ready seriously for the perseverance hustling exemplary during two days of testing at Spa toward the finish of September. Like in the past 24-hour races at Spa, groups and drivers can not just score focuses for the GT World Cup Europe characterizations, yet in addition for the Intercontinental GT Challenge, in which Mercedes-AMG has odds of winning the producers’ title.

At the event of the 10^th commemoration of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing, the #4 Haupt Racing Team GT3 will be donning an uncommon commemoration attire during the race. The uncommon shading plan underlines the unique importance that the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race has for the Customer Racing Program, yet in addition for the AMG brand. The achievement of the SLS AMG GT3 at the Ardennes circuit in 2013 was the 100^th triumph since the beginning of the Customer Racing Program. The exciting accomplishment of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL AMG in the race in 1971 is the main significant achievement in AMG’s motorsport history.

Mercedes-AMG Team HRT (#4), team member, Luca Stolz expressed his excitement regarding the race with the following words,  “I am really happy that I will be present again for the 24-hour race at Spa. That is always one of the highlights of the season. For me, it will already be my fifth participation there. We are very confident for the race and we will be aiming at one of the podium slots. After all, we have some unfinished business after the difficult 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. But with a podium success in the GT World Challenge Europe at the Nürburgring, we have shown that we are fully competitive. The test days were very positive for us as well. Surely, conditions will be difficult as, due to the changed race date, rather cold and rainy weather is to be expected. However, we are in a very good position.”

Echoing his sentiments, LuRaffaele Marciello, Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP (#88): “I can hardly await the race at Spa. Together with the Nürburgring 24-hour race, it is the biggest event of the year. After the unfortunate turn of events at the Nordschleife, I am even more motivated for Spa. We are racing to win there. However, many others have this goal, too, so therefore, it is important to be perfectly prepared. It will be a long race with many hours of racing in the dark and we have to be prepared for difficult weather conditions again. We have a demanding weekend ahead of us, but I am already very much looking forward to it.”

Surprisingly, the current year’s 24-hour race at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is held in winter/fall time. That likewise implies an extra test for the groups as the length of evening running is extensively longer than expected. The strange occasion date likewise prompts another uncommon component: during the race, at 3 am on Sunday, the time is changing from late spring to winter time and timekeepers are set in reverse by 60 minutes. Because of the current Covid-19 circumstance, the race will take place only privately .

Line-up Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, 24h Spa:

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Debojyoti Sinha

This is Debojyoti Sinha from Durgapur, West Bengal. He has graduated from Media Science from Maulana Abul kalam Azad University of Technology. Currently he is pursuing MBA in Media Business Management from Makhanlal Chaturbedi National university of Journalism and Mass Communication. His interest lies in any creative or management field of media.
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