While we're having a breather, time for some 24 Hours of Spa factoids. You'll thank me later when these come up in a pub quiz... maybe if that pub happens to be in the town of Francorchamps. Anyway...
- The Spa 24 Hours was held for the first time in 1924
- Unlike the Le Mans 24 Hours, it is an event that isn't specifically associated with being a sportscar race - In fact, it's a title applied to different disciplines over the years, including the European Touring Car Championship
- Race moved towards sportscars format in the early-90s but wasn't apportioned to any one championship, attracting different categories of car
- For Belgians, the race is rather notorious for the death of Baudouin of Belgium - otherwise known as King Baudouin or King of the Belgians - who died in an accident while competing in 1993
- A return of touring cars to the end of the 90s saw some curious additions to the grid, our favourite being the Peugeot 806 people-carrier turned Procar oddity [pictured below]. I mean, you thought the Valve 850 Estate BTCC car was weird…
- The event settled on a sportscars format from 2001 with some iconic machines tasting victory including the 2001 Chrysler Viper [top], 2005 Maserati MC12 [left], 2007 Corvette [middle], 2011 Audi R8 (centre and first of four]
- The most successful racer at the Spa 24 Hours is local hero and ex-F1 driver Eric van de Poele with five successes to his name
- BMW is the dominant winner among the manufacturers - largely thanks to the ubiquitously dominant touring car era - with 24 wins