Williams on class podium for Spa 24

The star of young Aussie Calan Williams continues to rise for Team WRT, finishing P2 in the Gold Cup at his 24 Hours of Spa debut.

In his first year of GT racing after making the switch from Formula 2, Williams has taken to the GT World Challenge Europe strongly alongside his #30 BMW M4 GT3 teammates.

Williams/Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer/Niklas Krutten started in P45 and fifth in class, and powered their WRT BMW into P14 by race end, +1:22.211s back on the winning Pro cup team in the Rowe Racing BMW.

After starting in P45, Williams and the #30 WRT BMW team fought back in outright P14, and Silver class P2.

After taking a podium on debut at the Monza 6 Hour, then a Sprint Cup victory at Brands Hatch, Williams and the #30 team have started the season strongly.

“The weekend started off quite tricky, but in the race, we maximised the result we could achieve,” Williams said. 

“We stayed strong, made no mistakes, kept pushing and were consistent. Eventually, it paid off, and we got good points for the championship.”

The young Aussie had some important stints, putting the BMW into class P1 after his two teammates made up 27 positions early.

Despite briefly dropping off the podiums spots, the team fought its way back Into P2 after losing a minute under a Safety Car intervention and erasing a one minute class lead. They finished one lap behind the leading Gold Cup McLaren 720S GT3 EVO, and one lap in front of the third placed Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II in P21 overall.

The first few hours saw the #30 team make up 27 places to be in the podium spots through the difficult night hours

It was a difficult day all up for the WRT outfit with a couple of retirements, with the Valentino Rossi led team finishing P6 overall and sixth in class.

 “I am extremely disappointed by the final results in Pro… our best-placed car, #32, was put out of the race by an incident provoked by confusing instructions coming from the race direction. It’s difficult to accept at this level of competition,” Team Principal Vincent Vosse said, “ the Gold Cup brings home the best takeaway of the weekend.”

It was a mixed day of results all up for the nine Aussie drivers, with WAU Supercars driver Chaz Mostert taking a memorable class win in the Pro Am after he, Martin Konrad, Nicky Catsburg, Adam Osieka fought into P22 outright in a replacement Mercedes AMG following fellow Aussie Kenny Habul’s crash in pre-qualifying, ruling both the car and Habul out of contention.

Mostert and the SunEnergy1 team took a Pro Am class victory after starting from pit lane

After starting on class pole, Ricky Capo and the GRT-Grasser Racing Lamborghini – alongside teammates Fabrizio Crestani and Sam Neary – had to retire after 188 laps in a disappointing end to a promising weekend, one of 22 cars that didn’t make it to the finish line.

The Grove Racing Porsche 911 of Stephen and Brenton Grove, Anton De Pasqaule and Earl Bamber finished in P45 outright, whilst Jordan Love finished fifth in class and P24 outright in the Haupt Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.

Finishing a very respectable Ninth in Bronze class and P32 outright was the GetSpeed Mercedes with Aussie Alex Peroni on board, finally getting the #3 to the chequered flag after two endurance DNF’s at Monza and Pual Ricard, as well as recovering from a P63 start – 20th in class.

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