Singaporean Racing Driver Sean Hudspeth crosses the line to finish P8 in the 2023 Spa 24 Hours, the biggest GT Race in the world!
It was a difficult start to the weekend with Sean having little to no experience in the car, having completed only 11 laps in the 2 day official test a month prior. To make matters worse, the team had to sit out the first 15 minutes of free practice 1 due to a regulation infringement.
Things didn’t get any easier in qualifying with Sean having to do his first time at night in qualifying and with torrential rain hampering visibility. Nevertheless, the team managed to qualify the car P36 overall out of 71 and P12 in the bronze class.
Dylan had a good start and managed to hand over the car to Andrey in P14, however between the two of them they got a 10 second time penalty at the pitstop for track limits. Moreover, Andrey lost 30 positions in 2 laps after the safety car restart, dropping them to P44 overall.
Sean overtook 5 class competitors in his first stint until he was hit by the silver cup Lamborghini which put the steering out of alignment but fortunately, by the end of the first hour of his stint, the angle went back to normal. The drink system in the car wasn’t working which made things even more challenging!
During Sean’s 2nd stint, the race control pressed the FCY button by mistake and by the time it was cancelled, Sean got overtaken by 10 cars while travelling at FCY speed and all his hard work was undone. Shortly after, Sean was hit and spun round in the last corner by the class leading Porsche which later received a 10 second time penalty.
As we went into the night, things didn’t get any easier! Dylan’s received a 15 second time penalty during his second stint for accidentally starting the car on the jacks in the pitstop. Andrey later got a 30 second penalty for track limits. Kikko got a puncture and unfortunately during the driver change from him to Sean the car went into 2nd gear when it dropped off the jacks and Sean left the box on the pit limiter in 2nd gear which is FCY speed. By the time Sean realised it was too late and they later received a drive through penalty.
However, at a safety car restart, Sean managed to overtake 10 cars (5 in class) in 2 laps and the rest of the drivers and team did an incredibly job to bring the car home in P28 overall out of 71 and P8 in class out of 22.