Jazeman Jaafar is off to Spa in Belgium this weekend to compete in the Total 24 Hours of Spa race, one of the blue riband events of sportscar racing. The ultimate challenge, a twice round-the-clock endurance distance, is the jewel in the crown of the Blancpain GT Series and Jazeman will be piloting the #84 HTP Motorsport AMG Mercedes GT3 for this event.
A grid of 65 cars will line up for the start of the race on Saturday afternoon, with Jazeman sharing his car with seasoned racers Dominik Baumann and Maxi Buhk, his regular team mates in the Endurance Series. The weekend starts on Wednesday with a Drivers Parade from the circuit to the town of Spa and an all-drivers autograph session in the centre, for the fans. The on track action starts on Thursday afternoon, with qualifying held in dusk and darkness. A ‘Super Pole’ session for the top 20 cars takes place on Friday, with the race warm up session on Saturday morning.
It will be Jazeman’s second appearance in this classic endurance race, with the Malaysian having made his debut two years ago when he finished fifth, driving the HTP Motorsport SLS AMG GT3, his first race outing with the German HTP Motorsport team.
Jazeman looks ahead to Spa saying, “I haven’t raced for a few weeks so I can’t wait to be back in the car – and I’ll have plenty of time behind the wheel this week, especially with eight hours of racing ahead for me, all things being well. I love the Spa track, so this is definitely one of my favourite races. It’s really tough, both mentally and physically, when you have to drive in daytime and at night, with potentially different weather conditions as well, but I love this sort of challenge. Being part of a team, there’s a whole crew of dedicated mechanics, engineers and strategists, as well as my team mates, mean that success is a sum of the parts and everyone plays a part in winning, or losing.”
“The goal is, of course, to win,” adds Jazeman. “and to do that everything has to work perfectly, with pace, reliability, good driving and strong strategy, but even that might not be enough, as there are 64 other cars all with the same aim. It’s a huge challenge, but that’s what makes this such an exciting, addictive sport. I’m very proud to be part of the team – and as the only Asian in the race, I’m also flying the flag for all my compatriots.”
The 68th running of the Total 24 Hours of Spa promises to be one of the most closely fought GT races of the last decade, with nine different manufacturers represented on the grid.
The race will be shown live online at GT World TV Youtube channel and also live in Europe on selected TV stations. Fox Sports Asia will show a highlights package, check local listings for timings.
Event Timetable
Wednesday July 27th
Parade Spa 16:00
Autograph session 17:00-18 :00
Thursday July 28th
Free Practice 13:20-14:50
Pre-Qualifying 17:45-18:45
Qualifying 20:00-21:15
Night Qualifying 21:45-23:45
Friday July 29th
Super Pole 18:00-18:30
Saturday July 30th
Warm Up 09:05-09:25
Starting procedure & Grid walk 15:40-16:30
Start of the Total 24 hours of Spa 16:30
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