Spa 24: Tomas Enge preview

Enge to race Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago at Spa 24 hours

Tomas Enge is going to race the 24 hours Spa with a Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT of the GT1 class run by the IPB Spartak Reiter Engineering team. He will share the car with Russian Roman Rusinov and two Dutch drivers, ex-F1 driver Jan Lammers and Peter Kox with whom he raced together in various teams in the past. The Czech driver learned the news from his manager Antonin Charouz when he was travelling to Poznan for the Czech championship races.

Long 24 hours races are those which Tomas likes a lot. Many of his successes were scored at the most known of them - Le Mans. He raced also at Daytona, Nurburgring Nordschleife and also at Spa. The new engagement means that it will be his fourth 24 hours Spa race. The Belgian race will be again the highlight of the FIA GT championship.

His first start at Spa was in 1999 when he shared a BMW 320i with Jenson Button and David Saelens. The race was not part of the FIA GT championship at that time and there were mainly touring cars on the big grid. Tomas scored is best result at Spa two years ago when he finished fourth. One of his team-mates in an Aston Martin DBR9 was also Peter Kox and they will again fight together next week.

The IPB Spartak Reiter Engineering team have been racing mainly in the Le Mans Series, FIA GT and ADAC GT Masters this year. The team is currently second in the Le Mans Series GT1 team standings and their drivers Kox and Rusinov are third in the driver standings. Hans Reiter has a rich motorsport history. He put up together his team in 2000 but he had been involved with successful projects even before. For example with BMW win at 24 Heures du Mans and Sebring 12 hours in 1999.

Tomas Enge: "I will taste another GT1 car which is always interesting. I am curious to learn about Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT, I will drive it in the free practices for the first time. I like the Belgian track and also its endurance race. I am looking forward to work again with Peter Kox. He is a great team-mate and we did a lot of races together. The best memory is from 2003 when we won 24 Heures du Mans. Together with Jamie Davies we won the GTS class."

Antonin Charouz: "Hans Reiter is my long-time friend and we work together for many years. For example, this year we work on running a Lamborghini Gallardo Evo in the Czech championship. When Hans asked me that he would like Tomas for Spa I started negotiations immediately. Tomas is a factory Aston Martin driver and obviously he had to receive an approval for start with a different team. When we got it there was nothing againstthe start at Spa."

Tomas Enge and 24h Spa
1999 -- BMW 320i, Team Fina Rafanelli, teammates Jenson Buton, David Saelens, DNF
2006 -- Aston Martin DBR9, Aston Martin Racing BMS, teammates Peter Kox, Fabio Babini, Christian Pescatori, 4th
2007 -- Ferrari F430, Scuderia Ecosse, teammates Jarek Janis, Tim Mullen, Johnny Kane, DNF
2008 -- Lamborghini Murcielago IPB Spartak Reiter Engineering, teammates Jan Lammers, Peter Kox, Roman Rusinov

-credit: tomas-enge.com.