Technical issues deny Michelle Gatting and Carrie Schreiner strong finishes at the 24 Hours of Spa
- MIKA BÖCKER
- Jul 1
- 7 min read
Michelle Gatting showed podium-contending pace throughout the 24 Hours of Spa, running third for most of the night in the Bronze Cup before lengthy repairs for a technical issue in the final hours dropped the team to seventh in class. Carrie Schreiner made her debut in the 24 Hours of Spa, steadily climbing through the Bronze Cup field before an overnight engine failure forced the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi into retirement.
Both Carrie Schreiner and Michelle Gatting drove strong races at the CrowdStrike Spa 24 Hours before technical issues dashed their hopes of a top result.
The 24 Hours of Spa is considered the world's biggest and toughest race exclusively for GT3 cars. Two women - Carrie Schreiner and Michelle Gatting - took on this challenge in the Bronze classin 2026.
They had to contend with the heat right from qualifying, facing blazing sunshine and temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius.
Schreiner, who races the #88 Tresor Attempto Audi in the full GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season, was making her debut at this spectacular event but remained unfazed. Competing in a packed Bronze class, which featured a host of professional drivers for this endurance race, she and her teammates Sergio Sette Câmara, Daniele Di Amato and Georgios Kolovos secured eighth place in their class. This put them 43rd overall in a field of 69 cars.
Michelle Gatting, a gold-rated driver who has been part of the Iron Dames squad since its inception, has been forced to move into mixed-line ups in 2026, with the all-female team scaling back on its endurance commitments. Gatting has previously raced the 2026 Dubai 24 Hours, and now returned to the track for the first time since then for her second sportscar event of the season, joining the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche alongside Martin Rump, Antares Au and Sven Müller.
Gatting’s team was not far behind, qualifying 11th in class and 55th overall after an unlucky Q2 session duisrupted by red flags saw the team not getting representative times set in that qualifying segment. Both women however had extensive experience in 24-hour races, having competed at the Nürburgring and Le Mans respectively, and, starting from these positions, they could realistically aim for a strong finish by relying on consistent driving.
Schreiner’s #88 car was driven by Di Amato at the start, while Gatting’s #97 was piloted by Sven Müller. On the very first lap, both drivers had to prove their skills by taking evasive action and staying out of trouble. Exiting the Pouhon corner, in fact, several cars ran wide onto the kerbs or even further off-track. The #66 Attempto Racing car collided with an Aston Martin; both vehicles spun across the track before slamming into other competitors or the opposite wall.
Müller and Di Amato had to dodge flying debris and spinning cars. The safety car was deployed due to the accident. By that point, partly thanks to the chaos of the crash, Di Amato had already worked his way up to fifth in class, while Müller had reached ninth.
Even with the safety car on track, the initial charge through the field was far from over. Some cars made stops to switch strategies or have their vehicles checked for debris damage. As a result, Di Amato inherited one position, while Müller gained two. They now sat in 39th and 42nd place overall.
The restart took place after just under 25 minutes - but lasted only a few seconds. A previously damaged BMW's bonnet had disintegrated on the Kemmel Straight during the final safety car lap, leaving behind too much debris. A new Full Course Yellow was quickly declared and a second restart followed a lap later.
Di Amato capitalized on the restart to take third place in class behind Barr. After the Full Course Yellow, Müller found himself stuck behind Heinemann in tenth place in class. The #88 Audi's position proved short-lived, however, as Kellett overtook Di Amato after 38 minutes. The opening phase remained turbulent; next, it was Barr who lost time and dropped behind Di Amato.
After reaching the maximum stint duration of 65 minutes, both cars pitted. The #88 Audi switched to Kolovos, while Gatting’s team put bronze-rated Antares Au behind the wheel. Due to temperatures exceeding 40 degrees, all teams were running single stints during the day to minimize strain on the AM drivers.
Shortly after the stops, another Full Course Yellow was triggered when the second Attempto Racing car came to a halt on track, missing a rear wheel. Schreiner’s car was now the team’s last remaining entry. However, the pit stops saw them slip to tenth in the class, ahead of Gatting’s Porsche in eleventh.
Recovering the Audi proved more difficult than anticipated, delaying the restart by 20 minutes. The subsequent green-flag period was also brief; just two hours into the race, a fourth Full Course Yellow was called due to another incident, lasting nearly half an hour this time. During the pit stops in this caution period, Carrie Schreiner got behind the wheel for the first time, making her 24 Hours of Spa debut. Shortly thereafter, there was another interruption, though this one was brief, caused merely by debris on the track.
Michelle Gatting’s team did not alter their strategy despite the frequent interruptions; they waited until the three-hour mark to pit again, at which point Gatting herself took over driving duties.
Schreiner, meanwhile, had only a short break after her stint before getting back into the car.
Following another interruption, the race finally restarted for a prolonged green-flag period after four hours and twenty minutes of racing. By this time, Schreiner’s team had slipped to 13th place in their class and appeared to be struggling with pace. Gatting’s team, with Au back at the wheel, had overtaken them and moved into the top ten.
Kolovos took over from Schreiner again but was lapped just shy of the five-hour mark. He managed to regain his pace and capitalized on the competition's pit stops to unlap himself. Meanwhile, Müller, driving the #97 Rutronik Porsche, was running in ninth place in the class, battling a tight battle with the #11 Aston Martin behind. Kolovos also tried to claw back time against that very same Aston Martin, closing the gap to 12 seconds before pitting for his next stop.
Sergio Sette Camara took over the #88 Audi, once again starting from 13th place in the class. After 6.5 hours, Müller had managed to move the Porsche up from 11th to 5th place, where he was battling Heinemann.
After seven hours, the race's longest green-flag period so far came to an end, with a Full Course Yellow that subsequently turned into a Safety Car period. During this phase, Sette Camara pitted and handed the car back to Kolovos.
Müller also pitted but stayed in the car. Following the restart twenty minutes later, the race settled into a rhythm, with the field stabilizing without major battles within the class. Although the cars were often close together, the BoP and traffic from other classes made genuine wheel-to-wheel racing difficult. The most significant changes in position arose primarily from how different teams utilized the Full Course Yellow periods.
Then, during the night, drama struck the Attempto Racing team and Carrie Schreiner. After completing just 179 laps, the car had to be retired due to engine failure, effectively ending the German driver's debut in smoke.
They were not the night's only casualties. Technical issues - particularly overheating - plagued various cars throughout the night. There were also major accidents, such as the crash involving Sarah Bovy, who hit the barriers at Blanchimont. To make matters worse, thunderstorms rolled in. While there was no heavy downpour, enough rain fell to dampen the track and create wet-race conditions. A few teams gambled on rain tyres but quickly realized they had made the wrong call.
Michelle Gatting’s team faced no issues during the night. The Danish driver took over the Porsche in the morning and drove it safely to 5th place in the Bronze Cup and 26th place overall. The gap to the car ahead in the class was around one minute.
With eight hours of racing still to go, the #64 Mustang ground to a halt in the Bus Stop chicane due to a loss of drive. The driver reacted quickly, parking the car in the run-off area rather than on the track. Since the car could still be pushed, the resulting Full Course Yellow lasted just over a minute.
After the restart, Gatting gained one overall position; 15 minutes later, she also overtook a rival in her class, moving ahead of Martini. However, Martini managed to counter-attack after just two laps before heading in for his next pit stop.
Fifteen minutes later, another Full Course Yellow was triggered when a McLaren stopped on the start-finish straight. After a reset, the car was able to continue, meaning the restart followed quickly.
Subsequently, Gatting’s team saw their position fluctuate during pit stops, moving up and then falling back, until Au was overtaken by Arrow with six and a half hours remaining. Shortly after, Au had to pit due to technical issues. The Porsche spent several laps in the pits, dropping to seventh in class. Following repairs, the team was eight laps behind the car in sixth place.
Two hours later, the race delivered another heart-stopping moment as the Mühlner Porsche crashed heavily at Eau Rouge, triggering a Full Course Yellow followed by a Safety Car period. Racing resumed with three hours and twenty-five minutes left, with Rump at the wheel.
The #97 Porsche lasted just under an hour before needing to pit again for a lengthy stop. This stop took nearly an hour, meaning Gatting effectively returned to the track for a final stint. By this point, the team had naturally fallen to the back of the remaining field, sitting 43rd overall and seventh in the heavily depleted Bronze class, where they had previously been on course for a podium finish.
They were 72 laps adrift of sixth place alone, and they would manage to hold onto these positions until the finish, with the nearest pursuer still four laps behind.
With that, Michelle Gatting’s appearance in the GT World Challenge Europe came to an end for the time being. Carrie Schreiner, on the other hand, will compete in the next race at Misano, where she will hopefully finally put an end to her run of bad luck in this championship.
