For the first time in the championship's history, the Ultimate GT Endurance Cup ran a 6-hour race at the 2024 Final. A new format, much appreciated by the drivers, which offered its share of surprises and twists in every category.
In the overall standings, the Haas RT Audi R8 was the favorite at the start after taking pole position. But the Belgian team's car never made it onto the grid. The Mercedes of Vinama by GET Speed found itself at the head of the pack in spite of itself. Ameerh Naran missed his start and several Porsche 992 GT3 Cup cars passed him.
In the last corner of the first lap, Sébastien Loeb attempted an attack. The driver of the N°20 Vortex 2.0 and the N°108 Mercedes touched. The non-winning world rally champion broke his right rear suspension. The mechanics set about repairing the 2.0 as quickly as possible. The Ferrari of Team Visiom and Jean-Bernard Bouvet was last to go after a problem in Q3, but took advantage of its good pace to return to the top of the standings.
The various Vortexes entered in UCS1 were experiencing a variety of problems. The battle for victory came down to a duel between the Mercedes and the Ferrari. Positions were exchanged several times during the pitstops, but under the chequered flag, Tom Jackson and Ameerh Naran came out on top. After their success at Mugello, the two did it again to add their names to the list of winners of the 6-hour event.
Champions 2024, Jean-Paul Pagny and Jean-Bernard Bouvet, accompanied this weekend by Romain Iannetta, took second place. Despite a long pit stop, Sébastien Loeb climbed onto the podium with Olivier Gomez to give Vortex one last fine result.
In the Porsche Cup, the battle continued unabated. Right from the start, Victor Bernier (GP Racing Team) took the lead ahead of Hugo Chevalier (N°7 2B Autosport). The two crews would not let up for the next six hours. Gabriel Péméant, Loïc Teire and Anthony Beltoise battled it out with Olivier Favre, Yann Penlou and Romain Favre. The latter found himself in a battle with Victor Bernier in the final stint. Emerging just ahead of his direct rival at the final stop, the 2018 karting world champion led the GP Racing Team to victory, their second after Hockenheim. Behind the N°7 2B Autosport, the N°901 Pro Sport Racing (Steven Palette, Alex Hommerson, Simon Balcaen) completed the top-3. Long in contention for overall victory, a puncture put an end to their hopes in the last part of the race.
Signatech Alpine's Alpine A110 GT4 EVO (Jim Pla, Julien Gilbert, Jean Mathieu Leandri) succeeded in its goal of finishing the race. The N°36 won in UCS3. Regis Rego De Sebes, Daniel Waszczinski and Benjamin Lessennes (L'Espace Bienvenue) won the UCS4 category.
The UCS Light champions failed to win the 2024 season finale. Benoit Marion, Julien Bounie, Olivier Martinez and their team-mate Raphaël Cuadrado lost out to the N°110. Felix Crepet, Guillaume Masset and rookie Louka Desgranges won the six-hour race. The N°94 (Jean-François Succi, Charles Zuccarelli, Charles Nicolas Zuccarelli) took third place.