ADAC GT Masters leader René Rast has used the Super Sports Car League summer break to best effect. Following his victory in the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in late June in an Audi R8 LMS ultra, Rast together with Audi co-drivers Markus Winkelhock and 2009 ATS Formula 3 Cup winner Laurens Vanthoor has now won the 24-hour endurance race on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. For Rast, who has already shared one winner's trophy with Winkelhock at the Nürburgring in 2014, this was victory number two in the Belgian long distance classic, the first having come back in 2012. In a race that was tightly contested right through to the end, the Audi trio prevailed by a seven-second margin over the BMW Z4 GT3 driven by former GT1 champion Lucas Luhr, ex-DTM star Dirk Werner and Finland's Markus Palttala.

After steering the winning Audi over the finish line, Rast professed himself happy and exhausted after a second 24-hour race victory in four weeks: "It was very hot in the car, which made things difficult. Also, I had to work very hard to build up a lead over the second-placed BMW. The last couple of hours were more like a sprint race than a long distance slog, which made it extremely physically demanding. To have won here in Spa after the victory at the Nürburgring is incredible, and it will take a few days for the realisation to sink in."

For the second year in a row, the 24-hour race in Belgium has been won by two of the ADAC GT Masters contingent. Last year, it was Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz partnered by Bernd Schneider in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. This time round, Buhk and Götz finished fifth in an HTP Motorsport gullwing, sharing their cockpit with Jazeman Jafaar from Malaysia. Former ADAC GT Masters championship runner-up Christopher Mies took the third podium spot with Frank Stippler and James Nash in another Audi R8 LMS ultra.

Following this marathon race, Rast will not get much of a breather before his next outing: the ADAC GT Masters championship leader partnered by Kelvin van der Linde has an important engagement in his diary as the second half of the ADAC GT Masters season gets underway at the Slovakia Ring on the weekend of 8th to 10th August.