Visiting The 6 Hours Of Spa-Francorchamps And A Talk With Tom “Mr. Le Mans” Kristensen
A few weeks ago, Rolex invited me to attend the World Endurance Championships 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. This series, which also includes the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, took place on May 10th in Belgium. Hypercars and GT3 racing cars compete for six hours at this beautiful track. This year’s winning car was a Ferrari 499P driven by Calado (UK), Giovinazzi (Italy), and Guidi (Italy).
Just before the start of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
Rolex and the World Endurance Championship
Rolex has been the partner of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) since 2016. It’s the official timepiece for the endurance races in this series, including the 1,000 Miles of Sebring (United States), the 6 Hours of Portimão (Portugal), the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), the 6 Hours of Monza (Italy), the 6 Hours of Fuji (Japan), and the 8 Hours of Bahrain (Kingdom of Bahrain).
Getting a photo with Tom “Mr. Le Mans” Kristensen in the paddock
Looking forward to a hot lap with Tom Kristensen
The invitation included doing a hot lap with nine-time Le Mans winner Tom “Mr. Le Mans” Kristensen — but more about that later. First, I had to complete my little race of my own. The famous Spa-Francorchamps track is roughly a 3.5-hour drive from my home, often with a lot of slow traffic. But since I was staying at my mother’s place in the eastern part of the Netherlands, I had already done some warm-up driving through Germany to Belgium. After a 2.5-hour drive, I arrived at a very crowded track! I didn’t expect to see nearly F1-like traffic!
The mandatory wrist shot
Braking hard
After a quick refreshment in the paddock, Rolex invited its guests to the track for a hot lap in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. I was incredibly excited for this, especially after I learned that the driver would be Tom Kristensen. Now, not that I own a Porsche, but the acceleration is one thing. The braking, though, is something entirely different! When approaching a corner, the driver brakes late (very late) and super hard. The braking was the most surprising element in this hot lap, followed by the speed through the long corners.
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS for the hot lap
I couldn’t stop smiling for about an hour after getting out of the car. What an experience! Kristensen told me that he was pushing the 911 GT3 RS to approximately 80% of its limit since the tires weren’t adequately warmed up yet (there was only one hot lap with the car before mine). Kristensen’s calmness in the car was also incredible as he explained what he was doing and gave live commentary on his driving.
A grid walk
A few hours later, the TotalEnergies 6-Hours of Spa-Francorchamps would start. Before that, we were able to take a grid walk and have a look at the teams’ cars. Then, everyone had to leave, and the teams prepared for the start. We were able to watch the start from the paddock, and inside, there were huge TV screens that allowed us to follow the competition in detail.
Before the start, I talked with Tom Kristensen about his Le Mans races and, of course, his watch. As an official ambassador for Rolex since 2010 and a nine-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans races (six consecutive), he has a soft spot for the Daytona chronograph. On his wrist was the Daytona Le Mans that Rolex introduced for the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans race in 2023. His watch is a white gold version with a panda dial and a special engraving on the clasp, as shown in the video below.
I hope you enjoy the video interview I did with Kristensen at Spa-Francorchamps. After we stopped recording, he kept talking about watches! His passion lies with racing, of course, but he certainly has a love for watches too.
