McLaren Automotive factory driver racing driver Tom Gamble had a fantastic weekend in the 75th Edition of the CrowdStrike 24 hours of Spa endurance race becoming a class winner

Epperstone’s McLaren Automotive factory driver racing driver Tom Gamble had a fantastic weekend in the 75th Edition of the CrowdStrike 24 hours of Spa endurance race in Belgium, reports Paul Horton.

Taking a Gold Cup Class win, the 21-year-old superstar shone in the chrome livered Optimum Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO endurance race machine with his British teammates Sam De Haan, Charlie Fagg, and Dean Macdonald.

This prestigious world-renowned event brought 83,677 people to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Ardennes track throughout the event, with the new grandstands opposite the endurance pits and at Raidillon packed for the start.

Qualifying sessions saw all four of the team play a big part in putting the supercar no further down the leaderboard than second in the gold class with a third qualifying session out resulting in Gamble coming in third overall and first gold driver over the line as the flag came out.

Combined qualifying times saw them finish second overall and first Gold Class car, the highest ever placed McLaren 720S at Spa 24hr.

This put them into the Superpole session which saw them finish P1 in Gold Class and P5 in the overall standings.

As the lights went at 3:30 pm on Saturday the car left the grid Gamble and his teammates were on it with a class pole start.

At a third of the distance and 8 hours on the clock and into darkness, they were in 20th spot overall and P2 in Gold.

By the halfway mark and lightness was appearing again they had made remarkable progress seeing the #5 car in the ninth spot and second in the gold competition.

As the chequered flag came out at 3.30pm on Sunday Gamble handled the final stint, pulling clear of the #71 AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Ferrari to ensure that McLaren finished as the best non-German marque at this year's race.

He took the flag first in the Gold Class and a great 10th overall in the competition.

“It was fair to say that it was a weekend to remember, qualifying

got off to a great start, qualifying P5 out of 70 cars and the race also didn’t disappoint," said Gamble.

"We were in the fight for the top 10 overall for the majority of the race and then managed to take advantage of the Gold Cup class in the early hours of the morning and take control over it until the end pretty much.

"The team and also my teammates were faultless, we won't be forgetting this one in a hurry”