Matteo Cairoli was back on the Spa-Francorchamps track on the weekend of June 29/30, 2024. The Italian driver took part in the Centenary edition of the 24h of Spa at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Iron Lynx. Together with him, Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli completed a thrilling trio for his debut with Lamborghini. This edition of the iconic Belgian race saw 66 entries, being also the second round of the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, where the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini is racing permanently. The most recent history of Spa tells about a very fast Matteo Cairoli, as he was the overall poleman and winner of the Bronze Cup in 2023, when he proved to be pretty at ease on the 7km of the circuit.
This season he jumped back in the Pro Class, doing it with Lamborghini for the very first time. The qualifying session immediately saw Cairoli as one of the protagonists, as he completed the fastest lap among his teammates in 2:15.814. At the end of the session, each driver’s lap time is added together to create a combined final timing, which ultimately decides whether a car is up for the Superpole session. The #63 managed to do so, obtaining a spot to try snatching the pole position. Andrea Caldarelli was the man for the job, and he managed to qualify 17° overall. Mirko Bortolotti started the race, which went underway at 4:30 PM local time, and later handed it to Caldarelli, who was able to gain positions up to 14°. However, after three hours, the Huracan GT3 Evo2 manifested a technical issue as Caldarelli lost the front hood. A radiator fluid leak was what forced the team to perform an early pit stop, losing all the position gained and going back on track at 9:00 PM with Cairoli finally at the wheel of the Lamborghini, 57th in the standings at that point. Unluckily, the Italian driver’s stint ended too early: after only 15 minutes, he was forced to go back into the pit lane as mechanical problems kept coming. Therefore, the race became a true nightmare, as Iron Lynx wasn’t able to bring the car back on track until Sunday morning, when there was no time left to fight back. The issues were still there, and Cairoli’s pace was, of course, influenced, especially when he found himself in long neutralization stages due to heavy rain.
It was definitely a bitter weekend, the one Matteo Cairoli experienced in Spa. However, he is already focused on the next GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup race, scheduled for July 28 at the Nurburgring.
