Two down, one more to go! The third race in June’s trilogy of 24 hour battles commences, and with no less than 76 cars across five classes vying for glory, it’s sure to be an epic. But just who will come out on top in the most prestigious GT race in the world? It’s time to close the 72 Hours of June with a scorcher.

The hour began with the return of green flag running as Luca Engstler led the field away, with Max Hesse’s #998 BMW and the two AF Corse Ferrari’s, #51 ahead of #50 and Patric Neiderhauser’s #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche completing the top five. The #48 meanwhile took its drive through penalty and re-emerged in thirteenth overall and one lap down. Engstler meanwhile was already consolidating his lead, setting the fastest lap of the race thus far, a 2.17.217 and began pulling out a gap on Hesse’s BMW.

A great battle emerged soon after for the lead in Silver Cup, with the top three cars barely separated by a second and all jostling for the race lead through the fifteenth hour, with the #35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, HRT Ford’s #64 and the Sainteloc Audi #26.

Heading into the eighteenth hour there was an early interruption for the #21 Comtoyou Motorsports Aston Martin in the Silver Cup that had been beached in the gravel trap on the outside of Les Combes. It eventually turned into a safety car after the debris was more spread out than expected.

When the field went back to green flag racing it was Patric Neiderhauser in the #96 Rutronik Porsche who led the way from Harry King’s Verstappen.com #33, Luca Engstler’s #63, the Gold Cup McLaren #58 of Louis Prette with the sister Pro class car of Benji Goethe’s #58 now running sixth. Meanwhile Jack Hawksworth spun his #188 Garage 59 Bronze class entry at the bus stop. The Pro/Am had more notable incidents, when the Beechdean AMR #100 was hit with a 5 second time penalty for speeding on pit lane and the #4 Crowdstrike Mercedes copped a drive through for an earlier collision.

Throughout the next hour the lead swapped between the #96, #998 and the #63, the latter two fighting all the way as the Garage #59 McLaren was still certainly a factor for this race as this race was now really livening up as the hours slowly wound down. A yellow flag was then called out for Moulin Baptiste who survived a high speed off at Blanchimont with minimal damage.

So as we head into the final quarter of the race it’s Sven Muller leading with his #96 Rutronik Porsche, with Gold Cup being led by Chris Lulham’s #33 Aston. The #35 Walkenhorst Aston still leads Silver Cup while the battle for Bronze is heating up – Dan Arrow currently holds it with his #81 Winward Mercedes, but the next four cars in class are all chasing him down and on the same lap. Pro/Am is still led by the #29 AV by Car Collection Motorsport.

Thumbnail credit – Cabose via discord