Muscat – Omani racing driver Ahmad Al Harthy went into this weekend’s prestigious Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa with sights set on a strong and competitive run, after the Oman Racing by Century Motorsport team concluded qualifying an excellent fourth quickest in the Bronze class.

Partnered by regular GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup team-mates Calan Williams and Javier Sagrera, as well as Pedro Ebrahim for the biggest event of the season, Al Harthy was very happy with the performance shown throughout qualifying on Thursday.

“Overall we’re pretty happy with qualifying, all of the guys played their part and tried as hard as possible – to end with P4 on the average times is a great start and we’re now all focused on the race itself. Calan, Javier and Pedro all did a fantastic job in their sessions, but unfortunately mine was impacted by two separate red flag periods so we didn’t have chance to set the time we expected,” said Al Harthy.

“Now the focus is to be as well prepared as possible, physically and mentally, for the 24 hours. It has been very warm over the past few days, so staying hydrated and getting as much rest as possible are going to be incredibly important.Spa is always an incredible challenge, but one I always look forward to, so hopefully we can continue the momentum we started at Monza.”

Australian driver Williams took the first of the four qualification sessions and he concluded the period with a best time of 2m19.736 seconds – good enough for fifth fastest in class at that point.

For session two Al Harthy climbed aboard the squad’s No.42 BMW M4 GT3 EVO and after delivering a banker lap of 2m21.126 seconds with his first timed effort, the Omani set about improving as the tyres got up to temperature. Frustratingly, proceedings were interrupted by two red flag stoppages and so Al Harthy had to settle for his original lap time due to the truncated running.

Squad newcomer Ebrahim contested the third session of qualifying and produced a best time of 2m18.789 seconds as light really started to fade, before Sagrera concluded things in session four with a lap of 2m18.780 seconds which delivered fourth fastest overall in Bronze on average times.

As the biggest race of the GT3 endurance racing calendar each and every year, the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa is a true test of the drivers, teams and, of course, reliability of the cars which is something Oman Racing by Century Motorsport has been working on during pre-event practice.

Al Harthy has previously won his class in the 24 Hours of Spa and all from a pitlane start too. Therefore, the OQ, Omantel, Oman LNG, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and BMW Oman supported driver knows what it takes to be successful at Spa-Francorchamps.

Following a warm-up session at 19.20 later today, the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa itself will begin at 16.30 local time on Saturday, 27th June.