BMW confirms star-studded line-up for Spa 24 Hours including Rossi & Magnussen

Bike legend Valentino Rossi and ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen will team up in a BMW GT car at the Spa 24 Hours next month

They will share a BMW M4 GT3 EVO run by the WRT team with fellow BMW factory driver Rene Rast in the the Belgian endurance classic on 28-29 June.  

All three have been recruited to join BMW’s expanded line-up for the centrepiece round of the GT World Challenge Europe from its World Endurance Championship programmes with WRT: Rossi moves over from its LMGT3 squad, Magnussen and Rast from the Hypercar team. 

Rossi will be making a one-off return to the GTWCE in which he competed from 2022 to 2024 with the Belgian team. For Magnussen, it will be a second race outing aboard a GT car: he shared a Ferrari 488 GT3 at the Abu Dhabi Gulf 12 Hours round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in 2022 with his father Jan and Mark Kvamme. 

Rast is a two-time winner of the Spa classic when he was on the books of Audi prior to his move to BMW for the 2023. 

The line-up is one of two additional WRT entries in the Pro Cup class, which will carry Rossi’s regular #46 race number, and was announced on Tuesday at the official opening of WRT’s new headquarters in Bierset near Liege. 

Rossi said: “I am very happy to be back at the Spa 24 Hours: it is a great race – very demanding and difficult – on a fantastic and challenging track. 

“The level of competition between the best GT cars, teams and drivers in the world is extremely high. I can’t wait to race there together with my great team-mates.”

Magnussen described the prospect of competing at Spa as “a great pleasure”. 

Rossi, Magnussen and Rast will be part of a five-car factory line-up from BMW at Spa. BMW Hypercar drivers Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann will also race at Spa in one of three works cars run by WRT. 

The third official BMW entry from the team is the M4 shared by Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts and Ugo de Wilde, winner of the opening Endurance Cup round of the GTWCE at Paul Ricard last month. 

Rowe Racing will also field an extra factory car at Spa, with Philipp Eng, Dan Harper and Max Hesse driving. 

They join the regular entry from German team, a winner at Spa with both BMW and Porsche, raced by Raffaele Marciello, Jesse Krohn and Augusto Farfus. 

WRT will field five M4s at Spa, one each in the Silver and Gold Cup classes alongside the three Pro cars, while BMW will have a total of 11 entries.

The BMW roster is completed by the regular series entries from Century Motorsport, Paradine Competition (two cars), and BMW Italia Ceccato Racing. 

The entire 24 Hours of Spa race weekend will be live-streamed for free on Motorsport.TV