Mike Conway and his Toyota Gazoo Racing team head for a happy hunting ground this weekend as the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) takes them to Spa-Francorchamps.
Heading to Spa-Francorchamps second in the World Drivers’ Championship, this weekend will be Mike’s chance to make it three consecutive victories at the Belgian circuit having won the previous two editions of the 6 Hours of Spa in 2022 and 2023.
Since his first race at the circuit with Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2015, Mike has collected three wins and six podiums – with 2019 being the last time Mike failed to reach the podium in Spa.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s sequence of seven consecutive Spa wins is unprecedented in top-level endurance racing at the legendary Belgian track, which hosted its first 1,000km race – the predecessor to the modern six-hour WEC contests – in 1966. Toyota Gazoo Racing has won eight of its 11 races there and is unbeaten since 2017.
A thrilling 6 Hours of Imola last month saw Mike Conway, alongside his teammates Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries in the #7 GR010 Hybrid, overcome the elements to earn the team’s first victory of the season.
Spa is a firm favourite among drivers and fans for its undulating, high-speed sections through the Ardennes forest. At 7.004km it is the second longest circuit in WEC after Le Mans, and arguably the most spectacular thanks to legendary corners such as the Eau Rouge-Raidillon sequence, Pouhon and Blanchimont.
As the last race before the Le Mans 24 Hours on 15-16 June, Spa is a milestone in the team’s preparation for the WEC season highlight because the flowing high-speed track is an important opportunity to fine-tune the GR010 HYBRIDs on a lay-out which requires similar performance attributes to the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Track activities begin on Thursday 9 May with two 90-minute free practice sessions before the starting grid is determined in qualifying, which begins at 3.30pm CEST on Friday. The green flags wave for the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps race at 1pm on Saturday 11 May.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, Conway said: “It was fantastic to win for the first time this season at Imola, and the result showed how important it is to work strongly as a team, avoid mistakes and maximise every aspect of our performance.
“Spa will be another challenging weekend because the competition in Hypercar is so intense, but we’re looking forward to it. We had experience of driving on wet tyres at Imola and we all know that the weather in Spa is unpredictable.
“Hopefully it’s a dry weekend but if not, we are prepared, and we’ve shown that we can use those situations to our advantage.”