The Belgian team, which took 992 Teams’ ‘Europe’ honours last year, went into the 24H SERIES European season finale with a six-point advantage over Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors, and even started the weekend with a shock place on the overall front row after a truncated qualifying session in Barcelona. The championship protagonists, together with outside title contender Red Camel-Jordans.nl, monopolized the 992 podium spots for the majority of the event, with the #903 Porsche set to take overall victory, only to lose the win in a dramatic, grandstand duel with Red Camel. 2nd in-class meant Red Ant Racing finished equal on points with Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors, the latter ultimately being declared the champion on countback. 

Though disappointed by the title defeat, Red Ant Racing Bert Redant was nevertheless quick to praise his team’s efforts, claiming his eponymous outfit would bounce back and return to the track stronger than before. 

“We only los[t] the title due to a huge amount of bad luck, because no one in this entire team could have done more than he or she did,” Redant explains. “It feels bad, because you don't lose because of a mistake or a poorer strategy, but really because of an external factor, which also cost us the title. We will have to deal with this, but we will also come out of this stronger. 

“I would also like to congratulate the new champions. We have enjoyed every minute of competing with them.”

After unsurprisingly slipping back from the GT3 frontrunners at the start, Huub van Eijndhoven – competing for the first time in the #903 Porsche alongside season regulars Yannick and Ayrton Redant and Kobe de Breucker – retained the class lead across his opening two-hour stint, with only a spree of unfortunately-timed Code 60 caution periods after that dropping Red Ant Racing, briefly at least, out of the top three in 992. Indeed, by one-third distance, the fight for 992 honours had already come down to Red Ant Racing, Red Camel-Jordans.nl (despite race-long handling issues) and Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors, the latter briefly delayed by a collision with the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 that broke the Porsche’s steering arm. The Romanian-Italian squad would start to drop away from its principal rivals during the night. 

So close was the fight between Red Ant Racing and Red Camel-Jordans.nl for the win however, after 17 hours, the pair were split by just 37s. After 21 hours, with the positions reversed, the gap was down to just one second!

As Red Camel’s setup issues seemingly returned with the mid-morning heat, the win – and thus the title – looked set to go to Red Ant Racing until a late race caution period (called to extricate the GSR Motorsport Ginetta from the gravel) swung the momentum back in Red Camel’s favour. The latter, now on fresh slicks and refueled, was in a much better position to hunt down the fuel-saving #903 Porsche over the final 40 minutes.

In an incredible dice between van Eijndhoven and Red Camel’s Rik Breukers, the two Porsches went side-by-side on multiple occasions – interrupted only, ironically, by the sister Red Ant Racing Porsche having to be pulled out of the gravel at turn 14 – with Breukers eventually getting the job done around the outside of turn 12 with just minutes left on the clock. So close was the fight for class victory, Breukers was only 26 seconds ahead of van Eijndhoven at the chequered flag. 

“Just like earlier this season, a 'Code 60' followed shortly before the end, where we were just on the wrong part of the circuit,” Redant continues. “That was a huge blow to us. Instead of winning, we finished 2nd, meaning we were literally one point short of regaining the title. 

“Everyone is extremely disappointed, that goes without saying. Especially because it is the third time in one season that this happens half an hour from the end.”

Two laps further back, Willi Motorsort by Ebimotors finished 3rd in-class, levelling the points (minus one mandatory ‘scratch result’) total with Red Ant Racing, and the title was secured in the Romanian-Italian team’s favour courtesy of its two class wins this season to Red Ant’s one.

Yannick Redant could at least salvage some good cheer in the Red Ant Racing garage when, for the second year in a row, he was crowned the GT Junior Cup winner in Barcelona.

Its late-race trip into the gravel aside, the #904 Red Ant Racing Porsche meanwhile – driven by Jimmy de Breucker, Charles Dawson, Brent Verheyen and Marc Goossens – completed a solid run at the Hankook 24H BARCELONA to finish 6th in-class and 14th overall, despite none of the drivers having previously competed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Faring less well than its sister car in qualifying, and thus forced to start from 21st on the grid, the #904 Porsche stayed on the fringes of the 992 top five, only to lose time in the refueling area. Come daybreak however, with HRT Performance having lost two of its three entries to engine-related issues, the #904 Porsche had taken the fight to the German team’s #967 entry, and later RPM Racing, for 5th in-class by two-thirds distance. Jimmy de Breucker’s trip into the gravel with just 20 minutes left on the clock eventually brought that fight to a close, but Red Ant Racing was far enough ahead of MRS GT-Racing to retain 6th in-class.

“They also rode a great race, without mistakes, but things started difficult for them… due to a 'code 60',” Redant concludes. “From then on, they had to rely on chasing and rode to a very nice 6th place, after a race – I repeat – in which every rider remained clear and, as Huub [van Eijndhoven] put it, in very difficult circumstances. I can only congratulate them on this competition.”