David Perel won the Spa 24 Hours for the third time and was emotional when the #45 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 crossed the line in P1 for the Silver class. The South African explains why this win means so much.

It was a scorching hot, tough edition of the Spa 24 Hours, with temperatures pushing to over fourty degrees Celsius outside, meaning cockpit temperatures reached over sixty degrees. Rinaldi Racing had to deal with multiple setbacks, but Perel, Rafael Duran, Dylan Medler and Alessandro Balzan fought through.

“I first did this race in 2016 and then won it back-to-back in 2017 and 2018,” Perel tells GT REPORT. “One of them was with Rinaldi. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think it was an easy race. Those wins were extremely difficult. But then, from that moment, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022…,” he sums up, “the last years have been torture.”

Nothing seemed to go his way in the previous editions, and it nearly looked like the 2026 Spa 24 Hours would end up like that too. “Especially around 11pm, we had no chance. We were two laps down to the overall leaders and about one and a half laps down on our pace,” Perel continues. “I was like: here we go again. This is going to be a really long night!”

Perel thankful for strategists: “Such a smart thing”

The night was tough, as weather conditions changed to windy, colder and thunderstorms formed the scene above Spa-Francorchamps, causing balance changes in the cars. From the lead, they dropped back towards the end of the field again. “Ale and I had to do so much driving in the night, and when you have nothing to fight for… I have a lot of experience with that now, but we were down in P47, oh my god!”

Perel relives the moment where the situation turned around for Rinaldi Racing, continuing to tell this amazing story: “Our engineers, our two strategists – Jurg and David – they did such a smart thing where we kept on Full Course Yellows, we kept doing short three-second stops to extend the driving time. We’d go out, do another lap, and do it again. That slowly but surely opened the window.”

At that point, they still had no idea that the win would even be an option. “At six in the morning, we for sure didn’t think so. It was only when we had six hours to go and realized: holy sh*t, this race is on!” Perel laughs.

Looking for pieces of momentum: “We’re actually starting P11”

It gave Perel and his team new energy, although he has to admit that it was tough to make it to the end of the race. “I was destroyed. I already knew before, long before the weekend, that I was going to do the maximum driving time. I’ve done close to the maximum before, twice. I was like: oh god, I am old now! I have the spirit of a 20-year-old, my body is a 41-year-old! I was training as much as I can, so I knew it was coming. I just wanted it to be smooth.”

Early on in the weekend, Rinaldi Racing already knew the potential of their line-up and their car under difficult circumstances. With the race being tough, it was a true rollercoaster weekend. “It started with the Superpole. We got bumped into that session. You’re like: we’re in SP2. What? How is that happening? I woke up the next day and we’re actually starting P11.

“You’re always looking for these little pieces that make you think: is it your time? Is this the momentum behind the weekend? It’s been a long week, a torturously long week compared to all the other 24-hours I’ve done. And now we celebrate.”

When asked by GT REPORT if he will do that in Imola with a good plate of pasta, Perel has something else on the menu: “A burger and a beer!”