With considerable experience driving both the real and virtual McLaren 720S GT3, Baldwin – without a real-world drive since the 2020 season where he won a round of the British GT Championship – was a natural choice for the Garage 59 McLaren seat in both the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the hour-long Esports race beforehand.
Baldwin’s Esports prowess, as one of the drivers fighting for the GTWC Europe title this season, was obvious as he comfortably outclassed the field in qualifying. The McLaren’s pole position time was almost a second quicker than the nearest rival, Rowe’s Max Hesse – although Hesse was still the lead Pro class car. Nicki Thiim quickly passed Hesse to take the Pro class lead, but Baldwin had already checked out at this point and was busy setting fastest laps.
It wasn’t long before Hesse also dropped behind Nicklas Nielsen with a smart move at the Bus Stop and Luca Ghiotto at La Source, but Ghiotto had earned a penalty for contact earlier in the race with Silver class Tommaso Mosca. Mosca, running second in class, collided with Hesse through Blanchimont and saw his race end prematurely. That promoted class championship leader Alex Aka into second, he briefly battled with Hesse before the pit window opened but eventually fell away from the Pro driver.
Baldwin took the win by 15 seconds from Thiim, who was himself nearly 18 seconds ahead of Ghiotto. Despite not taking the overall win, Thiim took victory in the Pro class and five points in the championship to put the BeechdeanAMR team four points clear of Attemptom while Rowe sit at the top of the table on 11 points. With five points for the Silver class win, Garage 59 is now joint second on five points with Akkodis and Haupt, while Attempto holds a huge lead with 13 points.