Two cars, one weekend

Spa asked something rare of Ruben: two entirely separate programmes on the same asphalt in the same days. In the GT4 European Series, he was back in the familiar seat of the #5 Mirage Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2, sharing the car with James Sherrington in the Silver class for Round 3 of the season. And in parallel, the biggest step of his year: a seat in the #4 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, in the Gold Cup. Sprint racing and endurance racing, GT4 and GT3, back to back. Few drivers ever get a weekend like it. Fewer still handle it the way he did.

GT4 European Series, Round 3

First, the day job. The GT4 European Series arrived at Spa for its mid-season round on a record grid, and the #5 Mirage crew of Del Sarte and Sherrington lined up across the weekend's two races on the 7-kilometre circuit. After a Monza round that had the pace but none of the luck, this was the chance to put a clean weekend together on one of the most demanding tracks either driver would see all year.

THE BIG ONE: SPA24H

Then came the mountain of the weekend. The CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa is the largest GT3 race in the world and one of the toughest events in all of motorsport: 78 editions of history, 70 cars, a full day and night around the 7-kilometre Ardennes rollercoaster. Ruben lined up in the #4 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 in the Gold Cup, alongside co-drivers A. Smalley, F. Tomlinson and H. George.

Twenty-four hours is a different kind of racing. It is not about a single fast lap, it is about not putting a foot wrong for an entire day: through the afternoon heat, through a Spa night where the temperature drops and the fog rolls in off the forest, through the weather and the traffic and the safety cars, all the way to a Sunday afternoon finish. The #4 crew did exactly that. They kept it clean, kept it quick, and kept it on track, completing 534 laps to bring the McLaren home third in the Gold Cup.

A podium at the 24 Hours of Spa. On Ruben's biggest weekend of the year. It does not get much better than that.

From Monza to the top step of the fight

What makes this result land is where it comes from. Monza was cruel to Ruben and the team, a weekend of real pace undone by a stone through a radiator and a crash that was none of his doing. He could have carried that into Spa. Instead he turned it into fuel, made good on his promise, and stood on a Spa 24 Hours podium a month later. That is the mark of a racing driver.

Proud to be beside him

At BOMBERG, our world is racing, and weekends like this are why. To watch our ambassador step up to GT3, take on the greatest endurance race in GT, and come away with a Gold Cup podium was a genuine source of pride for everyone at the brand. Congratulations to Ruben, to Optimum Motorsport, to Mirage Racing, and to every crew member who made it happen. One to remember, exactly as promised.

Onto the next one.