When an athlete achieves something significant, they often say that they are speechless. Then, with a microphone held in front of them, they begin to talk: what it means, the challenges, how they plan to celebrate.
But when Bastian Buus described himself as speechless after winning this year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, he was being entirely truthful. There were no further words from the young Dane; he simply wondered off through the garage, completely dazed by what he and his team Lionspeed GP Porsche teammates had achieved.
It is understandable that Buus did not know what to say. At just 23 years of age, and in only his third start at the event, he had won the biggest GT race win the world. In doing so, he became the fourth-youngest winner and part of the youngest winning crew of the GT era alongside Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining.
In some ways it might seem that Buus has arrived at the top from nowhere, but in fact he’s been winning at a high level since he made the switch from karts to GT4 in 2020. Buus hails from Kolding in Denmark, a country that has produced an impressive number of world-class drivers given its relatively small size. Like so many others, his family’s passion brought him to the sport at an early age.
"My dad had been racing as an amateur a bit and he had a car dealership when I was a kid, so the interest in motorsport in my home has always been there. He took me to the local kart track when I was seven, but I didn't like it! Two years later, I was back again, giving it another try. That was in 2013, when I was nine years old. We rented a small kart for a month, just to test out if it was something for me before we got all the equipment.
"From that point it started. We bought our own stuff, used it as a dad and son hobby, practicing every Tuesday and every Saturday. Then, after one year, I was asked if I wanted to join the biggest Danish karting team, doing the Danish championships. That was a big step because it was always just meant to be something we would do for fun. It slowly developed from national championships to international.”
Buus didn’t race high level single-seaters, spending just one year in the Aquila Synergy Cup, a Danish series with cars powered by a Toyota Aygo engine. “Nothing quick,” Buus smiles. Like any aspiring racer he saw Formula 1 as the ultimate prize, but never seriously thought about chasing it. Instead, at just 16 years of age, he made a career-defining decision.
"In 2020, I took the jump from karting to the GT4 European Series. I had a dream of being able to make a living from racing, being a professional race driver. Formula 1 is the dream of every small kid, but eventually I realised if I want to make it realistic for myself, maybe going straight to GTs would be a different path compared to many other guys my age. I did not have the budget to do single-seaters. Maybe I could do it for one year, in Formula 4, but then I’d need to take the step to Formula 3 – how would I finance it? So I took the opportunity to join Allied Racing in GT4 Europe."
This turned out to be an extremely smart choice. Sharing a Porsche Cayman with Allied team boss Jan Kasperlik, the teenage circuit racing rookie would be the 'pro' in a Pro-Am line-up. They won eight times – including three overall victories – to secure the class title in commanding fashion. This achieved two things: it demonstrated that Buus was a winner, and it began a relationship with Porsche.
"From there I took the step to the Porsche Carrera Cup and went through the entire school, doing all the junior programme. Carrera Cup is equal machinery and it's where Porsche is looking for the new talent so, if I could do well there, maybe there would be a chance of getting to the dream position of becoming the official Porsche Junior. But back then it was just a dream.
"I went to German Carrera Cup in '21. Then I was told through the talent pool programme that I had potential, but if I wanted to have a chance of getting to the official Porsche Motorsport shootout, I needed to drive more. So I signed a deal to do both German Carrera Cup and French Carrera Cup in 2022.
“At the same time, Lechner Racing reached out to me to do the Supercup. They gave me very big support and put a lot of trust in me that I would be good enough. That year I raced three different championships. I was the best placed rookie in Supercup and finished P4 in the championship. Then I went on to win it in 2023.
"From there Porsche decided to take me to the next step – from being a junior to a full-time Porsche driver, racing in GT World Challenge Asia and Europe, at the Nordschleife, IGTC, and various different places.”
In 2024 he joined forces with the fledgling Lionspeed GP squad, running the GT World Challenge Endurance rounds except for Spa. However, he had already sampled the Belgian classic, making a handful of Endurance Cup outings – including the 24 Hours – with Allied in 2021.
"I had just turned 18 and it was a big challenge. I'd never driven anything other than sprint races, so being more than two hours in the car was a bit tougher than I expected."
In 2025 he remained with Lionspeed to compete in GT World Challenge Sprint, contesting the Bronze Cup alongside Bashar Mardini. He put himself in the spotlight once again by taking overall pole at Zandvoort, beating several top pro drivers in the process. At this stage, he was already hoping for a crack at the top-tier Pro class in 2026.
"Both me and Ricardo [Feller] came into the team with the two Bronze Cup cars. Lionspeed had learned a lot from the previous season; they put in a big effort. The cars are always well prepared and quick. We were already looking forward to see if we could make the dream of having a Pro car happen this year.
“Me and Ricardo knew that if we would have a Pro car we would be able to develop from session to session to session. With the performance we had already shown back then, I think we both hoped that it would happen. Getting Tommy [Thomas Preining] makes us super strong. We all get along with each other very well, push each other a bit also, which is important.”
Prior to Spa, the team had shown promise but not scored a great deal in terms of results. From four races – two Sprint and two Endurance – the #80 Porsche had only seen the chequered flag once, though this did result in a win at Brands Hatch. The speed was obvious, but reliability was a question ahead of the 24 Hours.
"In Paul Ricard we were comfortably P2 and I think catching the leader when we had a mechanical failure on the power steering. Then at Brands Hatch we got two pole positions. Ricardo unfortunately had the same [power steering] issue while leading Race 1. We were able to win Race 2, but then at Monza we were taken out at the start from P2 on the grid.”
Then it was on to Spa. We spoke to Buus just a few days before the 24 Hours, where the Lionspeed GP Porsche was among the dozen or so cars considered to be serious contenders for the win. But when the team was forced to make an engine change – and therefore start from the back of the monster 69-car field – most felt their chances of a win were gone.
But a sensational performance brought the #80 Porsche firmly into contention by Sunday morning and it looked to be untouchable from midday until the chequered flag. Those early-season mechanical problems were long forgotten.
The Lionspeed squad still has an outside shot at the Endurance Cup title, but DNFs at Paul Ricard and Monza mean that it is an unlikely outcome. However, the team leads the Sprint Cup standings ahead of this weekend's second round at Misano and could also fight for the overall GT World Challenge title if it maintains its form from Spa.
Don’t bet against Buus adding more silverware before the season is over and be sure that he’s got plenty more victories ahead. At just 23, this is a young racer with the world at his feet.