You might think of Bentleys as ultra expensive wheels for the mega-wealthy, but the brand has a rich racing story that it's keen to keep going

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium - While you and I were kicking our heels up over the long weekend, Bentley spent Saturday and Sunday doing what the brand was once synonymous with: endurance racing.

The company's motorsports team has a new racing car in the form of the latest Continental GT3, and brought it to Belgium for the Total 24 Hours of Spa 24 Hours to see if it would go the distance.

Here's the story of the team's race weekend, as told by Bentley.

With car #7 starting sixth and car #8 39th on the grid, the race got underway on schedule at 16:30 local time. Guy Smith drove the opening stint in car #7, suffering from a lack of front-end grip as the high track temperatures caused the front tyres to overheat. Despite holding off challenges for several laps, Guy lost places and was down to ninth by the time he pitted on lap 25.

He handed the car to Andy Meyrick, who sat P16 after all pit stops before starting to move up the field as tyre pressure adjustments improved the car’s handling. However, his progress was halted during a safety car period at lap 45, when he made an unscheduled pit stop with a brake issue.

The problem was instantly found to be a damaged front right brake line, caused by a piece of debris from one of the on-track incidents, lodged inside the wheel. Even though the remedial work was conducted under safety car conditions, the stop still cost car #7 three laps, and the car rejoined the race way down in 50th place.

The cooling track of the evening suited the car more, and over the course of the night the three drivers took it in turns to move the car up to 13th.

At 4.30 am, points were awarded to the top nine competitors in each class, with the #7 Continental GT3 receiving a point for sitting P9 in class.

On the Sunday morning, the pattern continued, with the #7 Continental GT3 trading places with those cars around it, particularly around the pit-stop windows.

After 18 hours, with the car in 11th, a problem with the front splitter meant a six-minute pit stop for the car, as the splitter was repaired. Fortunately, the M-Sport Bentley mechanics were on fine form, and they worked tirelessly to get the car back on the track quickly without dropping lower than P13. After Steven Kane had then fought back to P12, the bad luck struck again, with a slow puncture forcing an unscheduled pit stop for new tyres.

From then on, the target was to maintain 13th and ninth in the Pro class, worth two championship points to complement the single point gained at the 12-hour mark.

Although the race proved fairly luckless for the Bentley boys, the team came away satisfied with the Conti GT3's reliability as an endurance racer.

The race at Spa was won by Audi, with an R8 LMS fielded by the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT. The car was shared by Laurens Vanthoor, René Rast and Markus Winkelhock.

Its victory marked the third endurance race win for Audi in six weeks, after the company claimed wins at the Le Mans and Nurburgring 24-hour races.