Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup

Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
Category Grand tourer
Endurance racing
Country Europe
Inaugural season 2011
Tyre suppliers Michelin (2011-2012)
Pirelli (2013-)
Drivers' champion United Kingdom Alex Buncombe
Japan Katsumasa Chiyo
Belgium Wolfgang Reip
Teams' champion Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
Official website www.blancpain-endurance-series.com
Current season
Presentation of the inaugural 2011 Blancpain Endurance Series season

The Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, formerly the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015, is a sports car racing series developed by the SRO Group and the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB) with approval from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's GT3 regulations. The series's goal is to be an endurance racing championship for GT3 cars, similar to the European Le Mans Series which uses GTE cars and Le Mans Prototypes. The series is primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain, and the company's Lamborghini Super Trofeo series serves as support races.

Format

Audi R8 LMS during Blancpain Endurance Series season

The Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup reestablishes several elements of the former FIA GT Championship, with three hour endurance races held on European circuits such as Monza and Silverstone, as well as a continuation of the Spa 24 Hours. The races feature five classes derived from the FIA's GT3, GT4, and Supersport regulations, with the GT3 cars divided into a class for professional driver line-ups (GT3 Pro), a class for a mixed team of professional and amateurs (GT3 Pro-Am), and a class for gentleman drivers who use cars at least one year old (Gentlemen). The FIA's ranking system for drivers is utilized in determining what class each entry is eligible for. The GT4 category remained its own class.[1]

For the 2012 season, the GT4 and Supersport category were dropped and the GT3 Citation class was modified into the Gentlemen class.[2] In 2013, grids have reached 60 cars for regular races.

The series uses extensive performance balancing and handicap weights to equalise the cars' performance.

Champions

Drivers

Year GT3 Pro Cup GT3 Pro-Am Cup GT3 Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014)
GT3 Am Cup (2015–)
GT4
2011 Belgium Greg Franchi Belgium Louis Machiels
Netherlands Niek Hommerson
France Georges Cabannes France Jordan Tresson
United Kingdom Alex Buncombe
United Kingdom Christopher Ward
2012 Monaco Stéphane Ortelli
Germany Christopher Haase
Germany Christopher Mies
Belgium Louis Machiels
Netherlands Niek Hommerson
United Kingdom Robert Hissom
Switzerland Pierre Hirschi
not held
(discontinued)
2013 Germany Maximilian Buhk Spain Lucas Ordóñez France Jean-Luc Beaubélique
France Patrice Goueslard
France Jean-Luc Blanchemain
2014 Belgium Laurens Vanthoor Italy Andrea Rizzoli
Italy Stefano Gai
Portugal Francisco Guedes
United Kingdom Peter Mann
2015 Belgium Wolfgang Reip
United Kingdom Alex Buncombe
Japan Katsumasa Chiyo
United Kingdom Duncan Cameron
Republic of Ireland Matt Griffin
United Kingdom Ian Loggie
United Kingdom Julian Westwood

Teams

Year GT3 Pro GT3 Pro/Am GT3 Gentlemen GT4
2011 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Germany Vita4One France Ruffier Racing United Kingdom RJN Motorsport
2012 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Italy AF Corse France Sainteloc Racing not held
(discontinued)
2013
Belgium Marc VDS Racing Team United Kingdom Nissan GT Academy Team RJN France SOFREV Auto Sport Promotion
2014 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Italy Scuderia Villorba Corse Italy AF Corse
2015 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Italy AF Corse France AKKA ASP

See also

References

  1. "The new GT Endurance Series in detail!". planetlemans.com. 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
  2. "2012 Blancpain Endurance Series Presentation (english)". SRO. 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-20.

External links

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