Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
 | |
| Category |
Grand tourer Endurance racing |
|---|---|
| Country | Europe |
| Inaugural season | 2011 |
| Tyre suppliers |
Michelin (2011-2012) Pirelli (2013-) |
| Drivers' champion |
 Rob Bell Côme Ledogar Shane van Gisbergen |
| Teams' champion |
Garage 59 |
| Official website |
www |
 Current 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
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 | Pro Cup (2011–2015) Overall (2016–) |
Pro-Am Cup | Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014) Am Cup (2015–) |
GT4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | .svg.png){kind=small} Greg Franchi |
 Niek Hommerson Louis Machiels |
Georges Cabannes |
Alex Buncombe Jordan Tresson Christopher Ward |
| 2012 |  Christopher Haase Christopher Mies Stéphane Ortelli |
Niek Hommerson Louis Machiels |
 Pierre Hirschi Robert Hissom |
Not held (discontinued) |
| 2013 | Maximilian Buhk |
 Lucas Ordóñez |
Jean-Luc Beaubelique Jean-Luc Blanchemain Patrice Goueslard | |
| 2014 | Laurens Vanthoor |
 Stefano Gai Andrea Rizzoli |
 Francisco Guedes Peter Mann | |
| 2015 | Alex Buncombe Katsumasa Chiyo Wolfgang Reip |
Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin |
Ian Loggie Julian Westwood | |
| 2016 | Rob Bell Côme Ledogar Shane van Gisbergen |
Alessandro Bonacini Michał Broniszewski Andrea Rizzoli |
 Vadim Gitlin Liam Talbot Marco Zanuttini |
Teams
| Year | Pro Cup (2011–2015) Overall (2016–) |
Pro-Am Cup | Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014) Am Cup (2015–) |
GT4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Belgian Audi Club |
Vita4One |
Ruffier Racing |
RJN Motorsport |
| 2012 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT |
AF Corse |
Sainteloc Racing |
Not held (discontinued) |
| 2013 |
Marc VDS Racing Team |
Nissan GT Academy Team RJN |
SOFREV Auto Sport Promotion | |
| 2014 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT |
Scuderia Villorba Corse |
AF Corse | |
| 2015 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT |
AF Corse |
AKKA ASP | |
| 2016 | Garage 59 |
Kessel Racing |
Kessel Racing |
See also
References
- ↑ "The new GT Endurance Series in detail!". planetlemans.com. 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
- ↑ "2012 Blancpain Endurance Series Presentation (english)". SRO. 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blancpain Endurance Series. |
