Summary
The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup powered by AWS, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports 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 FIA World Endurance Championship which were using GTE cars and Le Mans Prototypes (now GT3 and Le Mans Hypercars). The series was primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain, and the company's Lamborghini Super Trofeo series serve as support races. In 2019, SRO announced that their sponsorship deal with Blancpain had been discontinued and the series was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for the 2020 season.
| Category | Grand tourer Endurance racing |
|---|---|
| Country | Europe |
| Inaugural season | 2011 |
| Tyre suppliers | Michelin (2011–2012) Pirelli (2013–present) |
| Drivers' champion |  Jules Gounon Timur Boguslavskiy Raffaele Marciello |
| Teams' champion |  AKKodis ASP Team |
| Official website | www |
 Current season | |
Format edit
The GT World Challenge Europe 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 (GT3 Am). 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 edit
Drivers edit
| Year | Pro Cup (2011–2015) Overall (2016–present) |
Silver Cup | Gold Cup | Pro-Am Cup | Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014) Am Cup (2015–2020) Bronze Cup (2022-present) |
GT4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 |  Greg Franchi
|
Not held | Not held |  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
| |||
| 2017 | Mirko Bortolotti Andrea Caldarelli Christian Engelhart
|
Jonathan Adam Ahmad Al Harthy
|
Jacques Duyver David Perel Marco Zanuttini
| |||
| 2018 | Yelmer Buurman Maro Engel Luca Stolz
|
Alex Fontana Mikaël Grenier Adrian Zaugg
|
Chris Buncombe Nick Leventis Lewis Williamson
|
Adrian Amstutz Leo Machitski
| ||
| 2019 | Andrea Caldarelli Marco Mapelli
|
Nico Bastian Timur Boguslavskiy Felipe Fraga
|
Ahmad Al Harthy Charlie Eastwood Salih Yoluç
|
Adrian Amstutz Leo Machitski
| ||
| 2020 | Alessandro Pier Guidi
|
 Patrick Kujala Alex MacDowall Frederik Schandorff
|
Chris Goodwin Alexander West
|
Stéphane Tribaudini
| ||
| 2021 | Alessandro Pier Guidi Nicklas Nielsen Côme Ledogar
|
Alex Fontana Ricardo Feller Rolf Ineichen
|
Chris Froggatt Jonathan Hui
|
Not held | ||
| 2022 | Jules Gounon Daniel Juncadella Raffaele Marciello
|
Benjamin Goethe Thomas Neubauer Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer
|
Oliver Millroy Frederik Schandorff Brendan Iribe
|
Louis Machiels Andrea Bertolini Stefano Costantini
|
 Reema Juffali Tim Müller Valentin Pierburg George Kurtz
| |
| Year | Pro Cup (2011–2015) Overall (2016–present) |
Gold Cup | Silver Cup | Bronze Cup | Pro-Am Cup | GT4 |
| 2023 | Jules Gounon Timur Boguslavskiy Raffaele Marciello
|
Nicolas Baert Maxime Soulet
|
 Benjamín Hites Clemens Schmid Glenn van Berlo
|
Eddie Cheever III Chris Froggatt Jonathan Hui
|
Alex Fontana Ivan Jacoma Nicolas Leutwiler
|
Not held (discontinued) |
Teams edit
| Year | Pro Cup (2011–2015) Overall (2016–present) |
Silver Cup | Gold Cup | Pro-Am Cup | Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014) Am Cup (2015–2020) Bronze Cup (2022-present) |
GT4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Belgian Audi Club
|
Not held | Not held | Vita4One
|
Ruffier Racing
|
RJN Motorsport
|
| 2012 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
|
AF Corse
|
Saintéloc 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
| |||
| 2017 | Bentley Team M-Sport
|
Oman Racing Team with TF Sport
|
Kessel Racing
| |||
| 2018 | (Mercedes-AMG Team) Black Falcon
|
961 Corse / AF Corse
|
Barwell Motorsport
| |||
| 2019 |  Orange1 FFF Racing Team
|
AKKA ASP Team
|
Oman Racing with TF Sport
|
Barwell Motorsport
| ||
| 2020 | AF Corse
|
Barwell Motorsport
|
Garage 59
|
CMR
| ||
| 2021 | Team WRT
|
Emil Frey Racing
|
Sky - Tempesta Racing
|
Not held | ||
| 2022 | AKKodis ASP Team
|
Team WRT
|
Inception Racing
|
SPS Automotive Performance
|
SPS Automotive Performance
| |
| Year | Pro Cup (2011–2015) Overall (2016–present) |
Gold Cup | Silver Cup | Bronze Cup | Pro-Am Cup | GT4 |
| 2023 | AKKodis ASP Team
|
Comtoyou Racing
|
GRT Grasser Racing Team
|
Sky – Tempesta Racing
|
Car Collection Motorsport
|
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "The new GT Endurance Series in detail!". planetlemans.com. 2010-11-03. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
- ^ "2012 Blancpain Endurance Series Presentation (english)". SRO. 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
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External links edit
- Official website