Blancpain Endurance Series, Monza - Notes From The Paddock 2

Even though race one of the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series will only take place today, most teams are already looking forward to the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

With less than four months before Spa SRO has already received over 80 requests from teams to take part in this year’s event and that number is likely to reach 90 soon as Blancpain Endurance Series manager Laurent Gaudin will have talks with teams after the opening round at Monza. With limited space available in the pit-boxes at Spa-Francorchamps the number of cars accepted for the 65th running of the 24 Hours of Spa will be 65.

Blancpain Endurance Series full-season entrants will have priority, which means other interested teams will be placed on a waiting list and can only hope that other teams will drop out for whatever reason.

SRO also confirmed the support progamme for the Total 24 Hours of Spa week. The Spa race is part of the 2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series as well as the new FIA F3 European Championship. The JK Racing Asia Series will also be racing at Spa, the former Formula BMW Asia cars, racing two weekends outside Asia this year.

Other support series are the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo and the new Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC). The new category has been described as "a wonderful event, somewhere between a sprint and an endurance race, with a pack of more than forty cars".

As usual at Spa there will also be a concert Saturday night. Last year it was French DJ Bob Sinclar and for 2012 have managed to sign up Faithless and Belgian group Milk Inc.

MtC