Blancpain Endurance Series, Navarra - Event Preview

After the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza last month the series will head to Spain this weekend for the second round. Thirty-five cars are entered for the second round, twenty-nine GT3 cars and six GT4 cars.

The Monza pole sitters, Black Bull Swiss Racing, have not entered their Ferrari 430 Scuderia for the Spanish round, but two new teams should make their debut at the Navarra circuit. FIA GT3 European Championship squad Faster Racing by DB Motorsport has entered one of its BMW Z4 GT3 that ran at Portimao in the GT3 season opener for Jeroen den Boer and Simon Knap, while Gulf Racing is also expected to run a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 in Spain.

Autorlando Sport won the first ever round of the Blancpain Endurance Series on home soil and the Italian team will return to Navarra with their Porsche 997 GT3 R and drivers Paolo Ruberti, Gianluca Roda and Raffaele Giammaria. At this moment they are set to fight against 12 other GT3 Pro Cup entries - even though the second Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GT still only has TBA as its drivers.

Hexis AMR, Vita4One, Marc VDS Racing Team and WRT hope to bounce back after a difficult weekend in Monza. Despite podium finishes for Marc VDS Racing Team and WRT both teams suffered punctures that could have easily wrecked their race weekend. WRT recently won in FIA GT3 in Portugal and the Belgian squad hopes to repeat that performance in Navarra. Hexis AMR’s Fred Makowiecki was on his way to the podium at Monza when he suffered a problem that sent his Aston Martin DBRS9 into the tyre wall at the Parabolica just a few laps before the end of the race. Vita4One’s race was over when the fire extinguisher went off by accident during a pitstop.

Seven manufacturers are represented in the GT3 categories, with Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi, Ford and BMW all having at least one car in the top category with a chance of winning the race. At this moment thirteen cars have been entered in the GT3 Pro Cup category; three Ferrari 458 Italia, two Aston Martin DBRS9, two Lamborghini Gallardo, two Audi R8 LMS, two Ford GT, one Porsche 997 GT3 R and one BMW Z4 GT3.

In the GT3 Pro-Am Cup there are currently eleven cars on the entry list; four Lamborghini Gallardo, including one for class leaders Peter Kox and Marc Hayek, three Ferrari 458 Italia, one Aston Martin DBRS9, one Ferrari 430 Scuderia, one Porsche 997 GT3 R and a yet to be confirmed chassis.

Finally we will have two Porsches, a Ferrari 430 and a Lamborghini in the GT3 Gentlemen Trophy, one Porsche in the GT3 Cup as well as two Lotus Evora, including the Monza winning Lotus Evora GT4 of Lotus Italia, one Nissan, one Maserati, one Ginetta and one Aston Martin in the GT4 category.

The Blancpain Endurance Series will be out on track for two one-hour practice sessions on Saturday, with qualifying taking place on Sunday morning and the three hour race on Sunday afternoon. The entire race can be followed live on www.blancpain-endurance-series.com while MotorsTV will also broadcast a large part of the race live on television, interrupted by FIA Formula 3 from Pau.

MtC