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GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup

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GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
CategoryGrand tourer
Endurance racing
CountryEurope
Inaugural season2011
Tyre suppliersMichelin (2011–2012)
Pirelli (2013–present)
Drivers' championAndorra Jules Gounon
Timur Boguslavskiy
Switzerland Raffaele Marciello
Teams' championFrance AKKodis ASP Team
Official websitewww.gt-world-challenge-europe.com
Current season
Presentation of the inaugural 2011 Blancpain Endurance Series season

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.

Format

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Audi R8 LMS during Blancpain Endurance Series season
Audi R8 LMS Ultra from W Racing Team during the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series round at the Nürburgring
Nissan GT-R GT3 driven by the 2015 Champions Alex Buncombe, Wolfgang Reip and Katsumasa Chiyo at the 2015 24 Hours of Spa
Mercedes AMG GT3 from Black Falcon at the 2018 24 Hours of Spa
The Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello that won the 2022 Overall Championship

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

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Drivers

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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 Belgium Greg Franchi Not held Not held Netherlands Niek Hommerson
Belgium Louis Machiels
France Georges Cabannes United Kingdom Alex Buncombe
France Jordan Tresson
United Kingdom Christopher Ward
2012 Germany Christopher Haase
Germany Christopher Mies
Monaco Stéphane Ortelli
Netherlands Niek Hommerson
Belgium Louis Machiels
Switzerland Pierre Hirschi
United Kingdom Robert Hissom
Not held
(discontinued)
2013 Germany Maximilian Buhk Spain Lucas Ordóñez France Jean-Luc Beaubelique
France Jean-Luc Blanchemain
France Patrice Goueslard
2014 Belgium Laurens Vanthoor Italy Stefano Gai
Italy Andrea Rizzoli
Portugal Francisco Guedes
United Kingdom Peter Mann
2015 United Kingdom Alex Buncombe
Japan Katsumasa Chiyo
Belgium Wolfgang Reip
United Kingdom Duncan Cameron
Republic of Ireland Matt Griffin
United Kingdom Ian Loggie
United Kingdom Julian Westwood
2016 United Kingdom Rob Bell
France Côme Ledogar
New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen
Italy Alessandro Bonacini
Poland Michał Broniszewski
Italy Andrea Rizzoli
Russia Vadim Gitlin
Australia Liam Talbot
Italy Marco Zanuttini
2017 Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Germany Christian Engelhart
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Oman Ahmad Al Harthy
Belgium Jacques Duyver
South Africa David Perel
Italy Marco Zanuttini
2018 Netherlands Yelmer Buurman
Germany Maro Engel
Germany Luca Stolz
Switzerland Alex Fontana
Canada Mikaël Grenier
Switzerland Adrian Zaugg
United Kingdom Chris Buncombe
United Kingdom Nick Leventis
United Kingdom Lewis Williamson
Switzerland Adrian Amstutz
Russia Leo Machitski
2019 Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Italy Marco Mapelli
Germany Nico Bastian
Russia Timur Boguslavskiy
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Oman Ahmad Al Harthy
Republic of Ireland Charlie Eastwood
Turkey Salih Yoluç
Switzerland Adrian Amstutz
Russia Leo Machitski
2020 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi Finland Patrick Kujala
United Kingdom Alex MacDowall
Denmark Frederik Schandorff
United Kingdom Chris Goodwin
Sweden Alexander West
France Stéphane Tribaudini
2021 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
France Côme Ledogar
Switzerland Alex Fontana
Switzerland Ricardo Feller
Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
United Kingdom Chris Froggatt
Hong Kong Jonathan Hui
Not held
2022 France Jules Gounon
Spain Daniel Juncadella
Switzerland Raffaele Marciello
Denmark Benjamin Goethe
France Thomas Neubauer
France Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer
United Kingdom Oliver Millroy
Denmark Frederik Schandorff
United States Brendan Iribe
Belgium Louis Machiels
Italy Andrea Bertolini
Italy Stefano Costantini
Saudi Arabia Reema Juffali
Germany Tim Müller
Germany Valentin Pierburg
United States George Kurtz
Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)
Overall (2016–present)
Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup Pro-Am Cup GT4
2023 Andorra Jules Gounon
Timur Boguslavskiy
Switzerland Raffaele Marciello
Belgium Nicolas Baert
Belgium Maxime Soulet
Chile Benjamín Hites
Austria Clemens Schmid
Netherlands Glenn van Berlo
Italy Eddie Cheever III
United Kingdom Chris Froggatt
Hong Kong Jonathan Hui
Switzerland Alex Fontana
Switzerland Ivan Jacoma
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Not held
(discontinued)

Teams

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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 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Not held Not held Germany Vita4One France Ruffier Racing United Kingdom RJN Motorsport
2012 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Italy AF Corse France Saintéloc 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
2016 United Kingdom Garage 59 Switzerland Kessel Racing Switzerland Kessel Racing
2017 United Kingdom Bentley Team M-Sport Oman Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Switzerland Kessel Racing
2018 Germany (Mercedes-AMG Team) Black Falcon Switzerland 961 Corse / Italy AF Corse United Kingdom Barwell Motorsport
2019 China Orange1 FFF Racing Team France AKKA ASP Team Oman Oman Racing with TF Sport United Kingdom Barwell Motorsport
2020 Italy AF Corse United Kingdom Barwell Motorsport United Kingdom Garage 59 France CMR
2021 Belgium Team WRT Switzerland Emil Frey Racing United Kingdom Sky - Tempesta Racing Not held
2022 France AKKodis ASP Team Belgium Team WRT United Kingdom Inception Racing Germany SPS Automotive Performance Germany SPS Automotive Performance
Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)
Overall (2016–present)
Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup Pro-Am Cup GT4
2023 France AKKodis ASP Team Belgium Comtoyou Racing Austria GRT Grasser Racing Team United Kingdom Sky – Tempesta Racing Germany Car Collection Motorsport

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The new GT Endurance Series in detail!". planetlemans.com. 2010-11-03. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
  2. ^ "2012 Blancpain Endurance Series Presentation (english)". SRO. 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2012-03-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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