GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup

The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, 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 European Le Mans Series which uses GTE cars and Le Mans Prototypes. 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.

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
CategoryGrand tourer
Endurance racing
CountryEurope
Inaugural season2011
Tyre suppliersMichelin (2011-2012)
Pirelli (2013-)
Drivers' champion Alessandro Pier Guidi
Teams' champion AF Corse
Official websitewww.gt-world-challenge-europe.com
Current season
Presentation of the inaugural 2011 Blancpain Endurance Series season

Format
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 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 (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

Drivers
Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)
Overall (2016–)		 Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014)
Am Cup (2015–)		 GT4
2011 Greg Franchi 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

Teams
Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)
Overall (2016–)		 Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014)
Am Cup (2015–)		 GT4
2011 Belgian Audi Club Not held 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
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 SMP Racing / AF Corse Barwell Motorsport Garage 59 CMR

See also

References
  1. "The new GT Endurance Series in detail!". planetlemans.com. 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
  2. "2012 Blancpain Endurance Series Presentation (english)". SRO. 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-20. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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