GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
| Category | Grand tourer Endurance racing |
|---|---|
| Country | Europe |
| Inaugural season | 2011 |
| Tyre suppliers | Michelin (2011-2012) Pirelli (2013-) |
| Drivers' champion |  Alessandro Pier Guidi Nicklas Nielsen Côme Ledogar |
| Teams' champion | Iron Lynx |
| Official website | www |
 Current season | |
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.
Format[]
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[]
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
| |
| 2021 | Alessandro Pier Guidi Nicklas Nielsen Côme Ledogar
|
Alex Fontana Ricardo Feller Rolf Ineichen
|
Chris Froggatt Jonathan Hui
|
Not held |
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
| |
| 2021 | Team WRT
|
Emil Frey Racing
|
Sky - Tempesta Racing
|
Not held |
See also[]
- GT World Challenge Europe
References[]
- ^ "The new GT Endurance Series in detail!". planetlemans.com. 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
- ^ "2012 Blancpain Endurance Series Presentation (english)". SRO. 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-20. Cite journal requires
|journal=(help)
External links[]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blancpain Endurance Series. |
- GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
- Sports car racing series
- Group GT3
- 2011 establishments in Europe