2014 Blancpain Endurance Series

[lms]

****ing coupes, street racing cars and muscle cars. 'the **** happened to this once great GT series.

[urdragon]

I don't see this as a problem, just as a reminder, the GT3 class is targeted to privateers and gentleman, with electronic aids, so this is not by definition the star GT class, the problem is that due to the lack of cost controls, allmost all star classes are dead or struggling.

[IndyMeister]

Originally Posted by lms

****ing coupes, street racing cars and muscle cars. 'the **** happened to this once great GT series.

Without those cars we'd be down to a Ferrari SuperCopa with some additional Lamborghinis, a few McLarens and the occasional Porsche.

I prefer today's diversity in GT3 because it covers the wide field of different approaches to sportscars and Gran Tourers.

I have my opinion, you've got yours (and choosing the right words matters as well.)

[urdragon]

Black Falcon doing BES with 1 PRO and 1 PRO-AM:

http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/n...on%20in%202014

MVDS will do minimum 24h Spa with minimum one car:

http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/n...er_series_id=0

[rich07]

MVDS are doing Spa and N24 because they are under contract with BMW as a BMW semi works team. It's great to have them at Spa. Hopefully they have Maxime Martin in one car.

[scudd]

Originally Posted by rich07

Australian team Lago Racing (who's owner driver is a TenTenths member) have entered their Gallardo for Spa. Drivers consist of regular drivers Roger Lago and Dave Russell along with ex V8 Supercar drivers Steve Owen and Steve Richards.

Great to see an Aussie team going to Spa again. Hope they do well

thanks rich07. Russell and Owen will be at the test day in my lambo July 2nd.

good thing I am sending them then as there is very little practice scheduled for the 24hr weekend.

doing the test day will give richo and myself more seat time during the 24hr weekend.

[rich07]

That's some good thinking re: the seat time. Have any of you guys raced at Spa before?

[IndyMeister]

Originally Posted by rich07

That's some good thinking re: the seat time. Have any of you guys raced at Spa before?

Sorry! I am more on the theoretical side of things... like the Blancpain GT Series class structures (sorry for any reposting and getting a bit off topic):

[rich07]

Originally Posted by IndyMeister

Sorry! I am more on the theoretical side of things... like the Blancpain GT Series class structures (sorry for any reposting and getting a bit off topic):

That's ok-the question was actually aimed at Scudd

[KA]

Motorbase/Oman Racing Team Aston confirmed in Pro Cup- Michael Caine/Ahmad Al-Harthy/Stephen Jelley.
http://sportscar365.com/blancpain/be...rs-pro-lineup/

Caine & Al-Harthy will also run the British GT season in the car

[urdragon]

Time for an update:

quote:
 Correct me if i'm wrong, that's part of the list, by now: 



* UNCONFIRMED CAR  	     ** UNCONFIRMED CLASS 



TEAM                         		DRIVERS                                	     SOURCE)

PRO 

Audi R8 LMS Ultra

1x WRT Belgian Audi Club     	Laurens Vanthoor(B)/Marc Basseng(D)/César Ramos (BR) 

1x WRT Belgian Audi Club     	Christopher Mies(D)/Frank Stippler(D)/James Nash (GB) 		(BES)



Mercedes BENZ SLS AMG GT3

1x HTP 				Stef Dussep ? Lucas Stolz ? Harold Primat(/ Bern Schneider(SPA))(EI) 

1x Black Falcon 		Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal, Hubert Haupt and Andreas Simonsen	(BES)



Bentley Continental GT3

1x M-Sport Bentley	  	 Guy Smith 	 /Andy Meyrick  /  Steven Kane 			(EI)

1x M-Sport Bentley		Duncan Tappy	 /Antoine Leclerc/Jérôme D’Ambrosio		(BES)



BMW Z4 GT3 (E89)

1x BMW Team Brasil ??????		TBA	 / 	TBA 	/ 	TBA  	(SPA)	 (sportscar365 Baku Weekend Notebook)*

1x MVDS				BMW Works driver /BMW Works driver/BMW Works driver 	(SPA)	(BES)



Viper GT3-R

Team RaceArt  			Roger Grouwels   /      TBA     /       TBA(Selected rounds)  Autosport.nl(JorritVD)*



Reiter Camaro GT3 

1x Reiter engineering  		Peter Kox/Tomas Enge/Albert von Thurn und Taxis			(BES)



Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 

1x AMR FACTORY ????			TBA	 / 	TBA 	/ 	TBA(Silverstone + SPA24)(sportscar365) *

1x Oman Racing Team 		Michael Caine    /Ahmad Al-Harthy/ Stephen Jelley. 		(BES/sportscar365)



Callaway CORVETTE C7 GT3	

1x Callaway TBA			TBA	 / TBA 	/ TBA(Selected rounds) (sportscar365 Baku Weekend Notebook)



PRO - AM	

Ferrari 458 Italia GT3

1x KESSEL RACING  		Michal Broniszewski / Italian Giacomo Petrobelli 		(BES)

1x AF CORSE				TBA	 / 	TBA 	/ 	TBA	 (Ferrari #50)	(BES)

1x TEAM UKRAINE				TBA	 / 	TBA 	/ 	TBA	 **	

1x TEAM UKRAINE				TBA	 / 	TBA 	/ 	TBA	 **		(BES-AFCorse) 

1x Flex-Box			Martin Jensen / Dennis Andersen					(BES) 

1x Villorba racing		Francesco Castellacci/ Stefano Gai / Andrea Rizzoli		(sportscar365)



Audi R8 LMS Ultra

1x Team Parker Racing  		Ian Loggie, Chris Jones and Julian Westwood. 			(EI)

1x Team Parker Racing  			TBA	/	TBA     / TBA   (http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-240609.html)



Mclaren MP4-12C GT3 

1x Boutsen Ginion Team			Karim Ojjeh / Martin Van Hove / TBA **			(sportscar365)	



Mercedes BENZ SLS AMG GT3

1x Black Falcon 		Mikhail Loboda, Yury Loboda and Vladimir Lunkin			(BES)



PORSCHE 911 GT3 

1x Almeras Pro GT 		Perrera		/     Dermont  	/       TBA		 (EI Alméras Pro GT program)

1x Autorlando Sport		Matteo Beretta / 	TBA 	/ 	TBA (sportscar365) * (BSS or BES or BES+GTOpen)



BNW Z4 GT3 (E89)

1x ROAL Motordport 		Michela Cerruti / Stefano Comandini / Eugenio Amos		(BES)

1x Barwell MP-Ecurie Ecosse     Alasdair McCaig / Andrew Smith / Olly Bryant (Joe Twyman SPA)	(BES)

1x  TDS Racing team		Eric Clément/Benjamin Lariche/Nicolas Armindo	(BMW # 10)	(BES)

1x  TDS Racing team		Henry Hassid (FRA) and Nicky Catsburg (NED)	(BMW # 12)	(BES)



Lamborghini Gallardo FLV2 

1 x rhino Leipert Motorsport		TBA	 / 	TBA 	/ TBA (EI - rhino’s Leipert Motorsport en Blancpain GT Series)



Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

Lago Racing of Australia 	24 Hours of Spa  Roger Lago /DavidRussell/Steven Richards/Steven Owen.  (BES) 



Nissan GT-R R35 GT3

1x Nissan GT Academy Team RJN   Katsumasa Chiyo/ Nick McMillen (USA) 			(Nismo 2014 Prereleas)

1x Nissan GT Academy Team RJN   Miguel Faisca (Portugal)/Stanislav Aksenov (Russia)/Florian Strauss*

 

Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 		

1x MP Motorsport AMR 		Richard Abra / Mark Poole / Joe Osborne				(BES)

1x Beechdean AMR 		TBA / TBA  / TBA (Silverstone + SPA24)*(EI - Un programme partiel pour Beechdean AMR en 2014)





GENTLEMAN

Ferrari 458 Italia GT3

1x KESSEL RACING  		Stephen Earle / German Freddy Kremer  				(BES)

1x AF CORSE 			Filipe Barreiros/Peter Mann/Francisco Guedes (Ferrari #51)	(BES)

1x AF CORSE			Yannick Mallegol/Howard Blank/Jean-Marc Bachelier (Ferrari #49) (BES)

1x Insight Racing with Flex-Box Martin Jensen / Dennis Andersen / (SPA24)Jason Yeomans 	(sportscar365)



Audi R8 LMS Ultra

1x WRT Belgian Audi Club     	Yves Weerts(B)/Jean-Luc Blanchemain(F)/Christian Kelders (B)	(BES)  

		

JEmil Frey Jaguar XK GT3

Emil Frey Racing  		Fredy Barth / Lorenz Frey / Gabriele Gardel			(BES)

[KA]

Another potential Australian visitor for Spa- Erebus Motorsport possibly bringing one of their Mercedes over:

http://www.speedcafe.com/2014/03/28/...24-hour-debut/

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

Another potential Australian visitor for Spa- Erebus Motorsport possibly bringing one of their Mercedes over:

http://www.speedcafe.com/2014/03/28/...24-hour-debut/

Hmmmm!

Engel to be joined by Will Davison (V8SC calendar permitting) and another Merc linked European based driver maybe?

[scudd]

Originally Posted by rich07

That's some good thinking re: the seat time. Have any of you guys raced at Spa before?

All virgins mate.

[IndyMeister]

@ Urdragon: Pretty comprehensive list!

1 addition: Boutsen planing to field 2 McLaren (source: Olivia Lainé-Boutsen)

I'm not sure about the "Baku Notebook Cars" of AH Competições and Callaway because I haven't heard any more precise information about their BES plans...

[nasdriv87]

BMW team Brazil are composed by Caca Bueno and Nelson Angelo Piquet driver line-up to run BES Sprint Series

http://www.bmwsportstrophyteambrasil...nde-com-bmw-z4 (in portuguese)

[IndyMeister]

Originally Posted by nasdriv87

BMW team Brazil are composed by Caca Bueno and Nelson Angelo Piquet driver line-up to run BES Sprint Series

http://www.bmwsportstrophyteambrasil...nde-com-bmw-z4 (in portuguese)

I don't speak Portuguese but doesn't that article only speak about the tests?

[nasdriv87]

Originally Posted by IndyMeister

I don't speak Portuguese but doesn't that article only speak about the tests?

yep, they were at paul ricard for the test with all bmws teams and revealed bes 2014 schedule...

[Rodger Davies]

You got my hopes up then, that certainly doesn't mention BES, just the BSS sprint series.

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by IndyMeister

@ Urdragon: Pretty comprehensive list!

1 addition: Boutsen planing to field 2 McLaren (source: Olivia Lainé-Boutsen)

I'm not sure about the "Baku Notebook Cars" of AH Competições and Callaway because I haven't heard any more precise information about their BES plans...

Writed down for next update.

Yes, some news are quite old (Like Beechedean from 2013) but since seems Ratel has marked about 45 cars I will leave them, some of them I'm sure they may appear at the end, and some are one off entries that will not be at Monza anyway.

The only car i've removed from previous list is the Seb loeb Audi, since they seem to have field their cars at ELMS instead, but anyway i do not discard that Loeb himself lines a car at Blancpain.

This list is only for the Endurance series, for the sprint series (Like the Piquet jnr entry) visit (http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...139957&page=13) or Indymeister's list (http://gtsprintseries.wordpress.com/...france-nogaro/)

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by KA

Another potential Australian visitor for Spa- Erebus Motorsport possibly bringing one of their Mercedes over:

http://www.speedcafe.com/2014/03/28/...24-hour-debut/

Writed down too.

[rich07]

Australian touring car star and this years Bathurst 12hr winner Craig Lowndes to drive for AF Corse at Spa 24hr in one of their cars alongside fellow Aussie Steve Wyatt . Third driver to be announced later

[IndyMeister]

Originally Posted by rich07

Australian touring car star and this years Bathurst 12hr winner Craig Lowndes to drive for AF Corse at Spa 24hr in one of their cars alongside fellow Aussie Steve Wyatt . Third driver to be announced later

Australia and Spa seem to go together nicely this year. Good to have international flavour at the 24 hours.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by IndyMeister

Australia and Spa seem to go together nicely this year. Good to have international flavour at the 24 hours.

The race might just have an Australian flavor to savor this year.

Roger and co with their Gallardo
Lowndes to race with AF Corse

Possibly an Erebus SLS
Possibly a Nissan V8 Supercar driver in one of their GT-Rs

[sukispeed]

What would really be great if all the trends for Australian GT on this site were filed under "Sportscar & GT Racing" and not "Australasian Touring Cars."