DSC is on the ground in Paul Ricard for the next round of the Blancpain Endurance Series: the popular Paul Ricard day-into-night race, which this season has been extended from three to six hours in duration to serve as a sort of taster for next month’s Spa 24 Hours. This translates to more points on offer: 33 instead of 25 for a win. The lights go out at 5pm local time on Saturday and the chequered flag will fall at 11pm that night.
The event’s newfound status as a dry run for the Spa 24 has also seen a few additions to the entry list, which swells to 63. There’s a BMW Z4 apiece from Marc VDS and ROAL Motorsport. The former has entered a car for Lucas Luhr, Maxime Martin and Markus Palttala as it gears up for another assault on the Spa 24 Hours, while the latter sees Alex Zanardi, Timo Glock and Bruno Spengler try out the unique setup that will allow double amputee Zanardi share the car with the two DTM factory drivers at the same event.
After being absent at Silverstone, there are once again two new-generation Audi R8s on the BES grid at Paul Ricard, as there were at Monza.
Phoenix Racing has Christopher Mies, Christopher Haase and Marcel Fassler in one, while the WRT entry sees Laurens Vanthoor team up with Rene Rast and Mike Rockenfeller.
Elsewhere, the Attempto Racing driver merry-go-round continues, with a trio of Argentinians now aboard the #54 Pro-Am McLaren 650S: former GP2 and World Series man Juan Cruz Alvarez joined by Gustavo Borches and Sergio Yazbik. The #55 Pro Cup car has Miguel Ramos, Fabien Thuner and Vadim Gitlin.
Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 winner Nicolas Lapierre is at Von Ryan McLaren again – at Silverstone he subbed for Bruno Senna, who was on Formula E duty in Berlin, while here he’s taking the place of Shane Van Gisbergen, who’s in action at the V8 Supercars race in Darwin.
Two cars have moved up to the Pro Cup for this round: the #20 AKKA ASP Ferrari (above, with Tristan Vautier and Alessandro Pier Guidi joining Morgan Moulin-Traffort) and the #66 Black Pearl Ferrari (below, with Dominik Schwager stepping in alongside Pierre Kaffer and Steve Parrow).
There’s been a slight reshuffle at ROWE Racing: In the #99 Mercedes, Bastian and Dusseldorp are now joined by Thomas Jager instead of Klaus Graf, while the #98’s line-up is unchanged. And in the #35 Sainteloc Audi, this round’s guest-starring Audi DTM drivers is Adrien Tambey.
In Pro-Am, there are driver changes in the #30 Classic & Modern BMW (Blanchemain and Nicolle out, Christian Kelders and Jonathan Hirschi in alongiside Pierre Hirschi), while the #34 Car Collection Mercedes has moved up from the Am Cup with the addition of Renger van der Zande to the driver list.
In the #51 AF Corse Ferrari (above, at Monza), Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin are joined by reigning Am Cup champion and Spa 24 winner Francisco Guedes, while Benny Simonsen is listed in the #24 Team Parker Racing Audi (below, at Monza) alongside regular drivers Loggie and Westwood.
Also in Pro-Am, we’re down from two to one GT Russian Team Mercedes entries for this weekend: the #70 with Karachev, Vasiliev and Asmer aboard.
And while the #10 Ferrari has moved up to Pro, its #12 sister car moved down from Pro-Am to Am for this round. Also making this switch is the #78 Team Russia by Barwell BMW (above, in ELMS trim at Silverstone last year), which sees Jonny Cocker step out of the cockpit so gentleman drivers Leo Machitski and Timur Sardorov can contest the Am Cup.
“Leo is right where he needs to be, but the level is so high this season that Timur is still a second or so off the pace needed to be competitive in Pro-Am, so we’re stepping down to give him more of a chance,” Barwell MD Mark Lemmer told us in the paddock. He confirmed that Cocker will be back in the #78 for the Spa 24 Hours, alongside Machitski and two other drivers who will be announced next week.
Also in the Am Cup are some series newcomers: Benelux trio Patrick Van Glabeke, Louis-Philippe Soenen and Martin Lanting driving the #48 AF Corse Ferrari.
There’s plenty of SRO-run activity on the support bill, too, including the SRO ‘Ultracar Club’ for high-end supercars, a supercar rally and the second round of the SRO’s new-for-2015 GT Sports Club sprint-race series for gentleman drivers only. The first round took place at the Circuit de Catalunya’s Espiritu de Montjiuch historic meeting in April, but this is the first time it’s joined the bill of a headline SRO event. Among the entries for this round are Mr SRO himself, Stephane Ratel, driving one of the Aston Martin DBRS9s he owns and keeps at the SRO Race Centre facility here at Paul Ricard (left).
The impressive Mistral Hall where this and Ratel’s other cars are kept is also the vene for today’s technical scrutineering for the Blancpain Endurance entrants.
Stephen Errity
