Oman Racing Aston Martin driver Rory Butcher was fastest in Saturday morning’s Bronze Test for Sunday’s season-closing Blancpain Endurance Series Nurburgring three-hour race. The event is once again sponsored by sim racing company iRacing and incorporates a sim racing expo in the Nurburgring Boulevard.
In cold, damp but bright conditions, the Motorbase Performance-run V12 Vantage GT3 went round in 1:56.888, ahead of second-place man Matheas Stumpf in the #77 BMW Team Brasil Z4. Although neither Butcher nor Stumpf are Bronze-graded, they were allowed to take part in the session as they’re both new to the track. Other Nurburgring newbies getting some track time included WRT Audi’s Sacha Bottemane and AKKA-ASP Ferrari’s Arno Santomato.
Leonard Motorsport Aston Martin driver Paul Wilson was the fastest Bronze-rated pilot, with a time of 1:57.592 putting him third overall, ahead of the #71 GT Russian Mercedes and and the #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The session was briefly red-flagged partway through proceedings after an off for young American Sean Johnston in the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes, which was returned to the pits with right-rear suspension damage.
Changes and additions to the entry list for the Nurburgring include another outing for AKKA-ASP Ferrari’s Pro Cup line-up of Tristan Vautier, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Morgan Moulin-Traffort, who last raced at the Paul Ricard round and the return of the second BMW Team Brasil Z4. Also in Pro, 2015 Nurburgring 24 Hours winner Christopher Mies is the latest Audi factory driver to make a guest appearance in the Sainteloc Audi R8, where he joins Audi DTM ace Miguel Molina (making his GT3 debut) and full-season driver Gregory Guilvert.
Marco Seefried is absent from the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari this weekend due to his WEC duties for Dempsey Racing at Austin. His seat alongside Rinat Salikhov and Norbert Seefried has been filled by ADAC GT Masters regular Robert Renauer.
Joining Butcher in the Oman Racing Team Aston Martin is Aston factory driver Stefan Mucke (above) – the German swapping with newly crowned British GT champion Jonny Adam, who’s racing for the works squad in Austin this weekend.
In Pro Am, Sebastien Loeb Racing makes its first appearance in SRO racing since its 2013 McLaren campaign this weekend – albeit not with the team owner at the wheel. French GT regulars David Hallyday, Christophe Hamon and Lonnie Martens are entered in an Audi R8. And with Pierre Kaffer racing a Risi Ferrari in Texas, his place in the Rinaldi-run Black Pearl 458 alongside Steve Parrow is once again filled by the experienced Dominik Schwager.
Nissan motorsport boss Darren Cox is here this weekend to see the #23 GT-R crew push for the title. Katsumasa Chiyo, Alex Buncombe and GT Academy graduate Wolfgang Reip are nine points behind WRT Audi duo Stephane Ortelli and Frank Stippler in the standings and know they need to go all-out for the win.
“We’re hoping for rain,” Reip told us. “We don’t know why, but for some reason the car works really well in the wet here. We’ve got to push hard in qually and the race. As it’s only three hours, if you don’t qualify in the top 10, you’re nowhere, so we have to go for it.”
This round also marks Nissan LMP1 and Jota LMP2 driver Harry Tincknell’s GT3 debut, as he occupies the rotating Pro seat in the #22 Pro-Am car alongside Gaetan Paletou and Ricardo Sanchez. “He tells me he’s ‘buzzed up’ about it,” said Cox, “but he freely admits he may not be as quick as the other two guys initially, as they’ve had all year in the car.
With new GT3 machinery from German giants BMW, Mercedes and Audi arriving en masse next season, Cox is aware of the need to keep pace. “The ‘15 car is a really good base, but we have a few tweaks in mind,” he confirmed. “There’s still some work we can do with weight distribution.”
Nissan should be back in the Endurance Series next year, but there are no plans to return to Sprint like they did in 2013. “The short circuits just don’t suit the car,” Cox added. “And with our focus on driver development, there just isn’t enough track time. If you look at Moscow this year, we went all-out for a one-off but came back with nothing really. We like Endurance, we’ve been here for a few years now and I’m sure we’ll be back.”
As for the P1 programme, plans haven’t changed. “We’re still testing and we’ll be back when were ready,” he stated simply. “There’s more Nissan corporate involvement from Japan now, year one was like a start-up really, and we have a couple of surprises planned.”
The Bentley Boys Steven Kane, Guy Smith and Andy Meyrick in the #7 Continental GT3 are also in with an outside shot at the title, but a 15-point deficit to the leaders means a lot needs to go their way for it to happen. Blancpain Endurance and Bathurst are definites for Bentley in 2016, with a couple more outings in the works, too. A team source confirmed that ‘most’ of the British marque’s factory drivers are out of contract at the end of this year, with a decision on next season’s line-up to be made in the coming months.
Probably the most relaxed man in the Nurburgring paddock this weekend is Matt Griffin, who’s already wrapped up the BES Pro-Am title with co-driver Duncan Cameron. “I think this has been one of my strongest seasons,” reflected the Irishman. “I’ve had consistent podiums in every series I’m racing in and obviously the title here is great too. I didn’t really process it after Spa, as I was so tired following the race. I think this being the last year of the 458 GT3 has been a big part of why we’ve been so strong – any issues have been ironed out and we know the car really well now.”
Also looking to finish the season on a high in Pro-Am is the Barwell Motorsport-run Ecurie Ecosse BMW squad. Driver Oliver Bryant confirmed that running in one of Barwell’s newly acquired Lamborghini Huracans is ‘certainly an option’ for 2016, but that nothing is firmed up yet. “We have to see what the sponsors want,” he said. “I’d definitely like to continue in BES, doing the Spa 24 Hours every year is a big highlight.
Following a recent GT Open outing at Spa , Tom Ferrier’s TF Sport Aston Martin squad is making its Blancpain Endurance Series debut this weekend, with British GT regulars Salih Yoluc, Bradley Ellis and Euan Hankey at the wheel. Hankey told us: “I’m happy to be here, it’s a great team and a great grid, but the level is very high and there’s going to be a lot going on. It’ll be interesting to see where we end up. We’re just trying it out really, it’s looking like we’ll be doing some combination of European Le Mans Series and GT Open next year, with one or both of Bradley and I sharing the car with Salih.”
Boutsen Ginion Racing is here with a rented BMW Z4 after its original chassis was written off in Karim Oijeh’s monster shunt at Spa. “We’re looking at several cars for next year, BMW, Audi, Lamborghini,” confirmed team manager Olivia Laine, “and we hope Karim and Oliver [Grotz] will return too.”
Also in the Am class, the Team Parker Racing Audi is running with a two-driver line-up of Ian Loggie and Julian Westwood this weekend, after original third driver Benny Simonsen was called up to race for Aston Martin at the Austin WEC round.
Two entered Am Class cars, the Glorax Racing and Sport Garage Ferraris, have pulled out of this round, taking the total entry for the race down to 55 cars. The Glorax drivers were in contention for the Am Cup title, but their withdrawal means it’s now between the Team Parker crew, the drivers of the #56 Attempto Racing Porsche and the #111 Kessel Racing Ferrari trio.
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