Line-Up Changes For Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Barcelona Final
Local star Albert Costa received a last-minute call-up to drive the #563 Orange1 FFF Racing Lamborghini at his home event. The change was necessary after regular driver Dennis Lind fell ill and was deemed unable to compete.
Costa arrives at a crucial moment for FFF Racing who are in contention for the overall Blancpain GT Series and Endurance Cup teams’ titles, while Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli will compete for the same drivers’ crowns this weekend.
The Spanish driver has accumulated significant mileage at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as well as race-winning experience in the Blancpain GT Series and knowledge of the Huracan GT3 from his International GT Open programme.
Costa’s addition means that all three Orange1 FFF Racing machines will feature a new driver this weekend. In the #519 Lamborghini, which competes for overall honours, Giacomo Altoe replaces Franck Perera; meanwhile, in the Silver Cup class #555 machine, Andrea Amici replaces Diego Menchaca. Both drivers contested this year’s Total 24 Hours of Spa in Lamborghini equipment.
A further three top-tier cars feature line-up changes. In the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi, Dorian Boccolaci steps in for Steven Palette. Young French racer Boccolaci already knows the Sainteloc outfit well, having contested the final two rounds of Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe for the Audi squad.
In the #54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche, Marco Seefried takes over from Klaus Bachler. Coincidentally, German racer Seefried was alongside Costa on the crew that took the overall victory at last season’s Circuit Paul Ricard 1000kms. Valentin Hasse Clot will make his series debut, filling in for Kelvin van der Linde aboard the #66 Attempto Racing Audi.
There are two more changes to the Silver Cup grid. In the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG, Italian ace Davide Fumanelli takes over from fellow countryman Gabriele Piana. This will be Fumanelli’s third outing in 2019 following his participation for Strakka Racing at Circuit Paul Ricard and the Spa Total 24 Hours of Spa. The #17 Team WRT Audi has also been tweaked as Paul Petit steps aside and is replaced by Sean Walkinshaw. This will be the Brit’s first outing in the series since Spa last year.
In the Pro-Am class, French youngster Pierre Alexandre Jean will drive the #26 Sainteloc Audi alongside Edouard Cauhaupé and Pierre Yves Pâque. The rival #31 Team Parker Racing Bentley will now run with a two-driver line-up of Derek Pierce and Seb Morris. The #9 Boutsen Ginion BMW will also consist of a pairing, with Karim Ojjeh joined by Gennaro Bonafede in the Am Cup contender. A further change in the Am class sees Daiko Lazarus Racing move its #27 Lamborghini from the Silver Cup, with Andrzej Lewandowski, Jose Manuel Balbiani and August MacBeth at the wheel.
Porsche Squads for 9 Hours of Kyalami Finalised
Porsche fields four 911 GT3 R in the Pro category at November’s IGTC round at Kyalami, plus another 911 GT3R in the amateur class and twelve drivers from the factory and junior driver squads.
Customer teams GPX Racing, Dinamic Motorsport, Frikadelli Racing and Team 75 Bernhard will each field a Pro car.
In the overall standings, Porsche still has a chance to claim the manufacturers’ title.
The winning trio at Bathurst – works driver Dirk Werner and the two Porsche Young Professionals Matt Campbell and Dennis Olsen are just ten points shy of the drivers’ classification leader.
To maximise the chances of winning the drivers’ championship, the Bathurst winners Werner, Campbell and Olsen will contest the season finale in three different cars.
The trio heads to the final race ranking fifth, but are only ten points behind the leader. Campbell shares the cockpit of Dinamic Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 R with the current leaders of the IMSA series, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor. Team 75 Bernhard will field Dirk Werner who joins forces with his works driver teammates Sven Müller and Romain Dumas.
Dennis Olsen joins the 911 GT3 R campaigned by Frikadelli Racing with factory pilot Nick Tandy and Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet.
The fourth Porsche GT3 car comes from this year’s Spa 24 Hours winners GPX Racing.
Reigning FIA WEC GT Drivers World Champions Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre join forces with 2015 WEC GT Drivers Champion Richard Lietz.
