50 cars are entered for the third round of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup powered by AWS at the Nürburgring, which takes place this weekend.
In the headline PRO class, the field features 20 cars, with the addition of Austrian outfit Eastalent Racing, which has entered an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II for Simon Reicher, Albert Costa and Karol Basz. The team – which won the 24 Hours of Dubai in January – has further GT World Challenge outings planned at Magny-Cours and Barcelona later this season.
Philip Ellis has been named as the third driver in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Prior to this event, Thomas Drouet and Maximilian Götz had been joined by Adam Christodoulou and Ulysse De Pauw at Paul Ricard and Spa respectively.
Five cars which were previously entered for the full season are absent for the Nürburgring.
2 Seas Motorsport’s #60 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which sits third in the championship, is the only absentee in the five-car Gold Cup.
In the Bronze Cup, Optimum Motorsport’s #27 McLaren, Dinamic GT’s #54 Porsche and Kessel Racing’s pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s are all missing in a reduced 15-car field.
Kessel has explained the reasons for its absence. Nicolo Rosi has still not fully recovered due to his broken ribs sustained in his incident during the Spa 24 Hours in the #8. And John Hartshorne, who is one of the drivers of the sister car #74, is unable to attend the upcoming race meeting due to personal reasons.
“It is obviously with great sadness to announce that we are unable to participate in the next round of the GT Endurance Cup, but in the end the health and well-being of our drivers come first,” Ronnie Kessel, Team Principal, said. “Especially Nico is still feeling the effects of the heavy impact he suffered at Spa. We are very much looking forward to racing again and to be back with the Endurance Cup for the round at Monza.”
Frikadelli Racing is making its first GT World Challenge Europe appearance in almost four years this weekend. The entry is born from a collaboration with Rinaldi Racing, which has fielded the now Frikadelli-entered #333 Ferrari 296 GT3 in the Bronze Cup so far this season.
Frikadelli’s team manager Klaus Abbelen is replacing Christian Hook as the Bronze-rated driver, alongside ELMS LMGT3 regular David Perel and Felipe Fernandez Laser.
Bastian Buus, Patrick Kolb and Michael Verhagen will drive the #80 Lionspeed Porsche 911 GT3.R (992), in a complete line-up change for the team from the 24 Hours of Spa. Buus and Kolb both drove for Lionspeed at Paul Ricard, whilst Verhagen is making his GT World Challenge debut.
The final driver change in the Bronze Cup comes at Century Motorsport, with Jake Dennis returning to the #991 BMW M4 GT3 having missed the 24 hours of Spa due to a Formula E clash.
The 10-car Silver Cup is the only class with an unchanged field of cars from the opening two rounds, although there are a couple of tweaks on the driver front.
At GRT Grasser Racing Team, Lamborghini Super Trofeo racer Loris Caribou has replaced Hugo Cook, whilst Sainteloc Racing has downsized to two drivers with only Alban Varutti and Ivan Klymenko listed against their #26 R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. Having moved to the sister #54 at the 24 hours of Spa, Christopher Zöchling is returning to the #55 Dinamic GT Porsche this weekend.
Madpanda Motorsport, which competed with just two drivers at Paul Ricard, has added 16-year-old Tom Kalender to its line-up of Patrick Assenheimer and Ezequiel Companc.
After its win at last month’s 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Comtoyou Racing’s #7 Aston Martin trio of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim hold a 10-point championship lead in the Endurance Cup over the #998 Rowe Racing BMW of Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse. Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera sit third for AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors, a further five points back.
Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Jim Pla lead the Gold Cup for Sainteloc Racing by a single point over AlManar Racing by GetSpeed’s Al Faisal Al Zubair, Dominik Baumann and Mikael Grenier.
James Kell, Anthony Bartone and Yannick Mettler are on top in the Silver Cup for GetSpeed, with the trio six points clear of Winward Racing’s Colin Caresani, Daan Arrow and Tanart Sathienthirakrul.
AF Corse’s Andrea Bertolini and father-and-son duo Louis and Jef Machiels lead a Ferrari 1-2 in the Bronze Cup, with them 14 points ahead of Sky-Tempesta Racing’s Jonathan Hui, Chris Froggart and Eddie Cheever.
In the overall European standings, where the Endurance Cup is combined with the Sprint Cup, Team WRT’s Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor are 17 points ahead of Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-Filter’s Lucas Auer and Maro Engel. Mercedes-AMG have strong recent form at the Nürburgring, having finished 1-2 and won the Gold Cup last season.
In the Bronze Cup, where the highest scoring team which contests both the Endurance and Sprint elements is awarded with an automatic invitation to the 2025 24 hours of Le Mans, Sky-Tempesta Racing leads Barwell Motorsport by 19 points as we hit the half-way point of the season.
Sunday’s race is set to take place at 15:00 local time after Qualifying earlier in that morning at 08.45.
Images courtesy of SRO
