Kessel Racing has become the latest recipient of an automatic invitation to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans, following its success in GT World Challenge Europe’s Bronze Cup class this season.
An invitation is awarded to the best full-season entry in the class, as opposed to the winner of any particular championship, with Kessel Racing’s #74 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo earning this honour for the second-consecutive season.
The #74 Ferrari won the Bronze Cup in the Monza Endurance Cup round and at the 24 Hours of Spa, and added five further podium finishes across the 13-race campaign.
These results helped Kessel to the full-season and Endurance Cup Bronze Cup Teams’ titles, with the #74 Ferrari’s regular drivers Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall winning the Endurance Cup Bronze Cup Drivers’ crown. Marschall also won the full-season Bronze Cup Drivers’ championship.
UPDATE: Following the GT World Challenge Europe season finale at Portimão, Sporting Note #7, which was the notification that Dennis Marschall was waving his points from the Nürburgring, was amended, with Marschall’s points from his podium finish at the Eifel venue reinstated. This made him the sole Endurance Cup Bronze Cup Drivers’ champion, and as a non-Bronze driver, the German is ineligible to win this title alone.
Therefore, Marschall has been removed from the final standings, with Blattner named Drivers’ champion. Marschall remains full-season Drivers’ champion.
With this invite, Kessel Racing joins TF Sport (European Le Mans Series LMGT3 Teams’ Champion) and Orey Fidani (IMSA Bob Akin Award winner) as having LMGT3 entries, should they choose to accept.
LMP2 invites have been awarded to United Autosports (ELMS LMP2 Teams’ Champion), Forestier Racing by Panis (ELMS LMP2 Teams’ Championship runner-up), Algarve Pro Racing (ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am Teams’ Champion), CLX Motorsport (ELMS LMP3 Teams’ Champion) and George Kurtz (IMSA Jim Trueman Award winner).
An invitation to the Hypercar category will be awarded to a team nominated by IMSA, with the final two automatic invitations set to be awarded to the LMP2 and GT Teams’ champions in the 2026/27 Asian Le Mans Series.
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
