The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Group and the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB) with approval from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's GT3 regulations. The series's goal is to be an endurance racing championship for GT3 cars, similar to the FIA World Endurance Championship which were using GTE cars and Le Mans Prototypes (now GT3 and Le Mans Hypercars). The series was primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain, and the company's Lamborghini Super Trofeo series serve as support races. In 2019, SRO announced that their sponsorship deal with Blancpain had been discontinued and the series was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for the 2020 season.

Format The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup reestablishes several elements of the former FIA GT Championship, with three hour endurance races held on European circuits such as Monza and Silverstone, as well as a continuation of the Spa 24 Hours. The races feature five classes derived from the FIA's GT3, GT4, and Supersport regulations, with the GT3 cars divided into a class for professional driver line-ups (GT3 Pro), a class for a mixed team of professional and amateurs (GT3 Pro-Am), and a class for gentleman drivers who use cars at least one year old (GT3 Am). The FIA's ranking system for drivers is utilized in determining what class each entry is eligible for. The GT4 category remained its own class.

For the 2012 season, the GT4 and Supersport category were dropped and the GT3 Citation class was modified into the Gentlemen class. In 2013, grids have reached 60 cars for regular races.

The series uses extensive performance balancing and handicap weights to equalise the cars' performance.

Champions

Drivers Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)Overall (2016–present) Silver Cup Gold Cup Pro-Am Cup Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014)Am Cup (2015–2020) GT4 2011 Greg Franchirowspan=7 rowspan=11 Niek Hommerson Louis Machiels Georges Cabannes Alex Buncombe Jordan Tresson Christopher Ward 2012 Christopher Haase Christopher Mies Stéphane Ortelli Niek Hommerson Louis Machiels Pierre Hirschi Robert Hissomrowspan=16 2013 Maximilian Buhk Lucas Ordóñez Jean-Luc Beaubelique Jean-Luc Blanchemain Patrice Goueslard 2014 Laurens Vanthoor Stefano Gai Andrea Rizzoli Francisco Guedes Peter Mann 2015 Alex Buncombe Katsumasa Chiyo Wolfgang Reip Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin Ian Loggie Julian Westwood 2016 Rob Bell Côme Ledogar Shane van Gisbergen Alessandro Bonacini Michał Broniszewski Andrea Rizzoli Vadim Gitlin Liam Talbot Marco Zanuttini 2017 Mirko Bortolotti Andrea Caldarelli Christian Engelhart Jonathan Adam Ahmad Al Harthy Jacques Duyver David Perel Marco Zanuttini 2018 Yelmer Buurman Maro Engel Luca Stolz Alex Fontana Mikaël Grenier Adrian Zaugg Chris Buncombe Nick Leventis Lewis Williamson Adrian Amstutz Leo Machitski 2019 Andrea Caldarelli (2) Marco Mapelli (2) Nico Bastian Timur Boguslavskiy Felipe Fraga Ahmad Al Harthy Charlie Eastwood Salih Yoluç Adrian Amstutz Leo Machitski 2020 Alessandro Pier Guidi Patrick Kujala Alex MacDowall Frederik Schandorff Chris Goodwin Alexander West Stéphane Tribaudini 2021 Alessandro Pier Guidi (2) Nicklas Nielsen Côme Ledogar (2) Alex Fontana Ricardo Feller Rolf Ineichen Chris Froggatt Jonathan Huirowspan=2 2022 Jules Gounon Daniel Juncadella Raffaele Marciello Benjamin Goethe Thomas Neubauer Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer Ollie Millroy Frederik Schandorff Brendan Iribe Louis Machiels Andrea Bertolini Stefano Costantini Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)Overall (2016–present) Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup Pro-Am Cup 2023 Jules Gounon (2) Timur Boguslavskiy Raffaele Marciello (2) Nicolas Baert Maxime Soulet Benjamín Hites Clemens Schmid Glenn van Berlo Eddie Cheever III Chris Froggatt Jonathan Hui Alex Fontana Ivan Jacoma Nicolas Leutwiler 2024 Alessandro Pier Guidi (3) Alessio Rovera Paul Evrard Gilles Magnus Jim Pla Colin Caresani Tanart Sathienthirakul Eddie Cheever III Chris Froggatt Jonathan Huirowspan=3 2025 Alessio Picariello Sven Müller Patric Niederhauser Thierry Vermeulen Chris Lulham Harry King Jarrod Waberski William Moore Mex Jansen Conrad Laursen Dennis Marschall Dustin Blattner 2026 Lucas Auer Maro Engel (2) Luca Stolz (2) TBD Amaury Cordeel Matisse Lismont Ignacio Montenegro Dennis Marschall

Teams Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)Overall (2016–present) Silver Cup Gold Cup Pro-Am Cup Gentlemen Trophy (2011–2014)Am Cup (2015–2020) GT4 2011 WRT Belgian Audi Clubrowspan=7 rowspan=11 Vita4One Ruffier Racing RJN Motorsport 2012 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT AF Corse Saintéloc Racingrowspan=15 2013 Marc VDS Racing Team Nissan GT Academy Team RJN SOFREV Auto Sport Promotion 2014 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Scuderia Villorba Corse AF Corse 2015 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT AF Corse AKKA ASP 2016 Garage 59 Kessel Racing Kessel Racing 2017 Bentley Team M-Sport Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Kessel Racing 2018 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon Not awarded AF Corse Barwell Motorsport 2019 Orange1 FFF Racing Team AKKA ASP Team Oman Racing with TF Sport Barwell Motorsport 2020 AF Corse Barwell Motorsport Garage 59 CMR 2021 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Emil Frey Racing Sky - Tempesta Racingrowspan=2 2022 AKKodis ASP Team Team WRT Inception Racing SPS Automotive Performance Year Pro Cup (2011–2015)Overall (2016–present) Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup Pro-Am Cup 2023 AKKodis ASP Team Comtoyou Racing GRT Grasser Racing Team Sky – Tempesta Racing Car Collection Motorsport 2024 AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Saintéloc Racing Winward Racing Sky – Tempesta Racingrowspan=2 2025 Rutronik Racing Verstappen.com Racing Century Motorsport Kessel Racing

See also British GT Championship GT World Challenge Europe GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup GT World Challenge Asia GT World Challenge Australia GT4 European Series FIA World Endurance Championship European Le Mans Series Asian Le Mans Series 24 Hours of Spa

References

External links