Impressive 54-car entry list released

• Italiano

As is the tradition, the first of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup races will be held at Monza during the weekend of April 22nd-23rd with a 54-car grid. No fewer than 31 cars are entered in the PRO class, including the HPT Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of the opening 2017 Sprint Cup round winners, Maxi Buhk and Franck Perera, who will share the wheel with Swedish Jimmy Eriksson.

Mercedes-AMG will be the best represented of the 11 manufacturers at Monza. The brand with the three-pointed-star has no fewer than 13 cars on the entry list, seven of them competing in the PRO-AM Cup. Among the drivers making their first appearance in 2017, DTM-star Edoardo Mortara stands out. The Italian will share the AKKA-ASP car with his fellow countryman Raffaele Marciello and Michael Meadows.

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, Team WRT, ISR and Saintéloc Racing form the seven-car-strong Audi armada. With the R8 LMS not performing convincingly in Misano, where the Saintéloc car of Christopher Haase and Romain Monti the highest finisher in fifth – all of these teams will be trying to rectify that situation in Monza.

The same goes for Strakka Racing. The McLaren squad fell victim to the massive pile-up in Misano’s Qualifying Race and only managed to get the car of Andrew Watson and Rob Bell into the points. The endurance line-up of the British team is considerably different from their sprint pairings, with reigning endurance champions Rob Bell and Côme Lédogar joined by Briton Ben Barnicoat.

Bentley Team M-Sport‘s Vincent Abril, who finished second at Misano with Steven Kane, will be joined by Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet. Kane will team up with Oliver Jarvis and Guy Smith.

Newcomer Walkenhorst Motorsport is the sole BMW representative in Monza. The German squad enters one car for Nico Menzel, Ricky Collard and Christian Krognes.

The Italian fans will have many favourite machines to cheer for. Kaspersky Motorsport entered a Ferrari for former F1 Giancarlo Fisichella, James Calado and Marco Cioci. New FIA WEC Ferrari driver Alessandro Pier Guidi will share another 488 GT3 car with Michele Rugolo and Pasin Lathouras. In the PRO-AM Cup, Andrea Bertolini will team up with Louis Machierls and Niek Hommerson (Spirit of Race).

Plenty of Lamborghini Huracán GT3 cars at Monza. Making its debut in the series is the Raton Racing trio Andrea Amici, Dennis Lind and Stefano Comandini, as well as the reigning International GT Open champion squad Orange 1 Team Lazarus, with Fabrizio Crestani, Gustavo Yacaman and Nicolas Pohler. Attempto Racing will line up an all-Italian crew with Marco Mapelli, Giovanni Venturini and former GP2 Series ace Luca Filippi. Super GT driver Andrea Caldarelli will share a GRT Grasser Racing Team car with the other Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart.

The Motul Team RJN Nissan has a star-studded line-up of previous Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup champions at the wheel, with Alex Buncombe, Katsumasa Chiyo and Lucas Ordoñez. A second GT-R Nismo GT3 car will be driven by Matt Simmons, Matthew Parry and Struan Moore.

Two manufacturers have a single car at the start in Monza, but both Aston Martin (Oman Racing Team by TF Sport) and Porsche (Herberth Motorsport) will be among the candidates for PRO-AM honours.

Blancpain GT Series track action at the Italian Temple of Speed starts on Friday April 21st, with the Bronze Test. On Saturday teams and drivers will complete the free practice and pre-qualifying sessions, with qualifying (9.50 CEST) and the TM Performance 3 Hours of Monza (14.45 CEST) on Sunday April 23rd.