And Finally to Silverstone

After four exciting races in Italy, Spain, Belgium and France it is now off to Great Britain and the final round of the 2011 Blancpain Endurance Series, which will see no less than seven titles decided on Sunday afternoon.  The inaugural season of Europe’s newest GT Endurance Series has been a huge success with large grids, fantastic racing on some of the best circuits Europe has to offer – Monza, Navarra, Spa-Francorchamps, Magny Cours and now Silverstone. 

The one championship that was decided at the last round at Magny Cours was the GT3 Teams title and my congratulations go to Belgian Audi Club Team WRT on their superb performances this year, including winning the 2011 Total 24 Hours of Spa.

Their driver Greg Franchi has a commanding lead in the Driver’s title race and his Team WRT teammates Bert Longin, Stephane Ortelli and Filipe Albuquerqe also have a chance of taking the GT3 Pro Cup title if Greg, along with Andrea Piccini and Marcel Fässler, makes a mistake this weekend.  With the AutOrlando trio of Paolo Ruberti, Gianluca Roda and Raffaele Gianmaria and Marc VDS driver Markus Palttala, no less than eight drivers are competing to become the first ever Blancpain Endurance Series Champion.

The other titles that will be decided this weekend are the Drivers and Teams GT3 Pro-Am Cup, the Driver and Teams GT3 Gentlemen Trophy and the Drivers and Teams GT4 Cup.

Last time in France the Marc VDS BMW Z4 won the race, making four different manufacturers winning each of the four races held this year.  In Monza it was the AutOrlando Porsche 997, in Navarra it was the Vita4One Ferrari 458 and at the Spa 24 Hours it was the Team WRT Audi R8.  This underlines the competitiveness of this series and the efforts that go into the Balance of Performance, which certainly gets results on the track.

As well as the final round of the Blancpain Endurance Series, we have races for two other high profile SRO promoted championships, the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series and the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.  Both of these national championships are very important on the European motorsport calendar, with British F3 providing the future stars of Formula One.  Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Jaime Alguersuari, Sergio Perez and Bruno Senna were all race winners in British F3 before moving to F1.  In addition British F3 and British GT we have more racing action in the form of the Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, the Ginetta Challenge and the Volkwagen Racing Cup, which will provide a non stop package of entertainment throughout the weekend.

I would like to thank Blancpain for their continued support. Blancpain’s CEO and President Marc Hayek is also competing in the GT3 Pro-Am Cup, driving the Blancpain sponsored Reiter Engineering Lamborghini with Peter Kox, and has  already stood on the top step of the podium this year.  I’m sure he will be looking forward to another successful weekend, as both the title sponsor and as a driver. 

If you can’t be at Silverstone to see the race in person, you can always watch the Blancpain Endurance Series live online at www.blancpain-endurance-series.com or on Motors TV across Europe.  I hope you will enjoy the final 3-hour Blancpain Endurance Series race of the year.  

Stéphane Ratel