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      03-11-2015, 02:01 PM   #1
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The 2015 Blancpain GT Series Thread

I really enjoy this series by SRO, the 2014 season was full of thrills and chills, fast cars and exotic loudness and beautiful locales. Blancpain GT comprises both the Blancpain Endurance Series as well as the Blancpain Sprint Series. SRO/Blancpain runs the European arm of the Lambo Super Trofeo that IMSA handles here in the USA.

I started a Z4-centric thread here:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1087642

but let's take a look at the entire season from testing to the tracks to the grid entries.

Season:
March 11-12 Circuit Paul Ricard, France - Test Day, BES
March 17-18 Misano, Italy - Test Day, BSS
April 04-06 Nogaro Coupes de Paques, France - Round 1, BSS
April 11-12 Monza, Italy - Round 1 BES
May 09-10 Brands Hatch, Great Britain - Round 2, BSS
May 23-24 Silverstone, Great Britain - Round 2, BES
June 05-07 Zolder, Belgium - Round 3, BSS
June 19-20 Circuit Paul Ricard - Round 3, BES
June 24 - TOTAL 24 HOURS OF SPA TEST, Belgium - Test Day, BES
July 03-05 Moscow City Racing, Russia - Round 4, BSS
July 23-26 - TOTAL 24 HOURS OF SPA RACE - Round 4, BES
Sept 04-06 Algarve, Portugal - Round 5, BSS
Sept 19-20 Nurburgring, Germany - Round 5, BES
October 02-04 Misano, Italy - Round 6, BSS
October 24-25 Baku World Challenge, Azerbaijan - Round 7 BSS

We just, as I'm sure you've been reading on autosport websites, had our first full testing session.

Article:

Interesting first day of official testing for the Blancpain Endurance Series
March 11 2015



The 2015 season of the Blancpain GT Series has started with the first day of official testing at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France. The teams fielded a total of 45 GT3 cars and used the 5,79 km version of the Le Castellet track to perform an extensive shakedown of their machines.
At 9am sharp, the #30 BMW Z4 of Series newcomer Classic & Modern Racing was the first to leave the pitlane, quickly followed by the #888 BMW of Triple Eight Racing. In those overcast morning hours temperatures barely went above the 10C mark, creating ideal conditions for quick lap times. At the end of the first half of this opening day, it was the #88 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 R-EX topping the time sheets, beating the competition by over a second. During the warmer afternoon session once the cloud cover broke, air temperature swiftly got past the 18C lap times went up as well. The #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari did manage to improve however, finishing a largely incident-free day in second, behind the Lamborghini.

Lap times were not the priority during this first day of testing however. Most teams, drivers and fans were eager to see some of the new GT3 cars for the 2015 season in action. The cars that took the largest part of that attention were the new Lamborghini Huracan of Grasser Racing Team and the McLaren 650S of Von Ryan Racing, both making a first time appearance in an official Blancpain GT session. There was a pleasant surprise in the form of the unannounced and new Audi R8 LMS ultra. The striking white machine will participate in its first Blancpain GT Series race during the course of the season.

Tomorrow is the second and final day of the official test days for the Blancpain GT Series, with a couple of drivers and teams who did not come into action today. The session starts at 09:00AM.




Test Results:






2015 Blancpain GT Series most competitive yet

A brief look at the entry list of the 2015 Blancpain GT Series leads to a clear conclusion: the best GT series on the motorsports planet just got even better. With an unprecedented number of professional drivers and teams taking part, the twelve events on the 2015 Blancpain GT Series calendar promise to be exciting from start to finish.


129 days. Thats how long its been since the final chequered flag of the 2014 Blancpain GT Series was waved, on the streets of Baku. After a well-deserved but short recess, the best teams and drivers in GT racing have started preparing for the 2015 season, to be ready for the Official Test Days that will take place over the coming days. Not only have the Blancpain GT Series regulars put a lot of elbow grease into their winter build-up, but a number of new teams have decided to join the biggest GT series as well. All these hard efforts have led to an impressive entry list for 2015.













Curious about the Blancpain GT? Here's some history back to 2011

Some history

2011-2012:
Since the new FIA GT1 World Championship was based on a sprint format, there was a need for an international GT endurance championship.
The Blancpain Endurance Series is launched and meets instant success with a strong level of entries for the five-race series centred around the Total 24 Hours of Spa. The Blancpain Endurance Series is the result of twenty years of motorsport experience built by the SRO Motorsports Group.

The recipe was quite simple: to bring GT3 cars to endurance racing, by setting up a convivial championship which met the requirements and expectations of teams and drivers alike. The Blancpain Endurance Series quickly becomesthe new reference point in GT racing.

After a second successful GT1 World season in 2011 with two races in China and a spectacular demonstration run in the Beijing Olympic Park, the announcement of the FIA GT World Cup as part of the newly-launched FIA World Endurance Championship cast doubts over the Championship’s future. Despite having added Russia to the calendar and running the Championship with GT3 cars, the 2012 season was difficult enough to convince SRO to drop the World title but to preserve a sprint format in GT Racing for 2013.

2013:
The Blancpain Endurance Series consolidates its reputation as the benchmark for GT3 series. The series is brought into more homes than ever, with among others, Eurosport and RTL committing significant coverage to the races.

For the international sprint series, 2013 is a transition year, during which SRO Motorsports Group proves that there was a place for such a series alongside the Blancpain Endurance Series. The FIA GT Series, run under the aegis of the RACB with an FIA title, continues in the footsteps of the FIA GT1 World and GT3 European Championships. With an average of 22 cars per event over the season and culminating in a successful and popular season finale in Baku the FIA GT Series meets all expectations.

2014:
By bringing the Blancpain Sprint Series and Blancpain Endurance Series under a common banner, the growth of GT racing in Europe continues. Both promotion and TV coverage enjoy increasing figures.

2015:
Encouraged by the success of the inaugural season, the development of the Blancpain GT Series continues, with new venues like Misano and Moscow. The introduction of prize money in the Blancpain Endurance Series sees a growing number of teams participating in both Endurance and Sprint Series.
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      03-11-2015, 03:00 PM   #2
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Who said more photos? Sorry if you're on the app




This is Stephane Rotel, of the SR Organization - the parent company to Blancpain GT.











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      03-11-2015, 03:04 PM   #3
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      03-11-2015, 03:32 PM   #4
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Yes, car porn.
Thx for posting this.
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      03-12-2015, 06:36 AM   #5
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Cool car. Stefane drove this on a test day
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      03-12-2015, 11:07 AM   #6
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TDS BMW Fastest in Thursday Morning Session



The No. 12 TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3 of Eric Dermont, Henry Hassid and Franck Perera topped the morning session on the second day of the Blancpain Endurance test at Paul Ricard.

Peter Kox’s 1:56.018 in the Lamborghini Gallardo Extenso remained unbeaten, but the French BMW still put in the second fastest time overall (+0.837s).

Reiter Engineering was still on the pace today, this time with the Camaro GT3 that ended the session in P2 (+0.287s).

Triple Eight Racing came in third, while the No. 22 RJN Nissan was once again in the upper regions of the timesheets.

Notable was the fifth fastest time of the Team Parker Racing Audi of gentlemen drivers Ian Loggie and Julian Westwood.

The session was not interrupted, but both the Boutsen Ginion Racing BMW and Emil Frey Jaguar had to be recovered after coming to halt next to the track.

http://sportscar365.com/blancpain/td...rning-session/
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      03-12-2015, 12:18 PM   #7
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Here's the Z4
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      03-12-2015, 03:18 PM   #8
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Here's another test shot!
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      03-13-2015, 03:41 PM   #9
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DKR Engineering BMW Z4 GT3




This is the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo extenso with the wide body aero kit





TESTING INFO

The fastest time was so superior that the black race car with the number 88 on the second day no longer went to the track. The second fastest time of the tests succeeded the BMW team TDS Racing in 1: 56,855 minutes - the Z4 GT3 Eric Dermot Henry Hassid and Franck Perera was thus the only vehicle next to the tab-Lambo, which came under the mark of 117 seconds.

The majority of the 47-vehicle field held in the 1: 57s-region: from the third-placed Insight Racing Ferrari (1: 57,065 minutes) runs a 1-second window to place 29 A colorful image of vehicles featuring the Top 10: Fourth place went to Kessel Racing (1: 57,088) is also at Ferrari, behind the second vehicle from Reiter Engineering sized one - the place designated for the ADAC GT Masters Chevrolet Camaro (1: 57,142).

The top 10 completed the Aston Martin Racing team from Oman (1: 57,178), another BMW Z4 GT3 of Triple Eight Racing (1: 57,231), the Nissan GT-R MRS GT Racing (1: 57,312), the team Parker Racing in the best Audi (1: 57,324) and RJN with the GT Academy Nissan at the same time.

Two accidents and many new cars
A rude end took the first day for Phoenix Racing (Audi R8 LMS) and Rinaldi Racing (Ferrari 458 Italia),

Huracan in black and green


Triple888


Denmark's Insight racing and their Ferrari 458 GT3





Akka ASp Ferrari 458 italia GT3



and another 458 italia, this one belongs to Rinaldi Racing and driven by Marco Seefried and Norbert Siedler
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      03-17-2015, 02:36 PM   #10
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      03-19-2015, 05:32 AM   #11
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I worked for a team who did Blancpain Endurance in 2013, the Blancpain Sprint last year. We had a Mercedes SLS GT3 () I'm doing British GT and 24h series as well this year with the same car. Love GT3/endurance racing
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      03-24-2015, 10:43 AM   #12
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Round 1 commences in 10 Days:




This is the Coupes de Paques in Nogaro, France



Track Info:
Lap Record: 1'20.160 in 1991
Circuit Length: 3.36 km / 2.259 miles
Number of corners: 14

Support Series for the weekend:
Twin Cup
Mitjet 2L
GT4 Euro Series
Supertourisme
Renault Clio Cup Elf




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      03-27-2015, 12:03 AM   #13
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Those lambos!
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      03-27-2015, 05:49 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rix313
I worked for a team who did Blancpain Endurance in 2013, the Blancpain Sprint last year. We had a Mercedes SLS GT3 () I'm doing British GT and 24h series as well this year with the same car. Love GT3/endurance racing
HTP?
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      03-27-2015, 09:48 AM   #15
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Quote:
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Those lambos!
Here's another one from Lago Racing who we recently say at the Bathurst 12H.



RE Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX
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      03-30-2015, 10:28 AM   #16
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Here's the 2014 Blancpain GT Nogaro stop (something to watch to get excited and further familiarize yourself with the track and the series if you didn't catch my threads from last year) ---->

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      03-31-2015, 01:07 PM   #17
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Dirk Müller and Maxime Martin to compete in Nogaro.BMW works drivers Maxime Martin and Dirk Müller will make a guest appearance in the Blancpain Sprint Series in Nogaro on the Easter weekend, when they will race in the BMW Z4 GT3 fielded by BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil.
BMW Motorsport 03/30/2015



Martin and Müller will share the cockpit of the number 77 car. The Brazilian team’s second BMW Z4 GT3 will be driven by brothers Rodrigo and Ricardo Sperafico. “I am looking forward to spending a weekend with the BMW Z4 GT3 in the Sprint Series,” said Martin. “I know the Nogaro circuit well. It is a real challenge. However, I think we are well placed to do well with BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil. Müller added: “The Blancpain Sprint Series features a strong field, and it will be an exciting weekend. However, we are well prepared: I know the BMW Z4 GT3 very well and BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil has a lot of experience in this series. I am looking forward to competing with Maxime and the team.”
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      04-01-2015, 08:05 AM   #18
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Quote:
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Dirk Müller and Maxime Martin to compete in Nogaro.BMW works drivers Maxime Martin and Dirk Müller will make a guest appearance in the Blancpain Sprint Series in Nogaro on the Easter weekend, when they will race in the BMW Z4 GT3 fielded by BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil.
BMW Motorsport 03/30/2015



Martin and Müller will share the cockpit of the number 77 car. The Brazilian team’s second BMW Z4 GT3 will be driven by brothers Rodrigo and Ricardo Sperafico. “I am looking forward to spending a weekend with the BMW Z4 GT3 in the Sprint Series,” said Martin. “I know the Nogaro circuit well. It is a real challenge. However, I think we are well placed to do well with BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil. Müller added: “The Blancpain Sprint Series features a strong field, and it will be an exciting weekend. However, we are well prepared: I know the BMW Z4 GT3 very well and BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil has a lot of experience in this series. I am looking forward to competing with Maxime and the team.”
Here is what their car looks like

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      04-02-2015, 09:54 AM   #19
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Mitjet Supertourisme support series will also be in Nogaro

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      04-02-2015, 09:55 AM   #20
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GT4 as well:

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      04-03-2015, 12:47 PM   #21
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      04-06-2015, 06:43 AM   #22
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Youtube link for main race

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