Ratel positive on SRO's future GT plans

SRO looks ahead after GT1 World championship finale in Donington

A thrilling, and occasionally dramatic race weekend marked the end of the SRO promotion of the FIA GT1 World Championship, which started in Abu Dhabi in early 2010. We offer our congratulations to All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport, and to Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock, for their titles, to be officially confirmed by the FIA later this year.

By closing the GT1 World Championship chapter, however, SRO is not closing the book it started writing twenty years ago, but intends to fill many more pages with GT racing excitement.

This week’s launch of the superb Bentley Continental GT3, at the Paris Motorshow, is the best possible illustration of the expanding success of a category SRO initiated in 2005 and successfully developed together with the FIA over the years. It is SRO’s intention to focus on its further growth by confirming the launch of a GT World Series that will bring together the outstanding success of the Blancpain Endurance Series and the promising heritage of the GT1 World Championship and its action-packed sprint format.

At a meeting held at the Nürburgring last weekend, the following teams confirmed their interest in the proposed Sprint series, which will alternate events with the Blancpain Endurance Series, to form the future World Series : All-Inkl.com / AF Corse / Hexis / Heico / Vita4one / Prospeed / Sunred, possibly in partnership with Lambda / Reiter / WRT, hopefully joined by others, to form an expected grid of 24 or more cars, with regulations allowing the full-season entry of up to three two-car teams per make. The series will allow for a Pro class, and a ‘Silver’ class, for young and upcoming pairings.

The Blancpain Endurance Series, that will end its extremely successful 2012 season in Navarra on October 14th, with another grid of over 50 cars, is most likely to remain at top level with a number of additional teams having expressed interest for 2013. Teams competing in both the Sprint and Endurance series will score points towards the global title, with a trophy to be awarded to the Manufacturers taking into account the four best-placed cars of each series.

“This has been the most difficult season in my career as a motorsport promoter, “ commented Stephane Ratel, Founder and CEO of SRO Motorsport Group. “But I am glad that despite the cancellation of our overseas events we have been able to respect our commitment to the teams who have trusted us for so many years, who in turn were in a position to honour their contracts with drivers, sponsors and manufacturers. I am certain they all valued our effort and investment in doing so, and will stay with us to build together a brighter continuation.”

The final calendar will be presented for approval by the RACB to the FIA World Motor Sport Council in December, with events as follows:

16th February	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates	Sprint
31st March	Nogaro	France	Sprint
14th April	Monza	Italy	Blancpain Endurance
28th April	Zolder	Belgium	Sprint
12th May	tba	Germany	Sprint
2nd June	Silverstone	Great Britain	Blancpain Endurance
30th June	Paul Ricard	France	Blancpain Endurance
14th July	Zandvoort	Netherlands	Sprint
27th July	Spa	Belgium	24 Hours of Spa, Blancpain Enduance
18th Aug	Slovakiaring	Slovakia	Sprint
22nd Sept.	Nürburgring	Germany	1000 km, Blancpain Endurance

A 7th sprint event will be added.

Source: SRO