GT2 European Series

Last updated
GT2 European Series
Category Grand tourer
Country International
Inaugural season 2015
Tyre suppliers Pirelli
Drivers' champion Flag of Denmark.svg Anders Fjordbach
Flag of the United States.svg Mark Patterson
Teams' champion Flag of Denmark.svg High Class Racing
Official website www.gt2europeanseries.com
Motorsport current event.svg Current season

The GT2 European Series (formerly the GT Sports Club and Blancpain GT Sports Club), organized by SRO Motorsports Group, is an auto racing series for the SRO GT2 class of grand tourer cars, designed for amateur pay drivers in the FIA Bronze category. This target audience is also known in sportscar as "gentleman drivers".

Contents

The GT Sports Club Europe series was fully suspended in 2020 as a consequence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and thus no GT2-class competition was held in 2020. The GT2 series was re-established in a significantly different format in 2021, adding a Pro-Am style subclass and Fanatec as the title sponsor; this Fanatec GT2 European Series continued in 2022.

The 2021-onwards GT2 series runs in support of the GT World Challenge Europe weekends and includes Friday practice and qualifying with one race each on Saturday and Sunday.

History

The inaugural Blancpain GT Sports Club series in 2015 was aimed at amateur pay drivers, with competition limited to drivers of a grade similar to the FIA Bronze category at the time, and with cars homologated in a number of ways and open to running older chassis. By the end of 2019 it was possible to use any of: FIA GT3 for that season, re-homologated cars from earlier GT3 generations, RACB G3 cars, GTE-spec cars, and Renault Sport Trophy cars, all competing in a single class through a Balance of Performance process and additional Cup Trophys based on driver age or car subclass. In the early seasons Bronze included subcategories Titanium for drivers aged 50-59 and Iron for drivers over 60 years of age; [1] these subcategories are not in use in 2022.

The Sports Club raceday design was originally focused on running lunchtime-to-lunchtime to ease weekend travel and encourage "arrive and drive" entries, with free practice and qualifying sessions on day one, followed by qualifying and main races the following day. [1]

GT Sports Club Europe was suspended in 2020 as a consequence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The "GT Sports Club" concept was relaunched in 2021 as an umbrella covering a championship built on an also new GT2 class; a sister GT3-only championship with a similar approach as before to running multiple generations of GT3 together; and a non-competitive "GT1 Sports Club" aimed at bringing road-going supercars on track together. These series now support the GT World Challenge Europe calendar.

Champions

YearOverallTitanium CupIron CupXtra CupCup Challenge (2015)
Cup (2017–)
2015 Flag of Italy.svg Max BianchiNot held Flag of Monaco.svg Martin LantingNot held Flag of Hong Kong.svg Wong Chong Yau Runme
2016 Flag of Poland.svg Michał Broniszewski Flag of Monaco.svg Martin Lanting Flag of Italy.svg Mauro Casadei
Flag of Italy.svg Davide Roda
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jürgen Smet
Not held
2017 Flag of France.svg Anthony Pons Flag of the United States.svg Stephen Earle Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Dilantha Malagamuwa Flag of the United States.svg Howard Blank
2018 Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Karim Ojjeh Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Karim Ojjeh Flag of the United States.svg Stephen EarleNot heldNot awarded
2019 Flag of Denmark.svg Jens Reno Møller Flag of Germany.svg Coach McKansy Flag of the United States.svg Stephen Earle
Fanatec GT2 European Series
OverallPro-Am CupAm Cup
2021 Flag of Denmark.svg Anders Fjordbach
Flag of the United States.svg Mark Patterson
Flag of Denmark.svg Anders Fjordbach
Flag of the United States.svg Mark Patterson
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Christoph Ulrich
2022 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Nicolas Saelens
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Stienes Longin
Flag of Luxembourg.svg Henry Hassid
2023 Flag of France.svg Henry Hassid

Flag of France.svg Anthony Beltoise

Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Jan Krabec

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References

  1. 1 2 "SRO Motorsports Group introduces GT Sports Club, a new Series exclusively for Bronze drivers". gtsportsclub.com. Retrieved November 15, 2015.