Endurance Cup to Kick Off With 55 Cars, New Class Structure

The new Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season will open at Monza this weekend with 55 cars and an updated structure for the classes.

The field for the three-hour race includes 17 cars in the top Pro category, as well as seven in Gold Cup, nine in Silver Cup, 17 in the new Bronze Cup and five in Pro-Am.

An additional entry comes from BMW Italia Ceccato Racing, which is running a BMW M4 GT3 with the Pro-Am lineup of Stefano Comandini, Marco Cassara and Francesco Guerra.

Of the 56 cars that were on the provisional full-season entry list, the 7TSIX McLaren 72S GT3 Evo, one of two Walkenhorst Motorsport BMWs and a Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo have not materialized for the opening round.

Bullitt Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was not on the full-season entry but is confirmed to tackle the five-race campaign.

The only major change in the Pro class is that Ferrari LMH driver and two-time Endurance Cup champion Alessandro Pier Guidi has joined the No. 71 AF Corse lineup in place of Daniel Serra, who is racing in the Stock Car Pro Series at Interlagos this weekend.

AF Corse is giving the new Ferrari 296 GT3 its GTWC Europe debut, while K-PAX Racing, Iron Lynx, Grasser Racing Team, Barwell Motorsport and AGS Events are doing the same for the updated Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

Additionally, the new Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 R is set to race in the series for the first time.

The start of the new Endurance Cup season also marks the first race for an updated class structure in GTWC Europe, following adjustments to the FIA driver rating criteria.

One target of the reform, which was proposed by GTWC Europe organizer SRO Motorsports Group, has been the promotion of a large number of Silver-rated drivers to Gold status.

This has led to a new look for the Gold Cup class in its second Endurance Cup season.

Last year, Gold Cup crews had drivers with three different ratings, but now the combination is Gold-Gold-Silver. The Gold Cup was originally going to be for all-Gold lineups, while the inclusion of two Silvers was proposed towards the end of last season.

The new class for the upcoming season is Bronze Cup, which already made an appearance at last year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

Bronze Cup effectively takes last year’s Gold Cup maximum combination of Bronze-Silver-Platinum, which aligns with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The winning team in the Bronze Cup will earn an automatic invitation to Le Mans next year in the LMGT3 class.

The Pro, Silver Cup and Pro-Am requirements are unchanged. Pro continues to be free from driver rating restrictions, while Pro-Am crews must have two Bronze drivers.

All-Silver lineups will continue to compete in the Silver Cup category.