SRO to Establish GT3 Enduro at COTA

SRO Motorsports Group will try to establish its own GT3 endurance event in the U.S. from 2016 onwards, though the organization has no further plans to get a stronger foothold on the other side of the Atlantic.

The collaborative partnership announced between Pirelli World Challenge and Blancpain GT is going ahead as planned, with the focus currently on building up a separate Blancpain GT-styled event at the Circuit of The Americas on March 4-6.

“It will be a three-hour race, next to the PWC sprint races,” Stephane Ratel told Sportscar365 at the Nürburgring.

“The idea is to bring together the European and local teams. I can’t tell you if we’ll have 15 or 30 cars, you never know that when you start, but we talked to a couple of teams and there is interest to go there.”

The race will play a key role in the yet-to-be-titled SRO intercontinental GT challenge, which will also feature events in Europe, Asia and Australia, but it won’t be part of the Blancpain GT Series schedule in 2016.

“There is no such thing as a GT3 only endurance race in America and I think we have the right regulations to do it,” Ratel said.

“It will be a Blancpain race, most [likely] with a Blancpain name, in America and it will be part of our intercontinental challenge, but it’s still early and we still need to finalize the details.”

GT3 has now fully taken off in the U.S. and the Frenchman is not looking to enter the scene with his own series.

“The American motorsport market is overcrowded, there’s already a lot of competition,” he said.

“In GT3 you have IMSA on one side and PWC on the other. I don’t think there’s any point in throwing a third series in the mix.”