12-Car Grid Set for Kyalami 9H

A total of 12 cars are on the entry list for next weekend’s Kyalami 9 Hour which rounds out the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli season.

Teams from Audi, Bentley, BMW, Honda and Porsche make up the field with all but two of the cars registered to compete for overall honors in the Pro category.

The entry is significantly lower than last year’s Kyalami enduro which attracted 28 cars.

A notable absentee is Mercedes-AMG, which does not have any teams signed up despite it sitting second in the IGTC manufacturers’ championship behind Porsche.

As previously reported, championship leaders Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor will team up with Kevin Estre in a Porsche 911 GT3 R run by Dinamic Motorsport.

Their main title rivals Mathieu Jaminet, Patrick Pilet and Matt Campbell make up the only other Porsche crew on the list.

Bentley’s Jordan Pepper, Maxime Soulet and Jules Gounon are third in the standings and will line up in one of two M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3s.

M-Sport announced its driver lineups earlier this week, as did Honda, while there have also been no changes to the factory-supported Audi crews revealed in late November.

One of the two works Audi teams – Car Collection Motorsport – is also fielding a privately-run R8 LMS GT3 Evo for Dennis Marschall, Milan Dontje and Martin Lechman.

This is the only car entered in the Silver Cup category, while a Lechner Racing Porsche is the sole Pro-Am contender.

Lecnher, which is a leading outfit in Porsche one-make competition, is running South African drivers Saul Hack and Andre Bezuidenhout alongside Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race winner Dylan Pereira. The team also appeared at Kyalami last year.

Indianapolis 8 Hour winners Augusto Farfus and Nicky Catsburg will be joined by DTM driver Sheldon van der Linde in Walkenhorst Motorsport’s No. 34 BMW M6 GT3.

The sister Walkenhorst machine is being driven by Martin Tomczyk, David Pittard and Nick Yelloly who also contested Indianapolis and the Total 24 Hours of Spa together.

Farfus and Catsburg remain in championship contention despite BMW’s double retirement at Spa, with six points separating them from the top of the standings.

With 25 points on offer for victory at Kyalami, drivers from nine of the 12 crews are in the hunt for the drivers’ title that was won last year by Porsche’s Dennis Olsen.