13 Entries for Kyalami 9H

Photo: SRO

A total of 13 cars are entered for the Kyalami 9 Hour, including ten GT3 cars that will go the full distance in the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli enduro.

Released on Monday, the entry list features representation from four brands, three of which are registered manufacturers in the globe-trotting GT3 series.

Mercedes-AMG, fresh off back-to-back victories in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, has a total of four registered entries, although three will battle for Pro-Am class honors.

The No. 999 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier and Raffaele Marciello, which finished third at Bathurst, is the manufacturer’s sole Pro class representative.

SunEnergy1 Racing, which won the Australian enduro with Kenny Habul, Jules G0unon and Luca Stolz, sees Stolz moved to SPS Automotive Performance’s Mercedes for this weekend, with Silver-rated Yannick Mettler completing the SunEnergy1 lineup, which will also be run by the German squad.

Stolz will team up with Reece Barr and Miguel Ramos in the No. 20 Mercedes, while the all-South African lineup of Charl Arangies, Arnold Neveling and Clint Weston will drive a Mercedes with local team Stradale Motorsport.

Team WRT will have its two BMW M4 GT3s for the Bathurst trio of Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts, plus Maxime Martin, Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng, who replaces Valentino Rossi in the lineup.

Porsche, the third IGTC manufacturer for 2023, will have a solo Type-991.2 Porsche 911 GT3 R competing in Pro-Am with the EBM-assisted Grove Racing effort for Stephen and Brenton Grove and Earl Bamber.

While not registered to score points, Audi will have two Pro class entries with Tressor Attempto Racing, featuring five factory drivers.

Mattia Drudi, Ricardo Feller and Patric Niederhauser form one lineup, while the second Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II will be driven by Markus Winkelhock, Dennis Marschall and Alex Aka.

South African squad MJR Motorsport also has an Audi entered for its countrymen Marius Jackson, Mo Mia and Kwanda Makoena.

Three additional cars are on the entry list although will only contest the first hour of the race, with the NGK Pablo Clark Racing Mercedes, BigFoot Express Racing Mercedes and MJR Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT4 all contesting the Kyalami SuperCup, which will run as a race within the race.

Track action kicks off with a pair of test sessions and Free Practice on Thursday, with pre-qualifying and qualifying on Friday and the nine-hour enduro taking the green Saturday at 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John