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Intercontinental GT Challenge

Record 39 Cars Eligible for IGTC Points at Spa

Five manufacturers contesting 24H Spa with maximum six IGTC points-paying entries…

Photo: Patrick Hecq/SRO

A record 39 cars out of the 56 entered into this weekend’s Total 24 Hours of Spa are listed as being eligible to score Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli points.

The third round of the 2020 IGTC season, which comes after the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour in February and the Indianapolis 8 Hour this month, is set to be the best-attended IGTC points-paying race since the global championship’s inaugural campaign in 2016. 

Eight manufacturers – BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Bentley, Honda, Audi, Ferrari and Lamborghini – have nominated entries to score points per the provisional entry list.

McLaren, Aston Martin and Lexus will also have a presence on the grid but these brands have not made any IGTC nominations.

At Bathurst, Indianapolis and the Kyalami 9 Hour, manufacturers can nominate four points-paying entries while up to three of these can be all-professional driving crews.

For the longest race of the year at Spa the allocation is enlarged, with each manufacturer able to nominate up to six IGTC points-scoring cars, four of which can be all-pro.

The cars that are not all-pro can come from the Silver Cup, Pro-Am and Am Cup classes.

Furthermore, championship points are only awarded to the top two finishing cars from each manufacturer.

Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche have nominated a maximum of six cars, while Audi is the only one of these not to have a Pro-Am entry involved.

Audi, Ferrari and Porsche have four Pro IGTC-eligible cars each, while Lamborghini has three and Mercedes-AMG two. The rest of Lamborghini and Mercedes-AMG’s IGTC points-paying cars are distributed across Silver Cup and Pro-Am.

BMW, which has three cars nominated, leads the manufacturers’ standings heading to Spa after Walkenhorst Motorsport took a one-two in the Indianapolis 8 Hour.

The Munich manufacturer picked up all of its 43-point haul at Indianapolis and currently holds a one-point advantage over Mercedes-AMG.

Porsche is third in the manufacturers’ table on 33 points, with Bentley fourth on 26 and Honda in fifth on 23.

Bentley drivers Maxime Soulet, Jordan Pepper and Jules Gounon continue to lead the drivers’ championship despite an incident at Indianapolis which resulted in them only coming away with a single point.

The Bathurst 12 Hour winners, who are teaming up again for Spa, have a one-point edge over Indianapolis winners Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg and Connor de Phillippi.

Walkenhorst has continued with its two-car BMW M6 GT3 entry, with Catsburg and Farfus joined by 2016 and 2018 Spa winner Philipp Eng in the No. 34 machine.

The next-highest drivers in the standings who are contesting this weekend’s IGTC race are Nick Yelloly, David Pittard and Martin Tomczyk in Walkenhorst’s other car.

Mercedes-AMG drivers Maximilian Goetz, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen are still third in the points after their podium at Bathurst for Triple Eight Race Engineering, despite the trio being absent from Indianapolis and Spa.

Behind Yelloly, Pittard and Tomczyk on 15 points are Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet, who are teamed up in the No. 12 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R that they also drive in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup.

Porsche’s leading squad holds the same score as Honda Racing’s Renger van der Zande, Mario Farnbacher and Dane Cameron who scored a podium at Indianapolis.

The 24 Hours of Spa also counts towards GTWC Europe Endurance Cup.

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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