Blattner, Marschall to Defend Bronze Cup Title With Kessel

Reigning GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Bronze Cup champions Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall will defend their title this year as Ferrari squad Kessel Racing has revealed more details about its plans.

The pair, who were also victorious in the recent Asian Le Mans Series and have therefore secured an auto-invite to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, will tackle the full GTWC Europe season in the updated Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

They will be joined in the Endurance Cup by Lorenzo Patrese, who made a couple of outings in a Ziggo Sport – Tempesta Racing Ferrari last year and takes the place of Conrad Laursen.

Kessel will continue to field two cars in the Bronze Cup this year, but will instead have a twin attack in the Sprint Cup rather than the Endurance contest.

David Fumanelli will remain in the second entry having finished 10th in the Endurance Cup last year and will be partnered by Marco Pulcini, who also moves across from the Ziggo Sport-entered Ferrari.

Kessel has also revealed its European Le Mans Series lineups, with Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra again being partnered by Takeshi Kimura in the No. 57 Car Guy Ferrari after the latter finished fifth last year. They will be joined by a yet-to-be-announced third driver.

Andrew Gilbert and Fran Rueda continue in the sister No. 74 machine, while they will now be joined by Romain Leroux who raced a Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in GTWC Europe last season.