CMR Names Drivers for Two-Car Bentley Sprint Cup Effort

Classic and Modern Racing has announced the driver pairings for its two-car Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup program running Bentleys.

The French squad is fielding a pair of Bentley Continental GT3s into SRO Motorsports Group’s short-format European championship, with one lineup competing for outright honors in Pro and the other racing in the Silver Cup category.

2016 FIA World Endurance LMP2 champion Stephane Richelmi will embark on his first professional racing program since the 2018-19 WEC with Jackie Chan DC Racing.

The Monegasque driver will share the wheel of CMR’s No. 107 Pro-class Bentley with reigning FFSA French GT Silver Cup champion Benjamin Lessennes.

Richelmi’s most recent GT3 race appearance came six years ago, as part of a full season role with Audi squad Team WRT in the 2015 Endurance Cup series.

21-year-old Belgian racer Lessennes made his GTWC Europe debut last year piloting Boutsen Ginion’s BMW M6 GT3 in the Total 24 Hours of Spa, but has never raced in Sprint.

The No. 108 Silver Cup Bentley from CMR will be driven by Pierre-Alexandre Jean and Ulysse de Pauw.

Jean contested the Silver Cup class in 2020 alongside Hugo Chevalier, and also represented CMR’s Endurance Cup Pro crew which has been downscaled to a single-car Pro-Am effort for this season.

De Pauw, 19, is set for his GT racing debut coming off a race-winning season in BRDC British Formula 3. 

“We are very happy to hire these talented drivers for this season,” said CMR team principal Charly Bourachot.

“Concerning the No. 108 crew, Pierre-Alexandre will be able to bring his experience to Ulysses and they will be clearly of size to go play [for] the championship.

“Stephane and Benjamin are also a very promising duo, we look forward to working with them.”

The GTWC Europe Sprint Cup season opens at Magny-Cours on May 7-9.