Imola Replaces Monza on Next Year’s GTWC Europe Calendar

Imola will replace Monza on the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS schedule next year on a one-off basis.

An early-season fixture at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza has been a near-constant on the Endurance Cup leg of the calendar since the launch of the championship as the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2011.

Only in 2020, as a result of COVID, and 2022 was Monza not part of the series.

Now, it will temporarily disappear from the schedule for 2027 as a result of the reconstruction of the paddock and the pits building.

Stephane Ratel, boss of series organizer the SRO Motorsports Group, revealed that Monza came to him in the past week explaining that the circuit updates would not be ready in time for the race to take place on its scheduled May 23 date.

He explained that he immediately turned to Imola, which hosted a GTWC Europe enduro in 2022, as a potential replacement in order to maintain an Italian date on the series schedule.

“Monza came to me three days ago saying the new pits building would not be ready,” Ratel said on Friday at his traditional press conference ahead of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

“They proposed something else [another date], but our calendar is very complicated.

“First there is the FIA World Endurance Championship, not to clash with WEC, and then we discuss with our friends at the ADAC to have no clash with the DTM.

“We have contracts with other circuits, we had our dates, we couldn’t change — so we had to scramble.

“At the 24 Hours of Le Mans I met the Imola people, the promoter, so my first reaction was to call them.

“They had told me that it would be nice to have GTWC Europe, but I said, ‘Yes, but we already have two races in Italy [Monza and a round of the Sprint Cup leg at Misano].

“Luckily they could provide us with the same weekend, so now boom, we are going to Imola.”

Ratel insisted that Monza will be back on the calendar in 2028: “For us, this is a one-off, we have a contract and we will return.”

The rest of the 2027 GTWC Europe Endurance Cup largely mirrors this year’s schedule.

It kicks off in April with the six-hour fixture at Paul Ricard, incorporates the 24H Spa and then travels to Nürburging in August and climaxes on the Iberian Peninsula with a return of the Barcelona fixture.

This year, Barcelona hosts a round of the Sprint Cup, with Portimao holding its slot on the endurance calendar.

The five-weekend Sprint Cup in 2027 is once again built around the four mainstays of the series, Brands Hatch, Misano, Magny-Cours and Zandvoort.

They will be joined by the Hungaroring, which will close the short-format leg of the GTWC Europe next October.

Hungaroring hosted a Sprint Cup round in 2016-19 before disappearing from the schedule as a result of the reorganization of the calendar during the COVID pandemic.

Ratel explained that he liked to have what he called “a floater” alongside the nine regular circuits that play host to the two legs of the GTWC Europe.

He said he looks to change “the floater” every year, though he revealed that if a circuit attracts a good crowd “we would be motivated to return.”

2027 GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Schedule:

April 16-17 — Paul Ricard (Endurance Cup)
May 1-2 — Brands Hatch (Sprint Cup)
May 21-23 — Imola (Endurance Cup)
June 24-27 — 24 Hours of Spa (Endurance Cup)
July 16-18 — Misano (Sprint Cup)
July 30-Aug. 1 — Magny-Cours (Sprint Cup)
Aug. 28-29 — Nürburgring (Endurance Cup)
Sept. 17-19 — Zandvoort (Sprint Cup)
Oct. 1-3 — Hungaroring (Sprint Cup)
Oct. 23-24 — Barcelona (Endurance Cup)