Misano Attracts Record Sprint Cup Grid

A record field of 44 cars will contest this weekend’s third round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season at Misano, with the car count boosted by a trio of one-off entries.

The field is the largest ever assembled for a Sprint Cup round and is significantly larger than last year’s Misano entry, where 36 cars took part. Forty-one cars were entered for the most recent round at Zandvoort.

As previously reported, Team WRT will field an additional Pro entry for nine-time motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi, who shared the No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with Raffaele Marciello.

The Belgian squad currently leads the overall drivers’ standings in Sprint Cup with Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts.

Elsewhere in the Pro class, Austrian squad Razoon – more than racing makes its GTWC Europe debut, fielding the No. 41 Porsche 911 GT3 R for Simon Birch and Klaus Bachler.

The team announced plans to step up to GT3 competition last November.

It currently leads the ADAC GT Masters standings with Birch and Leo Pichler, while it has also seen action in the Michelin 24H Series, ADAC GT4 Germany and the GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club.

A third new entry comes from the Italian-flagged UNX Racing squad, which has entered the No. 888 Porsche in Bronze Cup, operated by Dinamic GT.

Mathieu Detry and Fabian Duffieux, who took the Pro-Am class victory in last month’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, will share driving duties.

The team has also confirmed that it will tackle the remaining rounds of the Endurance Cup season, with former F1 Academy champion and Iron Dames-affiliated driver Marta Garcia completing the lineup for the longer races.

The rest of the Misano grid features only one lineup change compared to the Zandvoort round, with Sergio Sette Camara notably stepping into the lineup for the No. 270 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

The Brazilian former single seater racer, who competed with Comtoyou at the 24H Spa, joins compatriot Ricardo Baptista aboard the Bronze Cup entry.