SRO Motorsports Group has today announced that the 2014 Blancpain GT Series will add the popular Belgian race track, Circuit Zolder in October instead of Spain’s Circuito de Navarra as provisionally stated at the calendar launch in November.
The Limburg-based circuit, which played host to the FIA GT Series in 2013, will now welcome the penultimate round of the Blancpain GT Series on the weekend of the 11th and 12th October, three weeks before teams make the journey to Azerbaijan for the Baku World Challenge season finale (1/11-2/11).
The two 60-minute Sprint races will feature highly on an already impressive weekend of racing, the Belgian Masters, which also features the final rounds of the Belgian Racing Car Championship.
Zolder has a longstanding association with top line GT racing, the undulating 4.004km track has previously hosted the FIA GT Championship, the FIA GT1 World Championship as well as the FIA GT Series, and earlier this year it was Stephane Ortelli (MON) and Laurens Vanthoor (BEL) in Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS that took the qualifying race victory with Peter Kox (NLD) and Stefan Rosina’s (SVK) Lamborghini Blancpain Reiter LP560-4 narrowly denying the Audi crew a famous double win by taking the main race honours by just 0.448s at the flag.
2014 Blancpain GT Series Calendar:
April 12th – 13th : Monza, Italy (endurance)
April 18th – 21st : Coupes de Pâques, Nogaro, France (sprint)
May 17th – 18th : Brands Hatch, Great Britain (sprint)
May 24th – 25th : Silverstone, Great Britain (endurance)
June 28th - 29th : Paul Ricard, France (endurance)
July 4th – 6th : Zandvoort , the Netherlands (sprint)
July 23rd – 27th : Total 24 Hours of Spa, Belgium (endurance)
August 22nd – 24th : Slovakia Ring, Slovakia* (sprint)
September 5th – 7th : Algarve, Portugal (sprint)
September 19th – 21st : Nürburgring 1000, Germany (endurance)
October 10th – 12th : Zolder, Belgium (sprint)
November 1st – 2nd : Baku World Challenge, Azerbaijan ** (sprint)
* Subject to FIA circuit homologation
** Subject to event promoter agreement
Stephane Ratel, founder and CEO of SRO Motorsports Group:
“Zolder has played an important part in the history of SRO’s various international GT series. Having hosted rounds of almost every series we have promoted, I am delighted that we will be returning there with our new Blancpain GT Series, which is an important chapter in the series’ history. For me, Circuit Zolder has many happy memories associated with it, for it provides close competitive racing on a genuinely thrilling layout, and is one of the most popular circuits for public attendance too, and we hope that 2014 will be no different.”
Thierry Deflandre, General Manager, Circuit Zolder:
”We are of course delighted with the calendar of the Blancpain GT Series, that goes without saying. SRO Motorsports Group and Circuit Zolder have been working together for many years, something we are very much looking forward to continuing in the future.”
Laurens Vanthoor, 2013 FIA GT Series Winner :
“That’s excellent news. Zolder deserves an international meeting of rank and stature. Speaking for myself, it is good news that I’ll be defending my title in my own backyard, quite literally. Racing before a home crowd is always a great motivator.”