- PWC to adopt SRO Balance of performance in 2016
- 6hours Endurance race confirmed at Circuit of the Americas on 5th March
- SRO GT4 homologated cars eligible in PWC GTS class
Last March, the Pirelli World Challenge officials announced the alliance with the SRO Motorsports Group and the highly-competitive Blancpain GT Series featuring GT3-based sports cars and the series’ double header set for the 2016 PWC season opener.
As part of the Annual State of Series announcement, held at Las Vegas by WC Vision, promoter of the Pirelli World Challenge and in presence of Stephane Ratel, founder and CEO SRO motorsports, the alliance is today confirmed with the announcement of the first GT3 Endurance race in North America with a 6 hours race at the Circuit of the Americas on the 5th March 2016. Independent from the Blancpain GT Series in Europe, the race will be part of the planned Intercontinental Challenge which will bring together the Liqui Moly 12hour of Bathurst in Australia, the Total 24hours of Spa in Europe and the 12hours of Sepang in Asia; all races where GT3 is the overall winning class. The US round will also be open to GTS/GT4 cars.
That affiliation will be expanded in several areas entering the 2016 PWC series with the two sports car racing series utilizing similar technical regulations including the SRO Balance of Performance equations and other selected particulars such as consultancy on Sport and Development.
“Working with Stephane Ratel and his SRO Motorsports Group has been outstanding,” said Gill. "Since joining PWC Marcus Haselgrove has worked closely with their technical department in an open forum with the GT3 regulations and we believe the collection of GT3 cars at the season opener at COTA could be one of the largest in sports car history. Fans will now see a global mixture of PWC and SRO GT teams and drivers racing together. “It’s a great way to kick off the 2016 season.”
“Extending the SRO monitored Balance of Performance to the Pirelli World Challenge, in addition to the many series and events which already adopted it around the globe will give manufacturers and teams the assurance of a professional and fair competition which is not based on the relative performance of teams and drivers in a particular series but solely on the cars’ performance, measured across 40 circuits on four continents. The fact that most of the monitored Series and events run on the same Pirelli tires specification will add to the accuracy. Working with Greg Gill and his team on this and on other aspects of the Series is a great honor for SRO. We are looking forward to a 2016 season which should mark the beginning of an even closer collaboration”, Stephane Ratel said.
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SRO Motorsports Group - The architect of modern GT Racing
SRO Motorsports Group was founded by Stephane Ratel and has specialised in the promotion, support and organisation of many national and international motorsport series since 1995.
In 2015, SRO promotes several championships and series, such as the Blancpain GT Series (with the Blancpain Sprint Series and the Blancpain Endurance Series, including the iconic Total 24 hours of Spa), the Avon Tyres British GT Championship and the newly-created GT Sports Club and Ultracar Sports Club. SRO Motorsports Group has various franchise agreements, including the GT4 European Series.
SRO Motorsports Group runs also the SRO Race Centre by MMC, a high-level technical centre at the Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France.
SRO has offices in London, Paris and Liège.