Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am Cup and Am Cup: a Ferrari affair

Barcelona, 28 Sept 2017 - The long season of the Blancpain GT Championship draws to a close this weekend in Barcelona, where two Ferrari teams will be contending for two titles, one overall and the other in the Endurance championship. Three Ferrari 488 GT3 cars will also be competing in the Pro class with an excellent chance of the win that teams and drivers clearly merit.   Pro-Am Cup. The battle for the overall title in the Pro-Am Cup class is an all Ferrari affair. The contenders are Rinaldi Racing and Kessel Racing. While the drivers' title has already gone to Alexander Mattschull (Rinaldi Racing), the team laurel is still up for grabs, with the Germans holding a lead of just 11 points. Mattschull will be joined on track by Daniel Keilwitz and Rinat Salikhov while Kessel Racing will be deploying Michael Broniszewski, Andrea Rizzoli and Matteo Cressoni in the 488 GT3 no. 11. This category also sees Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta and Lorenzo Bontempelli in the 488 GT3 of AF Corse, and Andrea Bertolini, Louis Machiels and Niek Hommerson in the sister car of Spirit of Race.   Am Cup. The Endurance class of the Am Cup is also still to be decided. Again Kessel Racing is battling it out with Rinaldi Racing with the Swiss team holding a 20-point lead. Jacques Duyver, Marco Zanuttini and David Perel, the winners of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, lead Rino Mastronardi and Pierre Ehret and are clear favourites for the final victory.   Pro. Three Ferraris are on track in the Pro class, which also sees the participation of five official Prancing Horse drivers. Kaspersky Motorsport no. 55 will be crewed by James Calado, Giancarlo Fisichella and Marco Cioci, while Miguel Molina, Davide Rigon (ontroducing for us the circuit) and Victor Shaytar will take the wheel of SMP Racing no. 72. Then finally AF Corse no. 50 will be in the hands of Pasin Lathouras, Michele Rugolo and Alessandro Pier Guidi.   Programme. Qualifying is on Saturday and Sunday while the race, lasting three hours, will kick off at 3 pm.