Breaking news
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
GT World Challenge Europe issues revised schedule
A revised GT World Challenge Europe schedule due to begin in July has been issued, including a second six-hour race at the Nurburgring.
Gary Watkins
Edited: May 15, 2020, 9:43 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The German fixture, which maintains its September 6 date, has been extended in duration and joins the already-rescheduled Paul Ricard 1000km six-hour race in November on what is now an eight-weekend calendar.
GTWCE organiser the Stephane Ratel Organisation has reduced the number of events from 10 to eight in light of the compacted season resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, while keeping the total duration of the races on the calendar unchanged.
The additional duration at the Nurburgring effectively takes the place of one of the regular three-hour races on the Endurance Cup segment of the GTWCE season.
The Sprint Cup section has also been reduced by one weekend, but two of the events will now include a third one-hour race. They are the opening sprint event at Misano, originally set for the first weekend of July, on August 8/9 and a round at Barcelona on October 10/11.
Series boss Stephane Ratel told Motorsport.com: "The business model for most of our teams is to do two championships; many of them also do ADAC GT Masters in Germany, the British GT Championship or race in the French series.
"It was important that there weren't clashes, so it was not possible to have 10 events in a short period. We have kept the total of duration of the races the same, so two of the four sprints will have three races and we have put an extra six-hour race in to take the place of two three-hour races."
Ratel added that the calendar has been devised to reduce transport times.
"Teams and drivers will be able to reach these events by road during a period when air travel is likely to remain challenging," he explained.
The GTWCE is now due to begin at Imola on July 19 with the first of the four enduros. The Italian venue had been due to host a sprint round on October 31/November 1 in SRO's first revised schedule published last month.
Zandvoort's Sprint Cup fixture on June 27/28 had remained as the listed start date of the championship until the latest announcement, but this has now moved back to September 26/27 after a new fixture at Magny-Cours earlier in the month.
The Barcelona fixture becomes the Sprint Cup finale after changing format for a second time of the season, while the Endurance Cup is completed by the Spa 24 Hours and the Paul Ricard 1000km, which had both already been pushed back in the year.
Ratel revealed that he remains hopeful that the grids for both legs of the GTWCE will hold up despite the onset of recession resulting from the world health crisis.
"We have had very few requests for refunds, very few teams saying that they won't come," he said. "We had a record full-season entry for endurance of 55 cars, so we are starting from a high level — I think we will have a good grid."
Revised 2020 GTWCE schedule:
Date Venue Series Race length July 18-19 
Imola Endurance 3 hours August 7-9
Misano
Sprint 1 hour (3 races) Sept. 5-6 
Nurburgring Endurance 6 hours Sept. 11-13 
Magny-Cours Sprint 1 hour (2 races) Sept. 25-27 
Zandvoort Sprint 1 hour (2 races) October 9-11 
Barcelona Sprint 1 hour (3 races) October 22-25 
Spa 24 Hours Endurance 24 hours Nov. 13-15 Paul Ricard Endurance 6 hours
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Spa 24 Hours pushed back to October
Next article Spa 24 Hours will go ahead with or without spectators
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Gary Watkins
Ford steps up WEC preparations with second test car
WEC
WEC
Ford steps up WEC preparations with second test car
Latest news
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 2 h
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
2 h
Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe