GT World Challenge Silver Cup race winner and 2020 GT4 European champion Valentin Hasse-Clot (F), has become the latest rising GT star to graduate from the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy, following in the footsteps of 2019 winner Tom Canning (GB), Ross Gunn (GB) and two-time Le Mans class winner Jonny Adam (GB). 

Audi Sport customer racing can look back on a list of outstanding successes at the end of a highly compressed season with its customers. Even though the number of races worldwide in the 2020 pandemic year was down by around 37 percent, the Audi Sport customer racing models were similarly successful in their categories as in the previous year.

K-PAX Racing turned its successful GT World Challenge America team into global operation by setting its sights to Europe in 2020. There, the multi-championship winning team stateside would stack its two-car Bentley Continental GT3 program up against some of GT3 racing’s most elite, featuring a season of firsts with an expanded operation simultaneously covering two continents.

There will be no clash of dates next year between three of the world’s top GT series. The ADAC and Stéphane Ratel’s SRO Motorsport Group have aligned their calendars for 2021 to make it possible for teams and drivers to contest the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli, the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the International German GT Championship in the ADAC GT Masters. Also, the ADAC and SRO intend to go on working together and intensify cooperation in other areas.

Work is well underway to ensure that next year’s Total 24 Hours of Spa and SRO Spa Speedweek provide spectators with an unforgettable return to the legendary Ardennes venue, including activities both on and off the circuit.

Hopes of a strong conclusion to the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season for Dundee’s Finlay Hutchison ended less than halfway through the six-hour championship finale at Paul Ricard in France on Sunday, 15th November, when engine valve failure triggered a disappointing retirement.

The 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup season was one that initially begged patience to K-PAX Racing following an early-departure from Circuit Paul Ricard in March amid travel bans imposed under a global pandemic. The team, having three top-10 finishes to its credit since in the series, was able to make its return back to South France Sunday, making tracks at its fourth European track this season to a 13th-place finish – putting an exclamation point on a unique season of perseverance and hard work in the team’s challenging debut season.

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport claims the overall title in the 2020 GT World Challenge Europe with Timur Boguslavskiy (RUS) of the Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP, teammate Raffaele Marciello (ITA) follows in third place. The manufacturers’ title also goes to Mercedes-AMG Motorsport. In the season finale, Mercedes-AMG Team HRT secured the best result of the day with the Mercedes-AMG GT3: Vincent Abril (MON), Maro Engel and Luca Stolz (both GER) finished in sixth place in the 6-hour race. In the overall Silver Cup standings, Ezequiel Perez Companc (ARG) and Madpanda Motorsport also secured the titles. This weekend, their Mercedes-AMG colleagues Sergei Afanasiev (RUS), Michele Beretta (ITA) and Hubert Haupt (GER) of Haupt Racing Team (#5) secured the best race result in this category, scoring a podium slot by finishing in third place.

Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP will start this year’s Total 24 Hours of Spa from the front of the grid after a blistering lap by Raffaele Marcello secured top spot in tonight’s Super Pole session.

Stephane Ratel has outlined plans for SRO Motorsports Group in 2021 and beyond during his annual Total 24 Hours of Spa press conference, presenting a full complement of calendars and launching targets that will reduce costs and accelerate the drive towards sustainability. 

Audi Sport Team WRT secured provisional pole position for this year’s Total 24 Hours by topping a uniquely challenging qualifying session in the Ardennes. 

Team Raton Racing returns to action. After changing its 2020 programs due to pandemic impact, the squad led by Roberto Tanca is set for the most important European GT event, fielding a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo car in the next edition of 24 Hours of Spa scheduled on 24th/25th October.

The 71st edition of the Spa 24 Hours will take place for the first time in autumn. From 22 to 25 October, the three Audi Sport customer racing teams will compete in the world’s biggest GT3 race to clinch their fifth victory after 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2017, but the traditional Coupe du Roi brand title and valuable championship points in the GT World Challenge Europe as well as the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) are also up for grabs in Belgium.

Just over two months after it began at Misano, the 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint Cup came to a close at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT sealed a GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS championship double in today’s season-deciding Sprint Cup race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, reclaiming the teams’ title while Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts clinched the drivers’ crown.

Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoè led a one-two finish for Emil Frey Racing in today’s opening Sprint Cup contest at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a result that puts the #163 Lamborghini crew firmly in the title battle. 

In the packed race calendar for the second half of the year, another endurance racing highlight is imminent for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps (22-25 October). With ten Mercedes-AMG GT3s, the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach has, according to the current situation, the largest contingent of all the manufacturers that will be competing in the 72nd running of the classic. One car each for AKKA ASP Team and Haupt Racing Team will be racing with extended works support and ranks among the favourites at the seven kilometres long track in the Belgian Ardennes. 

GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS will crown its first champions of 2020 next weekend (9-11 October) when the Sprint Cup stages its showdown event at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Preparations for the 2020 Total 24 Hours of Spa will move into their final phase this week when 50 cars tackle two days of official testing at the Belgian venue (29-30 September).

Alex MacDowall celebrated his second Silver Cup podium finish in as many GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup races during round two of the season at Germany’s Nurburgring on Sunday, 6th September, with a hard-earned second place in the action-packed six-hour encounter.