2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge America

Racing season

The 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge America was the 30th season of the United States Auto Club’s Blancpain GT World Challenge America. It was the first under Blancpain sponsorship, taking over from the longtime Pirelli sponsorship, as part of the standardisation of names of Stéphane Ratel Organisation-run GT3 sprint racing series globally, following the series’ acquisition by the SRO Motorsports Group.^[1] It was also the last under Blancpain sponsorship, after they and the SRO concluded their partnership at the end of 2019.^[2] The season began on 2 March in Austin and ended on 20 October at Las Vegas.

Calendar[edit]

At the annual press conference during the 2018 24 Hours of Spa on 27 July, the Stéphane Ratel Organisation announced the first draft of the 2019 calendar.^[3] The date for the season opening weekend in Austin was confirmed on 15 August.^[4] The Grand Finale at Las Vegas was announced on 26 July.^[5]

Race format

In previous years under the Pirelli World Challenge name, a race weekend consisted of one Qualifying session, one race on Saturday (in some cases on Friday) – of which the fastest laps set up the grid for the second race – and one race on Sunday. On 7 December 2018, changes to the format of race weekends were announced. In 2019 a race weekend consisted of two races scoring equal points and featuring separate Qualifying sessions for each race. In addition to a revised schedule as the Sprint-format was dropped and the SprintX-format – 90-minute races with two drivers per car and mandatory Pit stops with driver changes – remained, the FIA international points system was adopted.^[6]

Round	Circuit	Date
1	Circuit of the Americas, Elroy, Texas	2–3 March
2	Virginia International Raceway, Alton, Virginia	27–28 April
3	Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Bowmanville, Ontario	18–19 May
4	Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, California	8–9 June
5	Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York	31 August–1 September
6	Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	21–22 September
7	Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nevada	19–20 October

Entry list[edit]

Team Car Drivers Class Rounds K-PAX Racing[7] Bentley Continental GT3[7] 3 Rodrigo Baptista[7] P All Maxime Soulet[7] 9 Álvaro Parente[7] P All Andy Soucek[7] DXDT Racing[8] Mercedes-AMG GT3[8] 04 Colin Braun[9] PA All George Kurtz[9] 63 David Askew[8] PA 1–6 Ryan Dalziel[8] 1–3, 5–6 Mike Skeen[10] 4 Gradient Racing[11] Acura NSX GT3[11] 5 Till Bechtolsheimer[11] PA All Ryan Eversley[11] 1–2 Marc Miller[12] 3–5, 7 Trent Hindman[13] 6 US RaceTronics[14] Mercedes-AMG GT3[14] 6 Steven Aghakhani[14] PA 1 Richard Antinucci[14] Ferrari 488 GT3[15] 7 Martin Fuentes[15] Am 1–2, 4–5 Caesar Bacarella[15] 1–2, 4 Mark Issa[16] 5 Martin Fuentes[15] PA 6–7 Mark Issa[16] 6 Renger van der Zande[17] 7 31 Wei Lu[15] PA 1 Jeff Segal[15] Patrick Byrne[18] 4 Guy Cosmo[18] Vital Speed Motorsports[19] Ferrari 488 GT3[19] 8 Rich Baek[19] Am 1 Trevor Baek[19] GMG Racing[20] Porsche 911 GT3 R (2019)[20] 14 Brent Holden[20] Am 1 James Sofronas[20] PA 4 Dirk Werner[10] One11 Competition[21] Ferrari 488 GT3[21] 19 Brian Kaminskey[21] Am 1–2 Chris Cagnazzi[21] PA 4 Andy Lally[22] Sergio Jimenez[21] Am 5 Anthony Lazzaro[23] 99 Alfred Caiola[21] PA 1–2, 4 Matt Plumb[21] Alegra Motorsports[24] Porsche 911 GT3 R (2019)[24] 22 Daniel Morad[24] P 1–6 Michael de Quesada[25] 1–4 Billy Johnson[26] 5–6 24 Wolf Henzler[24] P 1–6 Marco Holzer[24] K2R Motorsports[19] Porsche 911 GT3 R (2019)[19] 38 Alex Barron[19] PA 1–2, 4–7 Kevan Millstein[19] RealTime Racing[27] Acura NSX GT3[27] 43 Bret Curtis[27][N 2] PA 2–3 Dane Cameron[27] P 3 Trent Hindman[28] Dane Cameron[27] PA 4–7 Mike Hedlund[29] Wright Motorsports[30] Porsche 911 GT3 R (2019)[30] 58 Scott Hargrove[30] P All Patrick Long[30] 91 Anthony Imperato[30] PA All Dennis Olsen[31] 1, 3, 5 Matt Campbell[30] 2, 4, 6–7 R. Ferri Motorsport[32] Ferrari 488 GT3[32] 61 Toni Vilander[32] P All Miguel Molina[32] 1–4, 7 Daniel Serra[33] 5–6 Scuderia Corsa[34] Ferrari 488 GT3[34] 64 Alessandro Balzan[34] PA 7 Bret Curtis[34] P1 Motorsports[35] Mercedes-AMG GT3[35] 71 Maximilian Buhk[19] PA 1 JC Perez[35] Racers Edge Motorsports[36] Acura NSX GT3[36] 80 Martin Barkey[36] PA All Kyle Marcelli[36] Risi Competizione[37] Ferrari 488 GT3[37] 82 Anthony Lazzaro[37] Am 1 Pierre Mulacek[37] Stephen Cameron Racing[38] BMW M6 GT3[38] 87 Greg Liefooghe[38] PA 1–2, 4–6 Henry Schmitt[38] Turner Motorsport[39] BMW M6 GT3[39] 96 Takuya Shirasaka[39] Am 3, 5–7 Naoto Takeda[39] Autometrics Motorsports[19] Porsche 911 GT3 R (2017)[19] 991 Alan Metni[19] Am 1 Joe Toussaint[19]

Icon Class P Pro Cup PA Pro-Am Cup Am Am Cup

Race results[edit]

Bold indicates overall winner.

Championship standings[edit]

Scoring system

Championship points were awarded for the first ten positions in each race. Entries were required to complete 75% of the winning car’s race distance in order to be classified and earn points. Individual drivers were required to participate for a minimum of 40 minutes in order to earn championship points in any race.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Drivers’ championships[edit]

Overall[edit]

Key Colour Result Gold Race winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Disqualified (DSQ) Excluded (EX) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Withdrew (WD) Blank Did Not Participate Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Pro-Am Cup[edit]

Am Cup[edit]

Teams’ championships[edit]

Overall[edit]

Pro-Am Cup[edit]

Am Cup[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]