BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Blancpain GT World Challenge America is set to bring its exciting brand of sports car racing north of the border from May 17-19.
Drivers from more than 10 nations, piloting GT3 machinery from the world’s top marques will take to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park’s renowned 2.459-mile Grand Prix circuit, including four Canadians returning to compete at their home track.
Closing in on the midpoint of the season, the driver and team championship battles are starting to heat up. Leading the team championship heading into the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park weekend is K-PAX Racing’s No. 3 Bentley Continental GT3.
Driver championship co-leaders Rodrigo Baptista from Brazil and Maxime Soulet from Belgium are coming off a thrilling victory at Virginia Int’l Raceway, the K-PAX duo’s second win of the season following an opening day triumph at Circuit of the Americas.
Canadian team R. Ferri Motorsport comes into the weekend second in team points and will look to get back into victory circle, after last winning at COTA in round two. Their No. 61 Ferrari 488 GT3 will be piloted by Spain’s Miguel Molina and Finland’s Toni Vilander.
Molina and Vilander sit tied in second in the driver championship coming into the weekend.
K-PAX Racing’s second entry, the No. 9 Bentley Continental GT3, will be piloted by former series champion Alvaro Parente of Portugal and his Spanish teammate, Andy Soucek.
Both drivers sit third in the driver championship and were victorious in race three at VIR.
Vancouver’s Scott Hargrove and teammate American Patrick Long, a two-time series champion, will co-pilot the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R entry. Throughout his career, Hargrove has had numerous wins at CTMP and he’ll be looking to repeat the feat at his home track.
Long has also had success at the track, including a dominant series performance back in 2016, when he won both weekend races.
Wright Motorsports currently sits third in the team championship standings, while the drivers sit fourth in the driver’s championship.
Other Pro competitors to watch include Toronto’s Daniel Morad and American Michael De Quesada in the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Morad won last year’s CTMP Sprint round five race and, like his other fellow Canadian drivers competing this weekend, has spent hours at the track that is located just east of Toronto.
German teammates Wolf Henzler and Marco Holzer will co-pilot the No. 24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Alegra Motorsports sits fourth in the team championships.
Meanwhile, Canadians Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli sit atop the Pro/Am Cup driver standings after back-to-back wins in rounds two and three.
Both have considerable experience at CTMP and will co-pilot the No. 80 Acura NSX entry.
The Pro/Am field also features the American team of George Kurtz and Colin Braun piloting the No. 04 Mercedes-AMG GT3; the No. 38 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Americans Kevan Millstein and Alex Barron; the No. 43 Acura NSX of Americans Bret Curtis and Dane Cameron; American David Askew paired with Scottish driver Ryan Dalziel in the No. 63 Mercedes-AMG GT3; and the American/Norwegian pairing of Anthony Imperato and Dennis Olsen in the No. 91 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Gradient Racing has also entered its No. 5 Acura NSX GT3 for the weekend, with drivers Marc Miller and Till Bechtolsheimer behind the wheel.
The Japanese team of Naoto Takeda and Takuya Shairasaka are the lone Am/Am class entry and will co-drive the No. 96 BMW F13 M6 GT3.