Paul Ricard Thursday Notebook

Jan 15, 2024

Sportscar365's Thursday notebook from the GTWC Europe paddock at Paul Ricard…

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Photo: Jules Benichou/SRO

***Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS teams are at Paul Ricard for the second round of the Endurance Cup season. The six-hour race on Saturday evening is the traditional preface to the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa at the end of this month.

***A handful of teams have been busy over the last week rebounding from accidents during the official 24H Spa test.

***Dinamic GT Huber Racing has borrowed a Porsche 911 GT3 R from Herberth Motorsport for its Silver Cup entry after the original chassis was destroyed in a crash for Jop Rappange at Spa. The loaned Porsche is from the older Type-991.2 generation.

***Dinamic lost two Type-992 Porsche chassis to accident damage in the space of four days, with the Spa crash coming shortly after Laurin Heinrich's heavy contact with a Dacia Logan at the Nürburgring 24. The N24 car was due to be used for Dinamic's No. 54 Pro-class entry at Paul Ricard but the Italian team has replaced the chassis. The No. 56 Silver Cup Porsche will be sorted with a new chassis after this event.

***Bullitt Racing built up a replacement chassis for its Aston Martin Vantage GT3 after Jeff Kingsley crashed at Raidillon in testing. The team already had the spare tub available, but it required a long road trip from Belgium to Bullitt's base in southern Spain and then to Paul Ricard. Of the major parts, only the engine was salvaged from the damaged car.

***Another team with a substantial job after the Spa test was Akkodis ASP, which transported its repaired No. 89 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to Paul Ricard on Thursday after a Raidillon accident. Team principal Jerome Policand told Sportscar365 that the chassis was not bent and could be reused, although parts of the frame needed to be replaced.

***Policand will drive the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 in Friday morning's Bronze test. He will use the experience to prepare for his Road to Le Mans drive alongside Valentino Rossi next week.

***The Dinamic Porsches, the Bullitt Aston Martin and the No. 89 Mercedes-AMG were granted late scrutineering slots on Friday morning due to the work required to get their cars ready. Optimum Motorsport's McLaren 720S GT3 Evo received the same dispensation after the team found a "fault" on the car, as did Lamborghini team AGS Events due to a late supply of chassis parts.

***Andy Meyrick is driving the Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R despite Jaxon Evans being shown on last week's provisional entry list. Evans joined Kiern Jewiss and Derek Pierce for the season-opener at Monza. Click here for the latest entry list.

***Former Bentley factory driver Meyrick won the Paul Ricard 1000km overall with M-Sport in 2014. His most recent GTWC Europe Endurance Cup appearance came with Team Parker Racing at Spa four years ago.

***ROWE Racing team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf hopes the BMW squad can again "dictate the pace" at the head of the field considering Paul Ricard's characteristics. "While the large starting field spreads out during the six hours of racing, there is always a significant risk of tire damage at this circuit," he said. "Some cars have to fight to record good lap times through the twisting sections, riding hard over the high curbs when exiting corners."

***BMW last won the Paul Ricard 1000km a decade ago when Marc VDS took victory with a BMW Z4 GT3 driven by Bas Leinders, Yelmer Buurman and Maxime Martin. All three are here this weekend, with Martin racing for Team WRT, Leinders working as Optimum team manager and Buurman competing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe.

***Comtoyou Racing has a new red livery for its No. 12 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, reflecting a partnership between driver Loris Hezemans and Art of Canada. Sportscar365 understands that the Belgian squad is planning to roll out an art car design for Spa.

***Leipert Motorsport is making its first Endurance Cup appearance of the season after missing the 3 Hours of Monza. The German team is running a previous-generation Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, rather than the latest EVO2 model, because both of its EVO2s are being prioritized for the Road to Le Mans. It is understood that the Endurance Cup machine will also be in EVO2 specification for Spa.

***Lamborghini's The Real Race esports competition – now in its fourth season – will kick off in the paddock this weekend. The member of the public who sets the fastest lap during a drop-in hot lap event will earn a spot on the grid for the Super Trofeo Esports Grand Final. Other such competitions will be held during the Endurance Cup rounds at Spa and the Nürburgring.

***Aside from the public qualification process, Lamborghini sim races will be held in the Europe, North and Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions to help determine a 23-driver starting grid for the Grand Final. The winner will be signed as a member of Lamborghini's factory esports team.

***GTWC Europe considered adding an extra Sprint Cup round for the Bronze Cup class only, according to series founder Stephane Ratel. Bronze Cup has been omitted from two rounds this year due to space limitations at Brands Hatch and Zandvoort.

***Ratel recently told Sportscar365 that the idea was to have a Sprint Cup race on the support bill for the 6 Hours of Rome non-championship GT4 race at Vallelunga in October. "We [could] do a race there with the 12 Bronze cars where they score points," he said. "Most of them said that we would [prefer to] save a bit on our budget."

***Track action for the Paul Ricard 1000km begins with the 60-minute Bronze test at 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) followed by two 90-minute sessions for all competitors.

***Free Practice starts at 2:35 p.m. (8:35 a.m. ET) and Pre-Qualifying is scheduled for 7:50 p.m. (1:50 p.m. ET).

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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