2023 FANATEC GT WORLD CHALLENGE POWERED BY AWS ENDURANCE CUP
Barcelona 3hrs, round 5
September 29th-October 1st, 2023
For immediate release
Tuesday, September 26th, 2023
AL-MANAR RACING’S ENGEL, STOLZ AND SCHILLER BID FOR GLORY IN ENDURANCE CUP RACE FINALE IN BARCELONA
BARCELONA (SPAIN): The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed trio of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller conclude their campaign for honours in the Pro Cup category of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup at this weekend’s three-hour race on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
The Al-Manar Racing team secured second places at the Paul Ricard circuit in France and at the Nürburgring in the summer, but finished ninth at Spa. The trio would dearly love to round off the season with a victory in a race that will also decide the outcome of the Pro Cup category in this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup.
Engel and Stolz have a winning pedigree on the circuit, having won the race back in 2018, while the Mercedes brand was successful in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Victory at the most recent round in Spa fell to Rowe Racing’s Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly in their BMW M4 and the trio will go head-to-head with the AKKODIS ASP Team Mercedes, crewed by Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy and Jules Gounon, to decide this year’s title on the 4.7km Spanish circuit.
The AKKODIS ASP Team currently has an 18-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship and a 15-point cushion in the Teams’ Championship. A BMW has never won at the Barcelona circuit, but the Rowe Racing trio will need to do just that to stand any chance of claiming the title.
These potential front-running crews are just three of a record-54-car entry for the race, eclipsing the 53 that lined up in 2018.
Rivals include the Audis of Tresor Orange 1, Comtoyou Racing and Saintéloc Junior Team, the Garage 59 McLaren and the AF Corse Ferrari. Lamborghini will be represented by K-PAX Racing and Iron Lynx, while Dinamic GT and Rutronik Racing represent Porsche in the 17-car Pro Cup field.
The Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup shares the circuit with the GT4 European Series, the McLaren Trophy Europe and the GT1 Sports Club this weekend.
Official test sessions are permissible on Friday (September 29th) morning, before crews take part in a 90-minute free practice session from 09.00hrs on Saturday. This precedes another 90-minute pre-qualifying stint, starting at 13.25hrs.
Sunday (October 1st) sees the meat of the weekend’s action and that fires into life with a one-hour qualifying session from 09.45hrs. The three-hour finale to the endurance season gets the green light at 15.00hrs.
Ends
For further information:
Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (gt-world-challenge-europe.com)