Kessel Racing’s Stephen Earle (#111 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) has become the 2017 Iron Cup champion after the final Main Race in this year’s Blancpain GT Sports Club season was cut short due to heavy rain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Heavens opened in earnest as the Blancpain GT Sports Club drivers involved in this weekend’s Festival de la Velocidad de Barcelona took to the Spanish Grand Prix venue to line up on their grid.

This led to Sunday’s 40-minute contest getting under way behind the Safety Car but when several cars slithered off track in worsening weather conditions, the decision was made to red flag and not resume the race.

As the official race result was issued after one lap, in accordance with the sporting regulations, no points were awarded after the Main Race, and the final points remain those after Saturday’s Qualifying Race.

Having entered the title-deciding event one point ahead of Iron Cup rival Klaus Dieter Frers (#3 Artega Rennsport Ferrari 488 GT3), Stephen Earle thus ends up on top in the Blancpain GT Sports Club’s category reserved for drivers aged 60 and over.

AKKA ASP’s Anthony Pons (#72 Mercedes-AMG GT3) had already wrapped up the overall title at the previous round in Budapest. Both champions will be officially crowned at SRO Motorsports Group’s 2017 prize-giving ceremony, which takes place on Friday 24 November in Paris, France.

Stephen Earle, #111 Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: “It feels wonderful to be the 2017 Iron Cup champion. When you fight hard all year for a championship goal and you finally achieve this, it’s really indescribable, it’s the icing on the cake. Especially when you consider what happened last year and having the flat tyre and losing the championship by one point.

“I was not too stressed when I saw the rain because I have a lot of experience under these conditions. I am one of the crazy ones that enjoys racing in the rain but it gets to a point when there is just too much water and the track cannot handle it, you’re aquaplaning all over the place and it becomes very unsafe.

“The one thing that you talk to people that have been in racing for a long time is: you can have the best driver, the best car, the best team, the best strategy, but you still have to be lucky and you never have any control over that luck and that’s what makes this sport so addictive and yet so frustrating.”

Having welcomed the very first Blancpain GT Sports Club race weekend in April 2015, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will host the series’ 2017 season finale as part of this year’s Festival de la Velocidad de Barcelona held on September 29 – October 1.

ALL EYES ON IRON CUP TITLE SHOWDOWN

Last season’s curtain-closing trip to the Spanish Grand Prix venue offered superb racing and resulted in an absolute thriller in the Iron Cup class, as the title fight went down to the wire. Expect more of the same this year, as Kessel Racing’s Stephen Earle (#111 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) and main rival Klaus Dieter Frers (#3 Artega Rennsport Ferrari 488 GT3) enter the final round of the season only three points apart!

Earle is very familiar with nail-biting showdowns in the Blancpain GT Sports Club’s category reserved for drivers aged 60 and more. Indeed, the US racer was already part of the 2016 championship battle that saw him lose out by a single point. Despite the high stakes involved, Earle insists the pleasure lies elsewhere.

“The Iron Cup title fight will be the best!” enthused the moustachioed and bespectacled Texan ahead of the Barcelona trip. “This is how racers really like to perform, with two drivers trying their best in fair competition and comradery. No matter what the final results, I have made a friend for life and this is another important aspect of racing that is often missed.”

Earle and Frers share an almost identical record this year, with four wins apiece, multiple podium finishes and no retirement. In other words, all the ingredients are here to witness another classic denouement.

The dynamic duo won’t be the only Iron Cup chargers competing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Having switched to the Ferrari 488 GT3 this year, AF Corse’s Louis-Philippe Soenen has racked up five class podium finishes aboard the #50 entry and will look to add more silverware in the final round of the season.

Making his return next weekend will be HTP Motorsport’s Willem Paulys de Pundert with the #39 Mercedes-AMG GT3. The Dutch ace was sidelined due to an injury but he is now ready and raring to go, having already secured a trio of top-three results this year.

NEWLY-CROWNED OVERALL CHAMPION PONS KEEN TO END CAMPAIGN ON A HIGH

The previous round at Budapest saw AKKA ASP’s Anthony Pons seal the 2017 Blancpain GT Sports Club Overall title with the #72 Mercedes-AMG GT3. But that does not mean the Frenchman and his team have nothing left to achieve.

Indeed, with three wins already under his belt, Pons could potentially draw level with Mario Cordoni as the winningest driver in the series’ three-year history (5 victories). Meanwhile, AKKA ASP could move past AF Corse as the most successful team. Jerome Policand’s outfit currently has six wins to its resume when the all-time record is at seven.

Behind Pons, the race to the runner-up spot remains wide-open and should make for a fascinating watch. After claiming the first-ever podium finish and race win in his Blancpain GT Sports Club career at the Hungaroring, Christoph Ulrich enters the season finale in second place with the #51 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3. The AF Corse driver is only three points ahead of Karim Ojjeh, who unfortunately could not defend his chances in the Budapest Main Race. The Boutsen Ginion racer and his #2 BMW M6 GT3 return to the fray determined to make up for the lost opportunity.

Another driver to keep an eye on is AF Corse’s Patrick Van Glabeke, whose positive momentum since the event at Circuit Paul Ricard propelled his #488 Ferrari 488 GT3 to a first season win in Hungary last month.

Also racing under the AF Corse banner are Frederic Jean Marie Fangio on the #52 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 and Howard Blank in the #49 Cup Class-entered Ferrari 458 Challenge already seen at Silverstone earlier this season.

Elsewhere, last year’s Blancpain GT Sports Club runner-up Nicolas Vandierendonck is reporting back for racing action aboard the #63 Shipex by Ombra Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. One will remember that the Belgian ace claimed pole position around the 4.655km venue 12 months ago. Driving the same model is Coach McKansy in the #17 HP Racing challenger.

More Lamborghini chargers can be found at Boutsen Ginion where the #4 and #6 Gallardo Extenso R-EXs are once again entrusted to the hands of French racers Claude-Yves Gosselin and Pierre Feligioni.

Ferrari will bring the biggest contingent to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which includes four more 458 Italia GT3s for BMS Scuderia Italia’s Luigi Lucchini (#7), Rinaldi Racing’s Christian Hook (#33), as well as Kessel Racing’s Alexis de Bernadi (#65) and team-mate Peter Goerke, who is primed to make his Blancpain GT Sports Club debut.

Mercedes also fields a healthy battalion with a third Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by AKKA ASP for Mauro Ricci, who claimed a double podium finish at Circuit Paul Ricard on his previous visit to SRO Motorsports Group’s Bronze-only drivers series.

GDL Racing’s Roberto Rayneri and DB-Motorsport’s Oliver Baumann add further variety to an already very diverse grid as they prepare to race their dependable #66 and #68 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 respectively.

Last but not least, the Xtra Cup Class reserved for Trophy cars will pitch GDL Racing’s Dilantha Malagamuwa on the #24 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo against team-mate and all-time Blancpain GT Sports Club race winner Mario Cordoni in the #70 machine. Both drivers are currently tied in first place with two class wins apiece.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will be the fifth Formula 1 track visited by the Blancpain GT Sports Club in 2017, thus further strengthening the credential of the series as an ideal stepping stone and proving ground between club competition and professional-level racing in Europe and beyond.

The Barcelona round will once again give Blancpain GT Sports Club drivers maximum track time with 30-minute practice sessions and 20-minute qualifying followed by non-pitstop 25-minute Qualifying and 40-minute Main Races

Just like last year, the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona will host the final round of the Blancpain GT Series. However, unlike last season, the title decider at the Festival de la Velocidad will be an endurance race.

Both in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and in the overall Blancpain GT Series the champions are still to be decided.

For the first time in its history, the Blancpain GT Series will be closing the season with an endurance event. On Sunday October 1st, the three-hour race on the Circuit de Catalunya will decide the 2017 title battle. 

In the overall Blancpain GT Series, combining sprint and endurance races, the duel for the drivers’ title is between the Lamborghini-pairing of Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart and Bentley Boy Vincent Abril. Thanks to their three wins – the three-hour races in Monza and Silverstone, and the Sprint race in Brands Hatch – the Italian-German duo enjoys a healthy 22-point lead over Vincent Abril, one of the winning trio of drivers of the Blancpain 1000 Circuit Paul Ricard. With a maximum of 26 points to score in Barcelona, the Monegasque driver will face a difficult task.

In the teams’ standings, Bortolotti’s and Engelhart’s squad GRT Grasser Racing Team has the top spot as well. After the last of the sprint rounds at the Nürburgring, the Austrian team still has a 15-point lead over their two remaining title contenders, Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and reigning champions HTP Motorsport. The odds are in favour of GRT Grasser Racing Team’s first Blancpain GT Series title, but in the past stranger things have happened as proved in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup decider at the Nürburgring.

With the overall Blancpain GT Series Am Cup titles already secured by David Perel and his Kessel Racing squad, and Alexander Mattschull certain of the Pro-Am drivers’ title (his sole contender Daniel Keilwitz is sharing the #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari with the German), the only remaining overall title to attribute is the Pro-Am teams’ crown. In those standings Rinaldi Racing has an 11-point lead over Ferrari-colleagues Kessel Racing.

Endurance Cup wide open

But since the Barcelona round is now a long-haul event, there are several Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup title chases still wide open as well. In the driver standings the Bentley Boys Andy Soucek, Maxime Soulet and Vincent Abril have eight points in hand. The latter will face the same competitors as for the overall Blancpain GT Series title, for Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart, together with their endurance team-mate Andrea Caldarelli, are in second. All other drivers are out of contention for the title.

The teams’ title confrontation sees the same drivers lining up against each other – together with the other drivers and cars of their outfit – here the gap between Bentley Team M-Sport and GRT Grasser Racing Team is 16 points.

After finishing second in their category in the Total 24 Hours of Spa Jonny Adam, Ahmad Al Harthy and their Oman Racing Team with TF Sport were certain of claiming the endurance Pro-Am Cup, but in the Am Cup category nothing is decided yet. In the drivers’ standings Total 24 Hours of Spa-winners Jacques Duyver, Marco Zanuttini and David Perel enjoy a 20-point lead over Rino Mastronardi and Pierre Ehret (Rinaldi Racing), the same gap separating Kessel Racing and Rinaldi Racing in the teams’ standings of the Endurance Am Cup.

Spanish pride

And although Andy Soucek will be the only Spanish title contender during the three-hour race at the Festival de la Velocidad, his countrymen will have plenty to cheer for, with the presence of Miguel Molina (Ferrari) and Daniel Juncadella (Mercedes-AMG). They finished second and fourth respectively at the Circuit Paul Ricard round. More Spanish success could be seen in the Pro-Am Cup category of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, in which Miguel Toril was one of the drivers of the winning Mercedes-AMG. Former Blancpain Endurance champion Lucas Ordonez (Nissan) has had a difficult season, but will certainly try to finish the year on a high.

With the added presence of the GT4 European Series Southern Cup - FFSA French GT Championship, the Blancpain GT Sports Club, the FFSA F4 French Championship and the Porsche Carrera Cup France & Benelux there should be no lack of excitement during the three days of the Festival de la Velocidad.

A frantic final race of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup saw #17 Team WRT Audi duo Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard take the win and the title.

Franck Perera-Maxi Buhk (#84 Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport) and Dries Vanthoor-Marcel Fässler (#5 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT R8 LMS) both had their hands on the title for a couple of laps, but a mechanical failure and a drive-through penalty respectively ruined their chances. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT takes the Sprint Team title. 

The Pro-Am Cup goes to Alexander Mattschull and Daniel Keilwitz (#333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari), after a fourth win of the season, with Rinaldi Racing taking the Pro-Am teams’ title. 

Buhk-Perera vs. Vanthoor-Fässler. After Saturday’s Qualifying Race everybody was convinced that the outcome of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup would be decided by the duel between these two Mercedes-AMG and Audi duos. Franck Perera (#84 Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport) took the lead from the start, with Marcel Fässler (#5 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT R8) in third.

After the second-placed Bentley of Maxime Soulet disappeared from the front (due to a drive-through penalty after pushing the #19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini off the track), the expected confrontation started to take shape. Whoever would win this race, would become the 2017 Sprint Cup winner.

After a safety car intervention Fässler was able to close the gap towards leader Perera, and thanks to a superfast pitstop – and a less than perfect one in the Mercedes-AMG camp – the Audi-duo took the virtual lead of the race. But that driver change was also the moment when everything started to go pear-shaped for the title favourites.

When accelerating after the pitstop, one of the airhoses became entangled around the rear wing of Vanthoor’s Audi. The mechanic holding the hose fell into the working lane holding the wheel gun, which is an infringement of the rules.

Before the stewards could make a decision on the incident, Maxi Buhk had to park his Mercedes-AMG with damage to the left front. When shortly after that Vanthoor was penalised with a drive-through for the pitstop incident, the stakes of the duel between Markus Winkelhock (#2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT R8) and Robin Frijns (#17 Team WRT Audi) suddenly became a lot higher.

The drivers that were in fifth and fourth in the standings before the start of the final main race of the season now could become the 2017 Sprint Cup champions.

Frijns decided the 2017 season with a brilliant overtaking manoeuvre and eventually crossed the line with almost four seconds in hand. Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard thus become the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup champions, with Markus Winkelhock and Will Stevens finishing as runners-up. The disappointed Franck Perera and Maxi Buhk found little consolation in third.

"I think I realized that I was up for the title halfway through my stint. Markus was leading and then I knew it was about the championship." Commented Frijns

"It is always quite stressful when you’re battling against your teammates. This is one of the most stressful titles I think, not really being in a position to fight for the championship and then eventually we were battling for the championship."

"It was more stressful because I usually never fight for a title against a teammate. It was not easier or harder, just a different kind of emotion within the team. I hope we will still be friends."

For the fifth consecutive year the Sprint Cup teams’ title has gone to Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, beating sister squad Team WRT. GRT Grasser Racing Team, claiming the points of third thanks to another excellent race of Andrea Caldarelli and Ezequiel Perez-Companc in the #19 Lamborghini, finishes in third.

In the Pro-Am Cup Daniel Keilwitz and Alexander Mattschull dominated the weekend at the wheel of their #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari.

The pairing took their fourth main race win of the season, deservingly claiming the 2017 Sprint Pro-Am Cup. Rinaldi Racing beats fellow Ferrari-team Kessel Racing in the Sprint teams’ standings. The chances are that in two weeks’ time Mattschull can celebrate the overall Blancpain GT Series Pro-Am Cup title as well, for now only his teammate Daniel Keilwitz could beat him.

In the Silver Cup the freshly crowned champions Fabian Schiller and Jules Szymkowiak (#85 HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG) received a five place grid penalty after an infringement during warm-up, but that did not hinder the German-Dutch youngsters in producing another impressive race, ending up just outside the top five, in sixth overall.

They obviously claimed another Silver Cup win, their fourth of the season. And for the third time this season Stephen Earle and David Perel (#888 Kessel Racing Ferrari) enjoyed their race to the win in the Am Cup.

The final round of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series is the three-hour endurance race in Barcelona, in two weeks’ time.