Following the opening round of the VLN on the Nordschleife, the 2017 season now gets underway on the international stage for ROWE RACING. Misano, Italy, hosts the first of ten races in the Blancpain GT Series on Sunday (2nd April). 34 cars will take their place on the grid on Sunday’s opening leg of the five-race Sprint Cup in Europe’s most prestigious racing series for GT cars. 57 cars, from eleven different manufacturers, are registered for the five Endurance Cup races, the highlight of which is the 24 Hours of Spa at the end of July.
ROWE RACING will once again field two BMW M6 GT3s in the Blancpain races, and travels to the 4.2-kilometre Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, not far from Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, with fond memories. The team from St. Ingbert made its debut at the track last year and enjoyed immediate success: second place in the qualifying race, followed by third in the main race and a first podium of the year in the opening race of the season.
BMW works driver Philipp Eng would love to repeat the success in the #99 BMW M6 GT3. The Austrian will no longer be supported by Britain’s Alexander Sims, but will initially race alongside Sims’ fellow Englishman Tom Blomqvist in Misano. The current BMW DTM driver will stand in for BMW works driver António Félix da Costa in Italy. The Portuguese driver is in Formula E action in Mexico this weekend, but will team up with Eng in the remaining Sprint Cup races.
The #98 car will be driven by two “flying Finns” in all of the sprint races in this year’s Blancpain GT Series. Markus Palttala, whose outings for ROWE RACING last year included the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, and who was in action last weekend at the opening round of the VLN Endurance Championship, is joined by compatriot Jesse Krohn. The 26-year-old, a former BMW Motorsport Junior of the Year, has gained extensive experience in the BMW M6 GT3 at the Nürburgring and in the ADAC GT Masters and North America since the start of 2016.
The opening round of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series begins at 12:30 CEST on Sunday and is a sprint race, lasting one hour. The spectacular qualifying race is scheduled to take place under the floodlights from 20:40 to 21:40 CEST on Saturday (1st April).
Hans-Peter Naundorf, team principal ROWE RACING: “We travel to Misano with fond memories. Last year we started the season with our first podium in the main race, following an eventful qualifying race. The circuit is very quick and demanding. We are looking forward to the new season in the Blancpain GT Series very much. The field is even more competitive than before. There are even more good teams and drivers on the grid this year. With so many strong cars and drivers, it is hard to define any specific goals for this year. Our main focus is obviously defending our title at the 24 Hours of Spa. However, we are also keen to continually show what we are capable of in the second year of the BMW M6 GT3, having made a number of improvements to the car.”