ROWE RACING is aiming to end the 2016 Blancpain GT Series season with a good Top 10 result this Sunday (2nd October). A year that witnessed some setbacks, but also included a triumph at the 24-hour race in Spa, will be rounded off by a new experience: this will be the first time that the team from St. Ingbert will compete in a GT race at the Circuit de Catalunya, just outside the Catalan metropolis of Barcelona.
The 4.727-kilometre circuit is well-known in Formula 1 circles and has a mix of long straights and fast bends. The teams and drivers will also have to deal with late-summer temperatures that could reach 25 degrees.
In the last race of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, ROWE RACING will once again rely on the duos who have driven the two BMW M6 GT3s in most sprint races so far. The BMW works drivers Philipp Eng from Austria and Alexander Sims from Great Britain will be in the #99 car, as usual. After taking a brief detour to Eng and Sims at the Nürburgring recently, the Dutch driver Nick Catsburg will return to the #98 car, sharing the workload with his compatriot Stef Dusseldorp.
The one-hour event is the last of ten races in the Blancpain GT Series 2016 and begins at 14:10 on Sunday. The drivers can also look forward to the 60-minute qualifying race at 09:15 on Sunday morning
ROWE RACING team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf: “We want to celebrate a successful end to the Blancpain GT Series season in Barcelona. We are hoping for another Top 10 result, and would like to finish a bit higher up than at the Nürburgring. To do that, we need to perform better in qualifying. Unlike a three-hour endurance race, this event only lasts for one hour and that makes it impossible to mount a chase, as tyre wear will not really be an issue. This is the first time that GT racing has visited the Circuit de Catalunya and I have only been here with the DTM in the past. This circuit could suit our car pretty well, but we have to find the right compromise in the set-up. Getting that right on just two event days will be a challenge.”