What started with only Audi, Porsche and Mercedes taking a certain degree of commitment now has the attention and effort of many other manufacturers, as the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge season is expected to see sparks flying between the top GT3 brands.
In order to fight for this title, different approaches will be done, with some opting to keep teams exclusively for the championship, while others opt for supporting local teams as it’s more efficient logistically, and there’s the third case where some teams will in fact take the full IGTC season with other series on a full time basis.
Bentley is the one which opted for an exclusive treatment, reallocating M-SPORT for the full IGTC season with its two Bentleys while putting K-PAX Racing in GT World Challenge Europe, and with both teams sharing some drivers in the lineups, the bigger burden will be placed on them, with Maxime Soulet, Jordan Pepper and Jules Gounon sharing the same car, while a dedicated IGTC lineup will be formed by Alex Buncombe, Oliver Jarvis and Seb Morris.
Honda will take the same route with JAS Motorsport, though their Honda NSX GT3 Evo and the team operation is totally focused on IGTC, and they will repeat what they did last year by aligning a single car, and while the drivers still need to be announced, expect big names on it, like Honda boy Bertrand Baguette, for example.
Lamborghini will also take the benefit of choosing a specific team for the task, counting with a single Huracán GT3 Evo aligned by FFF Racing Team by ACM, with the champion in both World Challenge Asia and Europe having Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli keeping their pair intact while Dennis Lind joins as their third driver, with all of them having their names in the team’s title winning history since 2018. BMW went for the same route, though Walkenhorst Motorsport will be responsible for their pair of BMW M6 GT3s, opting to leave Schnitzer Motorsport out this time.
Audi and Porsche opted for supporting local teams in their bid for the IGTC title, with the Ingolstadt manufacturer aligning with Audi Sport Team Valvoline and Tony Bates Racing for the Bathurst 12 Hour, though they will bring part of their factory driver roster to compete, with names like Mirko Bortolotti, Christopher Mies, Dries Vanthoor and Kelvin van der Linde. Porsche will rely on two teams for it, being them Absolute Racing and Earl Bamber Motorsport, and although Absolute Racing has total support and is coming from a good 2019 in GT World Challenge Asia, EBM is the current title holder at Bathurst, and will come with no less than Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber and Craig Lowndes to compete for overall honors in the No. 1 Porsche 911 GT3R II.
Mercedes also opted for a mix of local knowledge and their own take into IGTC, bringing the new AMG GT3 for CRAFT-Bamboo Black Falcon as they run a joint entry like in previous editions of the Bathurst 12 Hour, GruppeM Racing which will carry their second Pro lineup, and Triple Eight Race Engineering will be local team to support. With names like Maximilian Buhk, Raffaele Marciello, Felipe Fraga, Maro Engel, Maxi Götz and Shane van Gisbergen included, the Stuttgart manufacturer has good chances to start 2020 on a high note in IGTC.
Although a full time IGTC program hasn’t been announced by Aston Martin and R-Motorsport, both will be at Bathurst in order to improve on what they did in 2019 with the old V12 Vantage, and the V8 Vantage will be the highlight of the pack as the Swiss team doesn’t want to be runner-up again.
There’s not much time left until the season starts, as the Bathurst 12 Hour will follow the schedule and will be run on February 2nd.
PHOTOS - SRO, R-Motorsport, JAS Motorsport, Bathurst 12 Hour
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