Bentley, Ferrari Set to Face Off Again as Blancpain GT World Challenge America Heads to Road America

Bentley, Ferrari Set to Face Off Again as Blancpain GT World Challenge America Heads to Road America

ELKHART LAKE, WI – Road America's challenging 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course is set to host the SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America's penultimate race weekend of the 2019 season, September 20-22. The action-packed event will be headlined by the series' 90-minute Rounds 11 and 12.

Ferrari's Vilander/Serra Set for Showdown with Bentley's Parente/Soucek

In the Pro Division, two of the world's top GT teams representing two of the world's most prestigious marques have waged an epic, season-long battle for supremacy. Ferrari team R. Ferri Motorsport fired the latest successful salvo two weeks ago at Watkins Glen as the driver duo of Finland's Toni Vilander and Brazilian Daniel Serra, won both weekend races. The wins allowed Vilander to push his lead in the driver's championship standings to 28-points over Bentley's K-PAX Racing's driver duo of Portugal’s Alvaro Parente and Spain’s Andy Soucek. The victories also moved Ferrari into a single point lead over Bentley in the manufacturer’s standings, while R. Ferri closed to within two points of K-PAX in the team championship standings.

Vilander and Serra will pilot the #61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3, while Parente and Soucek will drive the #9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3. K-PAX also brings the #3 Bentley Continental GT3 for Brazilian Rodrigo Baptista and Belgium's Maxime Soulet. Baptista and Soulet sit 58 points behind Vilander and will look to accumulate valuable points for Bentley and the K-PAX team at Road America.

Aiming to get Porsche back into the championship conversation is the American/Canadian driver duo of Patrick Long and Scott Hargrove – the team will drive the #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (991). Porsche sits 37 points behind leaders Ferrari in the manufacturer’s championship standings. Long and Hargrove sit tied for fifth in the driver's championship standings, while Wright Motorsports sits in third in the team championship standings.

Also representing Porsche at Road America is Alegra Motorsports – they bring two entries for Canadian Daniel Morad and American Billy Johnson in the #22 Porsche 911 GT3 R (991) and the #24 machine for German drivers Marco Holzer and Wolf Henzler.

Barkey and Marcelli Look to Fend of Challengers at Road America

While the Canadian Pro/Am duo of Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli in the #80 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX have been able to deliver consistent results and maintain their lead tied atop the class' driver's championship standings, RealTime Racing's American duo of Dane Cameron and Mike Hedlund have been able to close the gap on the leaders. The team has been on a hot streak since the Sonoma weekend winning three of the last four races including a sweep at Watkins Glen. Running out of Saukville, Wisconsin, only 33 miles from Road America, the RealTime team will look to tap into their home track knowledge to keep the hot streak going. Cameron comes into the weekend only 21 points behind Barkey and Marcelli, while RealTime Racing sits only 19 points behind Racers Edge Motorsports. Cameron and Hedlund will drive the #43 RealTime Racing Acura NSX.

American Anthony Imperato comes into the weekend third in the Pro/Am driver championship standings only three points behind Cameron. He will co-pilot the #91 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (991) with Australian Matt Campbell. Gradient Racing's Till Bechtolsheimer from Great Britain sits only two points behind Imperato in the championship standings and will co-pilot with a to-be-named driver in the team's #5 Acura NSX.

DXDT Racing will bring two entries to Road America – the #04 Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Americans George Kurtz and Colin Braun, and the #63 Mercedes-AMG GT3 for American David Askew and Ryan Dalziel from Scotland.

Also slated to run in the Pro/Am division are Americans Kevan Millstein and Alex Barron in the #38 K2R Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (991), the #87 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW F13 M6 GT3 for Americans Henry Schmitt and Gregory Liefooghe, and the #7 Squadra Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 for American Mark Issa and Martin Fuentes from Mexico.

The lone Am division entry is the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW F13 M6 GT3 for Japanese duo Naoto Takeda and Takuya Shairasaka.

On-track action for Blancpain GT World Challenge America competitors begins Friday, September 20 at 11:45 Central for the first practice session of the weekend. Qualifying for both weekend races starts at 9:50 am Central Saturday, September 21, while Round 11’s 90-minute contest is scheduled to go green later that day at 2:10 pm Central. Round 12 is scheduled to start at 2:15 pm Central Sunday, September 22.

Races and qualifying will be streamed live on gt-world-challenge-america.com, with Sunday's contest live on CBS Sports Network.

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Entry List - PDF Link
Schedule - PDF Link