The Avon Tyres British GT Championship will make its debut at Zandvoort next year, series promoter SRO confirmed, revealing a revised calendar for the series’ 2013 campaign.
The championship has had a recent tradition of an ‘away’ previously having raced at Spa-Francorchamps and last year travelling to the Nurburgring in Germany for the first time, sharing the weekend with the 24 Hour race at the legendary venue.
The date on the North Sea coast of the Netherlands (September 6-8) puts the championship on the billing at another big weekend of European racing, taking centre stage at the 2.7 mile Dutch circuit’s Trophy of the Dunes weekend – a headline event in the circuit’s year that has been held for over forty years, as Erik Weijers the chief operating officer of the track explains.
“The Trophy of the Dunes is an event with great heritage here in the Netherlands dating back to the 1960s; there is always a good crowd with a great atmosphere. Bringing British GT to Zandvoort is a big achievement for us and continues out tradition of having international GT3 racing at the circuit.
“We’ve decided to keep things fresh for 2013 by having our away race at Zandvoort,” said championship manager Benjamin Franassovici. “I think come September the combination of great cars and good weather by the beach will be a really exciting prospect.”
The weekend will also form part of an increased live TV presence for the championship, the Sunday racing at Zandvoort broadcast live on Motors TV, with at least one further weekend set to join it on the schedules.
The pair of one hour sprint races at Zandvoort now occupy the penultimate weekend of the championship, before the finale on 5-6 October as the series returns to the site of the fantastic climax of the 2012 season at Donington Park.
Unchanged is the traditional start of the season at Oulton Park on the Easter weekend (March 30-April 1), also hosting a pair of hour long sprint races, a format also to be used at Snetterton in June.
The now normal mix of formats remains, the three ‘sprint’ weekends interspersed between longer races at Rockingham, Silverstone and the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The championship will also end with a longer event.
2013 Avon Tyres British GT Championship Calender
March 30-April 1 – Oulton Park
May 5-6 – Rockingham
May 25-26 – Silverstone GP
15-16 June – Snetterton 300
August 10-11 – BrandsHatch GP
September 6-8 – Zandvoort
5-6 October – Donington Park
