Stephane Ratel’s self-named management group SRO has re-taken control of the GT4 European Series and will be promoting the series going into the 2016 season.
Managed by GT-future for the last two years the series, featuring cars like the Chevrolet Camaro, BMW M3 and Aston Martin Vantage, will come back under SRO control and allow it to continue expanding by racing on the same weekends as the Blancpain Endurance Series and British GT.
The first big announcement for the championship is the introduction of new races onto the calendar. Monza is the first addition with the series racing on the same weekend as round one of the Blancpain Endurance Series, the spot at the Grand Prix of Pau remains and then the whole grid joins into the British GT fun as it links up with Britain’s GT4 class for the three-hour race at Silverstone and the two-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps. Races at the Nurburgring and Zolder round out the season.
Apart from the two races with British GT, the GT4 European Series will see competitors in Pro/Am, Am and Am/Am classes take in two free practice sessions, qualifying and two fifty minute races at some of Europe’s best tracks.
Stephane Ratel said: “I am delighted to welcome GT4 racing back in our family as a full member. Over the past years we saw that GT4 racing can be very competitive and is getting more and more popular. Therefore I expect that in the years to come new GT4 cars will be developed by both the major manufacturers and private tuners. We have a challenging calendar for 2016 with both sprint and endurance races and a street race in Pau as a bonus.”
Max Braams, Series Manager at GT-future – who will continue in his role for 2016, said: “I am very pleased to announce that I will continue my job as series coordinator within the SRO Motorsports Group. We can count on the expertise from SRO already since the start of the GT4 European Series in 2014. Intensifying our cooperation enables us to race during the leading GT-events next year. This will put the GT4 European Series prominently on a higher level. We look forward to next season.”
The first round of the newly SRO backed championship will begin on April 24 at Monza.