A provisional calendar has been released for the inaugural season of the new British Prototype Cup, which gets underway next year.
The 2017 series will feature 12 races across five different venues, including a round at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium one week before Le Mans.
Other stops on the calendar include Donington Park, Brands Hatch, Snetterton and Silverstone (full details below).
Series promoter Bute Motorsport will run the Prototype Cup in a co-headline slot with the 2017 GT Cup championship.
The series is open to both LMP3 and CN homologated sports prototypes.
“We are really happy with the calendar,” said Bute Motorsport director Hannah Wilson.
“The Bute Motorsport team have worked very hard with MSVR to get all the dates and circuits we wanted. We’ve had a lot of interest in the series and this calendar will show people that we are serious about putting on an exciting and high profile championship.”
Each two-day weekend will consist of two 60 minute races, preceded by a 30 minute qualifying session on each Saturday.
An hour-long free practice session largely aimed at gentlemen drivers is also being proposed.
A successful non-championship race, designed to show the potential of the Prototype Cup, was held at Snetterton in October.
“We’ll start on April 23-34 at Donington National circuit, and then head to Brands Hatch GP for our second race,” series technical coordinator Philip Boland told The Checkered Flag.co.uk at that event.
“We then go to Spa the week before Le Mans, which will give teams from outside the Prototype Cup an opportunity to test their high-speed, low downforce setups before heading down to France. That should be our biggest grid of the season.”
“After Le Mans we’ll come back to finish the season in Britain. We have six cracking tracks lined up for 2017.”
To find out more about the Prototype Cup, visit the championship’s official website.
2017 Prototype Cup Calendar
April 22-23 Donington Park National
May 20-21 Brands Hatch GP
June 9-11 Spa-Francorchamps
June 24-25 Snetterton 300
July 29-30 Silverstone GP
September 16-17 Donington Park GP
