Blancpain GT Series: Bell, Ledogar and van Gisbergen are the new Endurance Cup champions

It was a really dramatic season finale of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Nurburgring but Garage 59’s group of drivers managed to grab the title thanks to a huge amount of luck in the three-hour race.

GRT Grasser Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 #19 started from pole but after one hour of racing their teammates in the car #16 took the lead, in front of Belgian Audi Club WRT’s championship defending car #1 and HTP Motorsport’s title contenders in Mercedes #84.

After the second hour of racing at Nurburgring, Black Pearl Racing’s Ferrari 458 was on the top, followed by Bentley Team M-Sport’s car #7 and GRT Grasser’s car #16. Championship leaders in Garage 59’s McLaren #58 were in trouble as they dropped to 22nd after being penalized with drive-through and soon after having a tire puncture when they dropped to the 37th.

Despite all the troubles, Garage 59 still could win the title but their destiny was in the hands of HTP Motorsport’s car #84. If the German team moves up to the third place in the last race, the British team will stay empty handed. Luckily for them, that did not happened and Garage 59 drivers Rob Bell, Come Ledogar and Shane van Gisbergen, who missed this race, became the Endurance Cup champions, despite finishing the race far from the top and failing to pick a single point in the final race.

The winners of the last race of the season are Christian Engelhart, Mirko Bortolotti and Rolf Ineichen in Lamborghini Huracan #16. Belgian Audi Team WRT missed the chance to defend Teams’ Championship title as they needed a victory but Laurens Vanthoor, Frederic Vervisch and Dries Vanthoor had to settle for the 2nd place. A bit surprisingly, Nissan GT Academy Team RJN’s car #23 with the drivers line-up Alex Buncombe, Lucas Ordonez, and Mitsunori Takaboshi finished third in the race.