GRUPPEM RACING SET FOR 2017 BLANCPAIN GT SERIES ASIA
GruppeM Racing, former FIA GT Champions, returns to full-time competition in 2017 confirming a two-car program in the inaugural Blancpain GT Series Asia.
Supported by Pagani China Group, GruppeM Racing aims to build on its past successes, which includes the British GT Championship title in 2004 and a GT2 championship-winning campaign securing every win throughout the season in FIA GT in 2005, with a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3s in the six-date series.
The team spokesman says: “I am proud to announce that after our successful victories over the years and being former FIA GT as well as Porsche Motorsport champions, GruppeM Racing is officially back in Blancpain Asia with Mercedes-AMG as the first AMG Customer Sports Team in the series. We are looking forward to a successful partnership.”
The success of the Blancpain GT Series has not gone unnoticed in the world of GT racing. After several years’ of successful running – 6 years for Endurance Cup and 4 for Sprint Cup – Blancpain GT series has undoubtedly become the best and biggest GT series on the motorsports planet. Built on its exceptional pedigree, the 2017 Blancpain GT Series continues its progression, with a record starting grid for all twelve rounds of the series. No less than 11 manufacturers will be represented by the teams with over 50 cars tested on the Official Test Day. Now that experience is coming to Asia full-time and GruppeM is very excited to be the first team to commit to it.
The team has fielded some exciting line-up for the maiden season of the series. British racer Tim Sugden, former British GT and Porsche Carrera Cup Champion, will be racing with the Sean Edwards Trophy winner Dutch racer Jules Szymkowiak in Car #888. German Blancpain Sprint Champion and Mercedes-AMG racer Maximilian Buhk will be joining with the experienced British racing driver Hunter Abbott in Car #999. However, with Maximilian Buhk already committed in other races with Mercedes in Europe, former European Formula Three Champion and GP2 frontrunner Raffaele Marciello will step in to compete the opening race with Hunter Abbott in Malaysia on April 8th and 9th, 2017.
Once again this provides an opportunity for Pagani to hold hands with Mercedes-AMG – Pagani cars are known for being beautiful and technologically advanced, and that speed can be credited to a Mercedes-AMG sourced engine. 2017 is also the 50th anniversary of the founding of the legendary German tuning company AMG, which is now a wholly-owned performance arm of Mercedes-Benz.
ABOUT GRUPPEM RACING:
GruppeM Racing was founded in 2005 and has won championship titles in a number of international racing series including FIA GT and Porsche Carrera Cup etc.
ABOUT PAGANI CHINA GROUP:
Pagani is a legendary handmade supercar manufacturer from Modena, Italy – the town that created supercar. Founded by Mr Horacio Pagani, Pagani has earned its tremendous reputation for building high performance luxury supercars using high technological synthetic carbon-fiber material and handmade rigorous components, it is also worldly renowned for being produced by demands – both exquisite and exclusive.
The establishment of Pagani China is the precise demonstration of how much Pagani values the Greater China market. By opening showrooms and service centres in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan for the past two years, Pagani China has mapped out the entire network to set the first step of becoming one of the most popular supercar brands in the area.
For more information, please contact:
Jasper Shen
jasper.shen@pagani-china.com
M. +86 135 2468 2625