Factory Drivers Rob Bell, Côme Ledogar and Shane van Gisbergen secured the prestigious Blancpain Endurance Cup Drivers Championship and customer team Garage 59 won the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup Teams Championship at the Nürburgring in one of the most successful weekends for McLaren in GT3 racing.
In the final three-hour race of the Blancpain season, the #58 650S GT3, driven by Bell, Ledogar and Brit Duncan Tappy – standing in for season-regular van Gisbergen – finished P30. However, with two wins from the season’s five races against a world-class GT3 field which was constantly over 60 cars strong, the team and drivers were still able to take both titles by a single point.
The result also sees Bell in second place overall in the Blancpain GT Series Drivers championship – which combines the Endurance Cup and sister Sprint Cup series – heading into the final round at Barcelona.
In North America, McLaren enjoyed further success in the Pirelli World Challenge, which saw Factory Driver Alvaro Parente driving the #9 650S GT3 run by customer team K-PAX Racing retake the lead in the Drivers Standings after finishing P4 and P2 in the two races at Sonoma Raceway, California.
Parente’s young teammate Austin Cindric in the #6 K-PAX Racing 650S GT3 also performed well in both races, finishing P2 in Race 1 after taking pole and leading almost every lap, and P3 in Race 2, once again showing consistency and poise.
The final round of the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season is set to be held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, 7-9 October.
