The SRO GT World Challenge Europe (GTWCE) season opened last weekend of April 19-20, 2025, with a six-hour endurance race at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, and BMW teams came away with an overall win, a class win, and podium finishes in every class with the M4 GT3 EVO.
Teams competing in GTWCE can choose between two championships, the Endurance Cup or the Sprint Cup, with race distance being the key differentiator. There were 59 entries for the Endurance Cup opener at Paul Ricard, spread among four different classes (Pro Cup, Gold Cup, Silver Cup, Bronze Cup). BMW teams were well represented with seven entries among the various classes, led by two Pro Cup entries with works drivers that would fight for the overall win.
Kelvin van der Linde (left), Ugo De Wilde (middle) and Charles Weerts celebrate their win.
GTWCE has three qualifying sessions, with each driver taking a turn, and the results are then averaged together to set the grid. The #32 M Team WRT M4 GT3 EVO of Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts and Ugo De Wilde was the fastest BMW in ninth, with the #98 ROWE Racing car of Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, and Raffaele Marciello in thirteenth overall and ninth in the Pro Cup class. The overall and Pro Cup pole went to the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO with a trio of factory drivers, which had an average that was around four-tenths of a second faster than the quickest BMW. The top 25 cars had averages within one second of each other.
Paradine Competition won the Silver Cup class with drivers James Kellettt, Pedro Ebrahim and Charles Clark.
Once the race got underway, the BMWs steadily moved up through their respective classes, and they were setting especially competitive lap times once the weather got cooler. Kelvin van der Linde took the overall and Pro Cup lead in the #32 BMW with around 90 minutes left in the race and held that until the finish to take the win. “It was a very surprising win for us,” said van der Linde. “After qualifying our main target was to finish in the top-five and to score points, but to be fighting for a podium and even a win was unexpected and makes it even sweeter. Big shout out to Charles (Weerts), he’s been really good. I think it’s one of hist best drives. Same for Ugo (De Wilde) that we threw in a deep end in such a competitive championship, and he did really well. I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses throughout the season.” De Wilde was in his first race as a BMW factory driver.
The #777 AlManar Racing car of Al Faisal Al Zubair, Ben Tuck and Jens Klingmann finished third in Gold Cup.
BMW teams also had success in the other classes. The Paradine Competition #992 car with drivers James Kellett, Pedro Ebrahim, and Charles Clark won the Silver Cup class and finished eighteenth overall, and the second Paradine car of Dan Harper, Darren Leung, and Sean Gelael finished second in the Bronze Cup class. The #777 AlManar Racing M4 GT3 EVO of Jens Klingmann, Ben Tuck, and Al Faisal Al Zubair finished third in the Gold Cup class and tenth overall. The #98 ROWE Race Pro Cup entry of Farfus, Krohn, and Marciello finished sixth in class and seventh overall.
Paradine Competition drivers Darren Leung, Sean Gelael and Dan Harper finished second in Bronze Cup.
The next GTWCE race is the Sprint Cup opener at the Brands Hatch circuit in Great Britain on May 3-4, 2025. The next Endurance Cup race is at Monza in Italy on the weekend of May 30- June 1, 2025. You can watch a replay of the Paul Ricard race on the GT World YouTube page.
The ROWE Racing #98 car finished sixth in Pro Cup.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
