This past weekend, the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC) Endurance Cup championship held its penultimate round of the year, with a three-hour race at the Nürburgring in Germany. Overall, it was a productive weekend for BMW entries, with two class podium finishes, a clinched championship in the Silver Cup class, and a points lead in the Gold Cup class.
The Team WRT trio of Ignatio Montenegro, Matisse Lismont and Amaury Cordeel have had a fantastic year competing in the Silver Cup class with Team WRT and the #30 M4 GT3 EVO. They capped off their 2026 season with a second-place finish in class at the ‘Ring, which was enough to earn them the championship with one race left to go. Starting from the pole in the class, the #30 trio led the class for much of the race before losing it in the closing minutes to the #65 Ford Mustang GT3. “A very positive weekend!,” said Lismont. “We dominated almost every session and took P1 in qualifying as well. The race was a little unfortunate at the end, finishing P2, but I’m still very, very happy with the performance from everyone. I’m very proud of the whole team. That’s already one championship in the bag, and now we move on to Zandvoort to try and secure the Sprint Cup title and the overall Silver Cup title as well.”
Ignacio Montenegro, Matisse Lismont and Amaury Cordeel celebrate.
Team WRT had another car on the Pro Cup and overall podium, as Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper, and Charles Weerts finished second in the #32 M4 GT3 EVO. It was their first podium finish in what has been a challenging season. “I’m very happy that we managed to secure the team’s first Endurance Cup podium of the season,” said van der Linde. “It is more than deserved. We managed to set up the car so that it worked well over the full distance at the Nürburgring. That hasn’t always been the case in the past in the GT World Challenge. I’m also pleased with the important points in the overall standings.” The Pro Cup class championship was decided at the Nürburgring. A fourth-place finish by the Mercedes-AMG Team Mann Filter team was enough to clinch the class title with drivers Maro Engel, Lucas Auer and Luca Stolz.
Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts and Jordan Pepper finished second overall.
In the Gold Cup class, the #998 ROWE Racing M4 GT3 EVO of Jens Klingmann, Ugo De Wilde and Tim Tramnitz finished fourth in class after qualifying in sixth, which put them into the class points lead with one race left to run. “It’s a little disappointing that, for the first time this season, we didn’t make it onto the Gold Cup podium,” said Tramnitz. “But things still look good for us in the championship. Personally, I really enjoyed racing in Germany again in front of the home fans.”
Ugo De Wilde, Tim Tramnitz and Jens Klingmann took the points lead in Gold Cup.
The #98 ROWE Racing BMW of Augusto Farfus, Jake Dennis and Raffaele Marciello had a rough qualifying and race, finishing 38th overall after starting in 22nd. “We had imagined the weekend very differently,” said Team Principal Hans-Peter Naundorf. “Somewhere along the way, we took a wrong turn with the set-up. We were unable to make up for that in the race either. Then we were also unlucky when we made our pit stop under green and lost a lot of time as a result. After that, it was just a gamble. If we want to take something positive away from the weekend, it is the fact that we have taken the overall lead in the Gold Cup.”
Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi finished 9th overall.
The #46 Team WRT M4 GT3 EVO of Valentino Rossi, Max Hesse and Dan Harper finished ninth overall and seventh in the Pro Cup class after starting in 12th. In the Bronze Cup class, the #42 Oman Motorsport by Century Motorsport BMW of Calan Williams, Javier Sagrera and Ahmad Al Harthy finished fifth in class. The final round of the GTWCE Endurance Cup season is at the Portimao circuit in Portugal on the weekend of October 16th-18th. There are two GTWE Sprint Cup races before then, at Zandvoort in Holland on September 18th-20th and at Barcelona in Spain on October 2nd-4th.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
