A few weeks ago, the organization of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe announced the calendar for 2024, after a first, very successful 2023 season. Four meetings are on the menu and the interest of the teams and drivers is already considerable. Registrations are open.
“We are indeed opening registrations today on August 1st,” confirms Lars Plato, Series Manager of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe. “There is already a lot of interest from teams and drivers and that makes us positive to continue working hard on our second season. That second season has four meetings, as previously announced, although there is one minor adjustment. After the start of our second season on January 27 and 28, 2024 in Portimão, Estoril will still follow, but on February 2 and 3. So that’s a week earlier. Valencia (February 23 and 24) and the final in Barcelona (March 15 and 16, TBC) remain unchanged. That means four meetings on very beautiful and varied circuits on the Iberian Peninsula, where we completed a first season with three meetings earlier this year. The choice for this calendar was made with a view to the logistical aspect for the teams.”
Perfect preparation for the summer season
“The first edition of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe has been very well received and we now see that one third of the drivers who competed in our competition this winter are in the provisional top 3 of their championship,” continues Lars Plato. “That means that the sporting philosophy of our new championship is right. We want to offer a perfect preparation for the summer season of our participants. We will therefore continue on the path we have chosen, with some well-thought-out adjustments.”
In concrete terms, we see two categories, each with two divisions. The Sport division includes the PRO and PRO-AM drivers who race in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (type 992), with the Gold drivers also being admitted for the second season. It was previously announced that the Sport division will be driven without ABS and the races will start with a standing start, a perfect preparation for every Porsche Carrera Cup. In the Club division, we see the AM drivers in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (type 992) and there is also a GT4 class for the Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport and the Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
From the 2024 season, both divisions will also have an additional optional ‘pre-event test day’ to give teams and drivers even more testing options, equivalent to approximately 3.5 hours of track time per division. The standard program also remains: one official test day (3.5 hours track time) and one race day (2.5 hours track time). With this, the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe offers a lot of driving time, which of course fits in seamlessly with the philosophy of the championship.
New partner onGRID
A race weekend is more than just driving, because prior to the activities on the track, there is often also a lot of administrative work. Thanks to a new partner, onGRID, the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe says goodbye to out-dated paperwork for drivers and teams. “onGRID is the Global Motorsports Platform that keeps our championship connected,” explains Lars Plato. “It covers our end to end process, from hosting to registration, from management to communication. With onGRID, our teams and drivers are able to connect with each other and register for our events much quicker than before. We wanted to take our racing spirit, and extend that into our digital tools. With onGRID, we can focus on what we love doing: racing, and streamline our administrative work.”
