Pasin Lathouras is all set to kick off the new racing season this coming weekend when Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup arrives at Monza Circuit for its opening round of the year; this will be his second consecutive season in the world’s biggest championship reserved for ‘GT’ sportscars and he’s relishing the challenge of fighting at the front.
The 3 Hours of Monza takes place this coming Sunday (23 April) with the 23-year-old Thai behind the wheel of the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 paired with Italians Michele Rugolo and Alessandro Pier Guidi meaning the team, driver and car line-up heads into the new season unchanged – offering Pasin a strong platform to build on with his rookie year in Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup now behind him.
Last year was Pasin’s first in Blancpain GT and was a case jumping in the deep end and learning as he went along. In those terms it was a very successful season although results didn’t always come as the Ferrari’s BoP plus technical issues came into play. However, the high point was a superbly fought runners up spot in the Paul Ricard 1000 km and the young Thai and his teammates go into their second season together hungry and confident of digging out results.
Blancpain GT is sportscar racing’s toughest call though and Pasin goes up against some of the leading factory-supported teams and professional drivers in sportscar racing over some of Europe’s most renown racetracks. Blancpain GT Endurance Cup, which is promoted by SRO and exclusively reserved for FIA GT3 cars, always features packed grids and this year is set to be no different with an impressive 54 cars from brands including McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Aston Martin, BMW, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Bentley, Audi and Nissan, as well as Ferrari, on the entry list for Monza and a who’s who of Gold and Platinum drivers in the cockpits (Pasin is ranked as a Silver level driver). The #50 Ferrari will compete in the PRO class so their battle will be for the overall positions.
This will be the young Thai’s sixth year in sportscar racing. He spent his formative years competing in junior single-seater formulae before his sportscar career kicked off in the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific, where he became Vice Champion during his rookie year (2012) and Champion the next season (2013). Then it was time to switch continents and that means this will be Pasin’s fourth season racing in Europe, having contested the British GT Championship (2014), International GT Open (2015) and Blancpain GT (2016). Highlights of those European campaigns include winning the Spa 24 Hours Pro-Am and Vice Champion in International GT Open as well as runner up in the Paul Ricard 1000 km. At the same time he’s also contested several of the world’s most prestigious endurance races, including the Daytona 24 Hours, Petit Le Mans 10 Hours and Sepang 12 Hours.
Pasin has a robust record at Italy’s legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Last year it also opened the Blancpain GT season and while the #50 Ferrari showed plenty of pace that challenge ended with a late race DNF. Pasin’s first appearance on the 5.793-km/11-turn circuit actually came in 2013 in a one off outing in Superstars GT Series where he finished on the podium; it was also his first ever time out in a GT3 car. His next visit came in 2014 when he took in the Italian track as part of a late season programme in International GT Open and a visit to the podium beckoned again. His third trip came in 2015, again in International GT open, and once again he walked out to Monza’s unique jutting podium.
Pasin is being supported during the 2017 Blancpain GT Endurance Series by NaRaYa, LaLaMa, NaRa by NaRaYa, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Sport Authority of Thailand.
Pasin Lathouras: “I’m really looking forward to getting back to racing in Monza this weekend, it feels like it’s been a long close season! This will be the second year for me in Blancpain GT and last year I feel that we didn’t get the results to show our pace so there is no question that we are on the hunt for podiums this year. It’s great to be back with AF Corse and with Michele and Alessandro, I would like to thank the team and my supporters for this programme coming together, I hope to be able to reward everyone’s faith in me and now we all need to knuckle down and get on the pace in Monza.”
