Pasin Lathouras heads for the final round of Blancpain GT Endurance Cup 2017 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend targeting a podium finish in the 3-hour race to round out what’s been something of an up and down year on the strongest possible note.
As usual the 24-year-old Thai will race the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3, joined in the cockpit by Italian drivers’ Michele Rugolo and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
This is Pasin’s second season in Blancpain GT Endurance Cup and his fourth racing in Europe. It’s been a bit of a mixed year so far. It started superbly at the opener in Monza, pole position and then the runners up spot in the race boded very well for the season and that was cemented by collecting more championship points thanks to a sixth place finish during the second round at Silverstone, a stronger than expected result due to the Ferrari’s BoP rating for that round preventing him from mixing it up with the front runners.
However, two tough races quickly followed, the #50 Ferrari was punted out of the Paul Ricard 1000 km when on course for a podium finish and then a huge incident for Pasin early in the 24 Hours of Spa, have evened matters out, so a strong finish in Barcelona would provide for an excellent way to round out the year.
This will in fact be Pasin’s second trip to the 4.652 km/16 turn Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the long-time home of the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix. His debut there came at the tail end of the 2015 season during the final round of International GT Open and the Thai driver earned a trip to the podium after finishing in second place, a result that also allowed him to secure the series’ vice champions spot, so he certainly has fond memories of the track.
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.
The action on track at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will start on Saturday (30 September) when Free Practice gets underway at 0900 (all time local, CET).. That opening session is 90 mins long and the first day is set to conclude with the Pre-Qualifying session at 1640 (90 mins). Sunday (1 October) kicks off with Qualifying at 0900 (split into three 20 minute sessions – Q1, Q2, Q3 – spread over 1 hour with all three drivers taking part) before Round 5 of Blancpain GT Endurance Cup 2017, the 3 Hours of Barcelona, goes to green lights at 1500. The race is scheduled to receive the chequered flag at 1800.
Pasin Lathouras: “I’m looking forward to getting back on track after the long summer break and it will be nice to return to Barcelona as I raced there a couple of years ago in International GT Open. After a pretty tough couple of races at Paul Ricard and Spa where we didn’t get the results we wanted we need to dig in and push for a result this weekend to end the season well. Clearly we have the pace, the team has done a great job all year as have Michele and Alessandro so now it’s time to get the season wrapped up with a good finish. As usual thank you to everyone who has supported me all season.”
