ROWE RACING to contest the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in Monza with two Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Le Mans winner and WEC Champion Romain Dumas to drive with Sven Müller and Mathieu Jaminet / Dirk Werner, Dennis Olsen and Matt Campbell in the sister car.
The countdown is on: the new ROWE RACING Porsche 911 GT3 R is set to make its race debut this coming Sunday (14th April) – and a double debut at that. At the start in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in Monza, Italy, the team from St. Ingbert will field not just one sports car from Zuffenhausen as originally planned, but two.
And a real motorsport all-rounder will be making his first appearance for ROWE RACING. In his successful career, Porsche works driver Romain Dumas of France has won the famous 24-hour races in Le Mans, in Spa and at the Nürburgring. The 41-year-old was the endurance world champion in the WEC in 2016, has enjoyed multiple victories in the legendary hill climb at Pikes Peak and is also pretty fast at WRC rallies and at the Dakar Rally. In Monza, Dumas will share the work at the wheel of the #98 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet, also from France, and his works driver colleague Sven Müller of Germany. The trio finished in third place in the Intercontinental GT Challenge in Laguna Seca at their most recent joint appearance.
In the sister car with #99 – as announced in January – Porsche works driver Dirk Werner and the two Porsche Young Professionals Dennis Olsen of Norway and Matt Campbell of Australia will contest all five races of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at the Formula 1 tracks in Monza, Silverstone (Great Britain), Le Castellet (France), Spa (Belgium) and Barcelona (Spain). Former DTM driver Werner, who was in action for ROWE RACING in 2016, kicked off the season of his return to the team from St. Ingbert by completing the official test drives for the Blancpain GT Series in Le Castellet, alongside Olsen.
ROWE RACING’s goal is to be successful in the battle for spots on the podium. The 5.793-kilometre high-speed track in the famous “Royal Park” places very particular and extreme demands on the 49 GT cars in all that will make up the starting field. When switching from the long straights and slow chicanes, good traction and firm brakes are needed in addition to top speed, and the Curva Grande and the legendary Parabolica throw two very fast turns into the mix. The two Porsche 911 GT3 R of ROWE RACING are set to make their first appearance on the track on Saturday (13th April) in the free practice session between 11:30 and 13:30 (CEST), then in the afternoon the pre-qualifying session will take place between 17:15 and 18:45 (CEST). On Sunday (14th April), qualifying is scheduled between 9:40 and 10:40 (CEST), and the three-hour race will get underway at 15:00 (CEST).
Hans-Peter Naundorf, Team Principal ROWE RACING: “We’re all really looking forward to the start of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup season and are excited for our first race with our new Porsche 911 GT3 R. It’s fantastic that we’re able to field a second car in Monza already, and then in the remaining races of the season as well, even if this made the preparations for the opening race very intense and stressful. We’ve worked almost round the clock these past few days to send two well prepared cars to Italy today. Our additional trio of drivers have already proven their skills at the Intercontinental GT Challenge in Laguna Seca. It is a real honour to have Romain Dumas in the team. He really is fast in any car, whether in a sports car, prototype, rally car or electric racer, and has won everything that it’s possible to win in motorsport. It’s fantastic for our team to be able to work with a driver like him.”
