Category | One-make racing by Porsche |
---|---|
Country | International Australia Asia Brazil Canada France Germany Middle East United Kingdom United States Italy Japan North America Scandinavia Singapore |
Constructors | Porsche |
Official website | porsche.com/international |
Porsche Carrera Cup (sometimes abbreviated PCC) is a number of one-make racing by Porsche premier series competed with, initially Porsche 911 Carrera Cup, then later Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. The cars are specifically built by Porsche for one-make racing, but are visually and mechanically quite similar to road-registrable 911s of the same generation. [1]
There are three distinct tiers of racing, the top tier is the Porsche Supercup. Today the Supercup races as part of the support program of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on most, if not all, of the Grands Prix held in Europe, and occasionally Grands Prix in Asia and North America. Established in 1993, it is the most prestigious one-make series for GT cars.
The second tier are the national Carrera Cups, held in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom as well as International Carrera Cups held across multiple nations in eastern Asia and in the Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The longest running is the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, which was also the original series, first held in 1986 using the Porsche 964 Cup racing car. Now in its 39th year it has been one of the world's best known Pro-Am GT series and helped to progress many future World Endurance Champions, Le Mans winners and today is the primary feeder for the Porsche Supercup with many racing teams contesting both series. The Porsche Carrera Cup France began just a year later in 1987. The early 2000s saw a proliferation of Carrera Cups with Great Britain, Australia, Asia and Scandinavia all starting in a four-year burst with Italy following in 2007.
The third tier is the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge or Porsche GT3 Cup Trophy, recently renamed in some markets as the Porsche Sprint Challenge. This is a mixture of smaller series in Europe, Switzerland based series, Benelux series held across Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, a Central European series, a Middle East series in the Gulf States, as well as larger series in the Americas; United States, Brazil and Argentina. As well as New Zealand and some which act as a second tier series within Carrera Cup nations. Some GT3 Cup Challenge series will use older Carrera Cup cars from previous generations of the Porsche 911. New Zealand and Australian GT3 Cup Challenges use second hand cars from Carrera Cup Australia series as an example, although largers series, particularly United States and Brazil are effectively Carrera Cups. GT3 Cup Trophies are essentially second tier GT3 Cup Challenges. Superseded Carrera Cup and GT3 Cup Cars have also become popular cars to race in domestic GT series on five continents.
Dutch racer Patrick Huisman is the most successful Carrera Cup racer having won four Supercups consecutively between 1997 and 2000. German driver René Rast won three Supercups (2010–12) and two German Carrera Cups (2008 & 2012). Dominique Dupuy won the French Carrera Cup five times between 1992 and 1999 and New Zealander Craig Baird won the Australian Carrera Cup five times between 2006 and 2013. Christophe Bouchut won the French Carrera Cup four times around Dupuy's five titles, the two dominating the French series for a decade. Dutch driver Larry ten Voorde is currently the defending champion of the Porsche Supercup.
The one-make GT series model has also been used for other Porsche models, usually the entry level Porsche of the time, 924, 944, 968 and Boxster and has proliferated to other manufacturers as well; Ferrari Challenge, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Trofeo Maserati, Audi R8 LMS Cup, Lotus Cup, MGF Trophy and a multitude of series based on the Mazda MX-5.
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes which are the highest level in sports car racing or grand tourers based on road-going models and therefore, in general, not as fast as sports prototypes. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
Nicolas Armindo is a race car driver born in Colmar, France. He is of Portuguese descent.
Evo is a British automobile magazine dedicated to performance cars, from hot hatches to supercars.
Jörg Bergmeister is a former racing driver from Germany and an ambassador of Porsche.
Darryl Hayden O'Young is a Canadian-born Hong Kong racing driver.
The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team went on to win six driver and team championships in the American Le Mans Series, becoming a Porsche factory team and Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner from 2007 to 2012. The team helped develop the first- and second-generation 997 GT3 RSR as well as bring it to victory several times in its six-year run in the series. The team solely raced Porsche cars from 2004 to 2019, becoming a staple in the Porsche racing community.
The Italian GT Championship is an Italian sports car series founded in 2003 and organized by the Automobile Club d'Italia (ACI) and the Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana (CSAI). It replaced a previous supercar-based championship which ran from 1992 until 2002 when it was folded due to a lack of entrants. The series borrowed heavily from the international FIA GT Championship in its first few seasons, although additional entries from Ferrari Challenge, Porsche Supercup, and Maserati Trofeo competitors were allowed.
Campeonato Sudamericano de GT previously known as GT3 Brasil Championship, GT Brasil and Campeonato Brasileiro de GT was a sports car racing series based in the Brazil organized by the SRO Latin America.
The Lamborghini Super Trofeo is an international motor racing series. The Lamborghini Super Trofeo is the one-make championship organized by Lamborghini Squadra Corse. The series involves exclusively Huracán Super Trofeo Evo model cars in 3 continental series: Europe, Asia, and North America. The three continental series all have a common format: 6 double races, each 50 minutes long, on the world’s most prestigious circuits, completed by a World Final that decrees the Lamborghini world champions.
Patrick Kujala is a Spanish-born Finnish professional racing driver, who lives in city of Mäntsälä, Finland, and races under a Finnish racing licence.
Jonathan Robert Lester is a racing driver from New Zealand, competing in various GT3 and touring car championships throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
François Hubert Marie Perrodo is a French billionaire businessman, racing driver, and car collector. He is the chairman of Perenco, an oil and gas company with operations in 14 countries, which was founded by his father. In October 2023, Forbes estimated his family to be worth US$10 billion.
Kévin Estre is a French professional racing driver. He is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Porsche in the hypercar class.
Dorian Boccolacci is a French racing driver who currently drives in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. Having successfully competed in a number of single-seater categories, winning races in GP3 and competing in FIA Formula 2 among other things, Boccolacci garnered success in GT cars, winning the V6 class at the 2020 24 Hours of Nürburgring and becoming the 2023 champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup France.
The Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama is a sports car racing series organized by German car manufacturer Porsche and sanctioned by USAC, with races in the United States and Canada. Porsche Motorsports North America (PMNA) intends this series as the step between club racing and the Carrera Cup North America as part of a hierarchy that includes the global Porsche Supercup.
SRO GT2 is a class of grand tourer racing cars maintained by the SRO Motorsports Group. Despite the name, this class slots between GT4 and GT3 in terms of performance. The cars have more power than GT3 cars, with the most powerful entries at nearly 700 horsepower. However, they don’t have anywhere nearly as much downforce as a GT3 car. It also shouldn’t be confused with the Group GT2 from the early 2000s, which evolved into the now-defunct LM GTE class. The class uses a balance of performance to allow for close competition between competitors.
Leon Köhler is a German racing driver who currently competes in the Porsche Supercup for Huber Racing.
The Porsche Supercup is an international one-make production stock car racing series supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship organized by Porsche Motorsport GmbH.