The FIA has just announced a new WRC RGT championship: the 2015 R-GT Cup. Held over five European rounds of the 2015 World Rally Championship, it is tailor-made for the Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT car and other similar challengers.
The FIA is pleased to confirm the calendar for the 2015 FIA R-GT Cup, an exciting new competition for drivers and co-drivers using a car of Class R-GT with a valid FIA Passport.
The calendar is a mix of FIA World Rally Championship and FIA European Rally Championship events and points from all five rounds will count towards the title:
Rallye Monte-Carlo
GEKO Ypres Rally
Rallye Deutschland
Rallye International du Valais
Tour de Corse
The FIA has worked hard to incorporate this spectacular class of car into the framework of the World Rally Championship and is delighted to have issued its first Passports and finalised a calendar for the 2015 season.
“We have been working closely with our technical department for some time to see how we can correctly include this class of car into our rally pyramid,” commented Jarmo Mahonen, FIA Rally Director. “To have achieved this now is great news for all the rally fans that have been waiting to see these cars out on the world stage. Each R-GT car is very individual and has to be treated as such, so there will always be work in progress, but we have had good collaboration with some tuners who have helped us establish the best way forward with the Passports. The creation of the R-GT Cup was a natural progression and we really hope to see more cars out in competition in the future; certainly from the reaction we have seen so far, the fans love the sight and sound of these iconic cars.”
The first Class R-GT car – a Porsche 911 (996) GT3 RS – appeared on the World Rally Championship during the 2014 Rallye Monte-Carlo piloted by Belgian race and rally driver Marc Duez. Since then, Jani Ylipahkala entered a Porsche 997 GT3 on Neste Oil Rally Finland and Richard Tuthill rallied a 997 GT3 Cup on ADAC Rallye Deutschland. And two 997 GT3s have also been entered in the upcoming Rallye de France Alsace for French aces François Delecour and Romain Dumas.
Tuthill Porsche welcomes this exciting new championship! We can offer RGT-compliant Porsche 911 rally cars to compete in the newest series in World Championship rallying. Email Tuthill Porsche to discuss our R-GT customer car programme.