Grasser Lamborghini squad to defend Blancpain GT titles in 2018

Factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Christian Engelhart will bid to retain their BGTS Endurance Cup crown in the lead Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Hurcan GT3 this season.

Bortolotti and Engelhart will again race together in the Sprint Cup as they attempt to repeat their success in the overall BGTS classification, which combines the points from the two segments of the series.

The Austrian Grasser team has expanded its BGTS campaign in 2018 from two to three full-season Huracans in the top class.

Former IndyCar and GP2 driver Franck Perera will contest both legs of the championship with a team he joined for a successful GTD class assault on the Daytona 24 Hours in January.

The Frenchman, who finished third in last year's Sprint Cup with the HTP Mercedes team, will share with Grasser regular Rolf Ineichen and one driver who had yet to be announced in the enduros, and 20-year-old Loris Hezemans in the sprints.

Hezemans, son of 1978 Daytona 24 Hours winner Toine, joins the team after racing GT3 and TCR machinery sporadically for the past two seasons.

Ezequiel Perez Companc and Raffaele Gianmaria will again drive together in the enduros with a third driver who has yet to be announced.

Argentinian Companc will be joined by Caldarelli for the sprints races.

The three Grasser BGTS Endurance Cup pro class Lambos were among the 26 cars selected for the series last week after a cap was put on the number of entries in the top division for 2018.

HTP Motorsport, which has won multiple Blancpain titles since 2013, was not on the entry.

The German team is not returning full-time to the series and is investigating an assault on the Spa 24 Hours endurance round in July.

Grasser is also returning to the German ADAC GT Masters series, in which it won three races last year, with a trio of Huracans.

Bortolotti and Caldarelli will drive the lead car.