GT: Buhk at HTP

Spa 24 Hours winners Maximilian Goetz and Maximilian Buhk will renew their partnership in this year's Blancpain Sprint Series with the HTP Mercedes team.

Goetz, whose program was not announced on his re-signing by the team last month, has now been confirmed in the lead HTP Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG alongside Buhk ahead of this weekend's BSS opening round at Nogaro.

It is also likely that the two Germans, who were partnered by DTM legend Bernd Schneider at Spa last July, will share a car for a second year running in the ADAC GT Masters series, in which they finished third last year with HTP under the Polarweiss banner.

Team boss Norbert Bruckner said: "Buhk and Goetz work well together, so this is a strong pairing that I think can win us some prize money this year."

The entry for the BSS is down to 20 cars for Nogaro following the withdrawal of the JMB Nissan team, which was also absent from last weekend's Monza Blancpain Endurance Series opener, and the Novadriver Audi squad.

Series boss Stephane Ratel is hopeful of placing nominated JMB drivers Alon Day, a winner in FIA GTs last year, and French GT graduate Mathieu Jaminet with another team in time for round two at Brands Hatch next month. He is also expecting further entries on a race-by-race basis to boost the grid at the British event on May 17-18.

Gregory Guilvert, who finished second at Monza with the Sainteloc Audi team, will substitute for Roman Rusinov in the WRT-run G-Drive Audi R8 LMS ultra alongside Stephane Ortelli in France this weekend. Rusinov is unable to compete at Nogaro because he is racing the World Endurance Championship opener at Silverstone with the G-Drive OAK LMP2 squad.

Originally on Autosport.com