Bleekemolen gets Ferrari BSS call-up

GT star Jeroen Bleekemolen has been drafted into the Rinaldi Ferrari team's line-up for its Blancpain Sprint Series title challenge at this weekend's Zandvoort finale.

The Dutchman will drive Rinaldi Racing's Ferrari 458 Italia in place of Marco Seefried, who is unavailable because he is racing for the Proton Porsche team at the Fuji World Endurance Championship. He will be paired with full-season Rinaldi driver Norbert Siedler, who goes into the race with a 17-point deficit.

"I had a call yesterday from Marco asking if I was available and everything was sorted in five minutes," said Bleekemolen, who helped the Riley Dodge Viper team secure the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship's North American Endurance Cup teams' title at Road Atlanta last weekend. "I didn't have the chance to do the ADAC GT Masters race there a few weeks ago, so it will be good to be back at my home track."

Bleekemolen's previous Ferrari experience came at last year's Fuji WEC round at the wheel of an AF Corse-run GTE car, but this weekend will be his first time in a GT3-spec 458.

"I've never driven a GT3 car, but it shouldn't be a problem on a track I know well," he added.

The deal means he will be racing against the HTP Bentley squad, with which he contested the first four GT Masters rounds and the Nurburging 24 Hours.

HTP Motorsports duo Maximilian Buhk and Vincent Abril are second in the championship, nine points ahead of Siedler, going into Zandvoort.

The WRT Audi team has yet to indicate who will replace Laurens Vanthoor, who was injured at the Misano BSS round last weekend, alongside Robin Frijns. Team boss Vincent Vosse said that he would not reveal his plan for the championship-leading car until it was 100 percent confirmed.

He explained that bringing in one of the drivers of his other three cars to share with Frijns remained a possibility.

Originally on Autosport.com