GT Open Hot Battle for Title

After the resounding success of the Valencia Street Circuit event and the much-deserved summer break, the International GT Open resumes its course on the week-end of 20-21 September: the sixth round of the series is taking place in Magny-Cours.

The French circuit, nested in the rural and central region of the Nièvre, will also host, as it is usual for this meeting, rounds of the highly-competitive Spanish F.3 Championship – FIAT, also organized by GT Sport.

Magny-Cours has become a traditional event for the International GT Open, as this is together with Monza, Barcelona and Valencia the only circuit visited every season by the series since its creation in 2006. It is also the third of the five F.1 circuits where the International GT Open, which always strives to offer its participants the most prestigious and up-level venues.

France is the fifth country hosting this year the Dunlop-supported series, which has become more and more international and is today the best showcase for GT2 and GT3 cars in the continent.The relationship between the International GT Open and France has been closer and closer since 2006, as many French teams (such as Ruffier Racing, Sofrev ASP, Noël Del Bello and Exagon, among others) and well-known drivers (including Pompidou, Collard, Hélary, Policand and Beltoise, to name a few) have been participating regularly to the series. The most assiduous Frenchman in the series, though, is Damien Pasini, who currently lies fourth in the overall standings, at the wheel of the Advanced Engineering Ferrari F430 he shares with Alessandro Bonetti. The 23-year old from Nice is in his second full season in the GT Open and has won the opening event in Vallelunga this year.

The definitive entry list for the Magny-Cours GT Open will be published Monday 15 September, together with the event schedule.

On the sporting side, the championship is more-closely fought than ever, with three teams in 6 points, at the start of the last third of the season. The two Ferraris F430 of Scuderia Playteam SaraFree top the provisional standings, with Montermini-Maceratesi (107 points and 3 wins) and Gião-Couceiro (102 points and no wins yet), but the Autorlando Porsche 997 of reigning champion Richard Lietz and Gianluca Roda has now made up almost all the gap and is third with 101 points and 3 wins. Further back, Bonetti-Pasini (AE Ferrari, 85 points) and Frezza-Monfardini (Edil Cris Ferrari, 81 points) still have something to say.

In GTS, the Twentytwo Corvette of Cioci-Pellizzato (38 points) has a not-so-comfortable lead on the Racing Box Lamborghini of Ceccato-Visconti (30 points) and the Villois Aston Martin of Wiser (29 points).

With such a situation, no doubt that this late summer round in Magny-Cours holds all its promises. Fans not present in the Nièvre will not miss any of the action, thanks to the excellent and wide TV coverage the series enjoys. As usual, the races will be broadcast throughout Europe by Eurosport, with additional live coverage in Spain (Canal +), Italy (Nuvolari), Portugal (Sport TV) and extensive coverage in other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. In France, the International GT Open races are offered by Motors TV.


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