Completing a lively and successful debut for the International GT Open, the second race of the Italian GT Open in Monza proved to be completely different from Saturday’s maiden race, as a generous sunshine welcomed the 24 starters. At the end of the 24 laps, the Playteam Sara Free Ferrari 430 of Michele Bartyan – Alessandro Pierguidi took the victory, the first for the new runner of the Prancing Horse, ahead of the GTA Mosler MT900R of Guerrero-Pérez Aicart, which had dominated the first half of the race and the Edil Cris Ferrari 360 Modena GTC of Ruberti-Cressoni, who also led the race before being penalized with a stop-and-go for an incident with a Seat Cupra. Scuderia Giudici won again in GTB, this time with Arlotti-Gini, whose 360 Challenge was lucky to be in the right place when the Scuderia Italia Aston Martin DBRS9 two laps from the end.
QUALIFYINGThe grid, established on Saturday, saw the GTA Mosler in pole (1.52.270), sharing the first row with the Racing Box Viper of Lancelotti-Capellari, which sat a time only three tenths slower. They preceded the Playteam Sara Free Ferrari 430 of Bartyan- Pierguidi and the Edil Cris Ferrari 360 Modena GTC of Cressoni-Ruberti, with the Marcos LM 600 of Cristovao-Euser and the other Viper of Zonca-Belicchi in third row.
RACE 2 REPORTTwo cars did not take the start: the Racing Box Viper n.29 broke the engine before the warm-up and the Giudici Ferrari 360 Challenge of Cutrera, the GTB winner the day before, was forced out as co-driver Andrea Larini could not recover from food poisoning.
At green flag, the Marcos of Cristovao stalled in the grid, being forced to be pushed back to the pits. The Mosler of Pérez-Aicart took the lead in fornt of Bartyan, Cressoni, the astonishing Porsche Cup of Ruffier, the other 911s of Zani and Roda, the Vipers of Lancelotti and Zonca, the Aston of Seiler and the Seat Cupra of Amorim. With the situation pretty stable in the very top position, the show was definitely behind the first three, where every position was hard fought for. Lap 5 saw the end of the race for Ruffier after a contact with Moro who had missed a gear and the first stop in the pits for troubled RSV Ferrari.
With the track full of oil, staying on track was not easy at all, while the Vipers were running a conservative race to fight against their main problem, fuel consumption. In lap 11 occurred a first race incident with Cressoni pushing the lapped Seat of Vivancos out of the track in variante Ascari. The stewards later imposed a 10” penalty to the Italian car, which had emerged in the lead after the driver change.
The mandatory pit stop brought the Mosler to lose its 5” lead and drop down to third position behind the Edil Cris Ferrari and the Playteam 430. The Autorlando Porsche was running fourth ahead the Aston Martin, the two Vipers, the Seat of Giao and the Marcos, which had made its way up through the pack but would be soon forced to the pits again, with strong vibrations. Meanwhile, the Seat Toledo of Llobell went out at the Ascari (lap 18) and the Mastercar Ferrari was also slowed down by engine troubles (lap 20). The final laps were quieter with the 430 of Pierguidi increasing its lead over the Mosler, which started to suffer from over-heating. The victory in GTB was decided two laps from the end when Groppi spun the BMS Aston Martin into the gravel at Lesmo, clearing the way for the 360 Challenge of Gini.
QUOTES(1°) Michele Bartyan: “Perfect car and perfect race, everything has worked well for us. I am really happy about this new series and looking forward to an exciting season”.
Alessandro Pier Guidi: “I can only say that the new 430 is wonderful to drive and is already working perfectly, despite we have not tested the car much prior to this race”.
(2°) Luis Manuel Pérez Aicart: “We had a very good first part of the race. Unfortunately, we lost the lead for almost nothing in the pit stop and in the final laps we had to lift up a bit as temperatures were going up”.
(5°, 1st GTS) Luca Capellari: “Our race was completely conditioned by fuel consumption, we had to respect carefully the planned strategy and we couldn’t do much more”.
(3°) Matteo Cressoni: “I really do not understand the penalty. The Cupra was lapped, in my way and not going very straight. I could not avoid contact”.
(1st GTB) Giuseppe Arlotti: “What a nice day: we had fun and we won!”
