Michele Bartyan first GT Open Champion in thrilling finale! • Perfect day and double-points victory for the Playteam driver • Aicart-Guerrero (GTA Mosler) defeated in last round • First victory in GTB for the Marcos Mantis (Nevoa-Van Putten) • Winning debut for the Damax Ascari (Long-Rich) in GTS • Gini (Ferrari 360) secures GTB Cup • 4 Racing Box drivers tied on top of GTS Cup • 35,000 fans attend GT Open first season’s closing race Barcelona, 12 November 2006 - Michele Bartyan is the first International GT Open Champion! The 26-year old Italian driver of the Playteam SaraFree Ferrari 430, achieved, together with team mate Alessandro Pier Guidi, a perfect day in the single 2-hours final race of the championship, clinching a superb victory and scoring the maximum available of points (44). This allowed Bartyan to overturn the situation in the overall standings and overtake José Manuel Pérez Aicart and Lucas Guerrero, who arrived in Barcelona as leaders of the championship. Over 35,000 fans flocked to the Circuit de Catalunya in a beautiful autumn day which saw 55 cars taking the start. It was a sad and difficult day for the two young Spaniards, who could not crown their dream after a fantastic season. The GTA Mosler was not in best shape today and had a high handicap in this last race (50”). Unfortunately, a drive-through for excessive speed in the pit lane dashed the last hopes of a good result today. The third title contender, Paolo Ruberti (Edil Cris Ferrari 430) was never in a position to fight for the title as the strategy of stopping for the refuel during the first pace-car period revealed itself ill-advised. Michele Bartyan was, of course, elated after the race that gave the 2005 LMES GT1 champion a second major international title: “I am absolutely delighted, especially for the whole team who has worked so hard. It has been a very stressful season until the end, as we lost our initial advantage during the year, but today everything went perfectly!”. The Ferrari of Mediani-Pasini (Victory Engineering) took second place ahead of the Autorlando Porsche GT3 of Gianluca Roda and Johnny Mowlem, ahead of another Porsche, Amaral-Chacón’s Drivex and the AC Andorra Ferrari 430 of Sala-Cerqueda.
Pedro Nevoa and Fred Van Putten imposed their Marcos Mantis in GTB, just ahead of the Ferrari 360 Challenge of ever-young Alessandro Nannini and Gianni Giudici and the Ferrari 430 Challenge of the Rodrigo brothers. With a 5th place, Fabrizio Gini (Ferrari 360 Giudici) secured definitely the GTB Cup. The GTS category saw the first victory of a new-comer, the Ascari GT3 of the British team Damax, with Johnny Lang and Martin Rich, ahead of the Ruffier Viper of Ruffier-Peyrolles and the Racing Box Viper of Perazzini-Cioci. The former fell very short from stealing the title from their team-mates Stefano Zonca and Andrea Belicchi, who had to retire today in lap 3 because of a broken engine. The season ended with a tie in points (50) between the two Racing Box’s teams. HANDICAPS The following are the performance handicaps for the Barcelona race: #2 GTA Mosler (Aicart-Guerrero): 50” #4 GPC Ferrari 430 (Montermini-Lambertini): 40” #7 MC Mosler (Villalba-Gutiérrez): 40” #27 Racing Box Viper (Zonca-Belicchi): 90” #29 Racing Box Viper (Perazzini-Cioci): 90” #34 Playteam Ferrari 360 (Giao-Amorim): 30” #42 Camino Ferrari 430 Ch (Robert-Villacieros): 30” #53 GPC Ferrari 360 (Hernández-Bastos): 20” #55 Edil Cris Ferrari 430 (Ruberti-Gianmaria): 20” #58 Victory Ferrari 430 (Mediani-Pasini): 70” #61 García Porsche 996 (García-Castro): 90” #62 Sande e Castro Porsche 996 (Vaz-Cruz): 80” All cars joining the GT Open for the first time in this race have a handicap of 60”. This applies to cars #: 21 – 22 – 31 - 68 – 70 – 71 – 72 – 73 – 74 – 75 -76 – 77 – 78 – 79 – 80 – 81 – 82 – 83 – 84. RACE Lively start with Pasini taking the lead but losing it after a few corners when he went wide. Pierguidi is first in lap 1 ahead of Aicart, Ruberti, Giao, Pasini, De Simone, Mowlem, Sundberg and Hernández. Lap 3 sees a number of incidents: spins for the Seat Cupra of Valero and the Viper of Cabane, contact between the Lamborghini of Fattori, the Cupra of Vivancos and the GPC Ferrari of Montermini, and broken engine for the Viper of Zonca in the straight, which obliges the safety car to get out for five laps, as the track is dirty with oil. After the restart, it’s Pierguidi leading with a 2-seconds advantage on Aicart, followed by Pasini, Giao and Roda. On lap 17 Couceiro retires with the engine of his Playteam Ferrari in fire. Early leader in GTB is the Marcos of Nevoa, ahead of the Cetea Ferrari 360 of Lloveras and the Ferrari 430 of the Rodrigo brothers.
In GTS, Racing Box’s Viper of Cioci is ahead of the pack, with the Larbre Porsche of Dumez in second and the other Viper of Baso in third. First of the leaders to stop for the driver change is the GTA Mosler but Guerrero is forced to come back to pits for a drive-through for excessive speed in the pits. Pasini stops in lap 24 and Pierguidi in lap 25. In lap 26, it’s show time for the pace-car as Cutillas spins the MC Mosler, which remains stalled in the middle of the track at the end of straight, while also the RSV Ferrari 430 of Romero is out of the track and of the race. So is the MC Ferrari 360 of Torres (wheel).When the first hour rings in the clock of the circuit, Bartyan is leading ahead of the Autorlando Porsche, Mediani in the Victory Ferrari, the Galp CTT Porsche of the Mello Breyner brothers and the Playteam Ferrari 360 of Amorim. The GTA Mosler is 9th and the Edil Cris Ferrari 11th. In GTS, the Damax Ascari of Lang-Rich is first and in GTB the leader is the Marcos of Nevoa-Van Putten. Soon after that black flag is shown to five cars (the Sunred Cupra of Valero, the Lambo of Piccini, the MC Ferrari of Torres, the Marcos of Nogueira and the Chrzanowski Porsche of Friesacher) for resisting marshalls’ orders to leave the track after their car stopped for various incidents. The second hour of the race starts with a show of Pasini, who takes the lead after a few laps from Bartyan and the Autorlando Porsche of Roda, but the second driver change, where the second half of the handicap is applied, sees quite logically the emergence of the cars with less or no handicap. Pier Guidi retakes the lead in lap 51 ahead of Pasini, Mowlem, Amaral, Sala, Breyner, Ruberti and Aicart. In GTB, Alessandro Nannini, who had been charging upwards with the Giudici Ferrari 360, figthts for the lead with the Marcos Mantis of Nevoa, while in GTS the Ascari is dominating. There are little changes in the final laps and the chequered flag goes down five laps earlier (65) than scheduled as maximum the time of 2hrs10 is reached.
FINAL GT OPEN STANDINGS (UNOFFICIAL) 1. Bartyan, 168 pts; 2. Aicart – Guerrero, 160; 4. Pier Guidi, 148; 5. Ruberti, 126; 6. Roda, 100; 7. Mowlem, 90; 8. Giao, 84; 9. Gini, 71; 10. Belicchi-Zonca, 69, etc Gta Cup: 1. Bartyan, 76; 2. Aicart-Guerrero, 72; 4. Pier Guidi, 68; 5. Ruberti, 54; 6. Roda, 41; etc. Gtb Cup: 1. Gini, 85; 2. Arlotti, 71; 3. Villacieros-Robert, 59; 5. Van Zoest-Santos, 56; 7. Giudici, 44; etc. Gts Cup: 1. Zonca-Belicchi, Perazzini-Cioci, 50; 5. Malucelli e Zani, 27; etc
