GTA Motor and Aicart-Guerrero win Pro-Am race at home• Mowlem-Roda (GPC Ferrari) and Camathias-Lietz (Autorlando Porsche) complete a podium with three different makes and cars• Third success in GTS for Scuderia La Torre• French Porsche of Sofrev ASP team claims victory in GTB

The result of the Pro-Am race could not have a sweeter result for the race fans in Valencia: the Mosler MT900 of GTA Motor, a team based a few km from the Cheste circuit, and driven by local heroes José Manuel Pérez-Aicart took a flag-to-flag victory, after starting from the pole. For the runner-up pair of last year’s GT Open, it is the first victory this season.

As much as the Mosler’s victory was undisputed, the fight behind the leaders has been fierce, spectacular and rich in incidents. Eventually, the GPC Ferrari 430 of Johnny Mowlem and Gianluca Roda took second place and the Autorlando Porsche 997 of Joel Camathias-Richard Lietz third place, offering a podium with three different makes.

Scuderia La Torre continues unbeaten in GTS, but this time victory was for the Viper of Fabrizio Armetta and Elio Marchetti, in front of Racing Box’ Viper of Mocci-Azzoli, who claimed second place for the third time in a row. In GTB, success for the new-coming French team Sofrev ASP whose Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, driven by Maurice Ricci and Morgan Moullin Traffort beat the competition.PADDOCK RUN-DOWN – Final number of cars participating to the Valencia GT Open is 37, following the last minute forfaits of the Del Bello, AGS and Hexagon cars, while the second Ferrari of Roger Racing is present but running only in free practice. Some changes also in the line-ups: Belgian Champ Car driver and former Mégane Cup winner Jan Heylen is joining José Manuel Valero in the Ferrari 430 GTB of Roger Racing (#41), while Harry van Zuylen replaces Pedro Nevoa on the Marcos #48 to make a full Dutch pair with Fred Van Putten. GT Open regulars Marco Cioci and Ferdinando Geri are at the wheel of the Mik Corse Lamborghini Gallardo #37. Finally, Francisco Longo and Daniel Serra become the first Brazilian drivers to compete in the GT Open, as they struck a deal with V-Line to drive their Ferrari 430 GT2. Longo is the Brazilian importer of Ferrari and a good gentleman-driver while Serra is the son of former F.1 driver Chico Serra and one of the top drivers of Brazilian Stock Cars.

QUALIFYING 1- Despite the mid-morning hour, it is already quite warm when the cars take the track for Qualifying 1. The session will end with a beautiful pole-position for the local heroes as the all-Valencian outfit composed of GTA Motor Mosler MT900R and José Manuel Pérez-Aicart set fastest time, 4 tenths of a second ahead of surprising Daniel Serra from Brazil in the V-Line Ferrari and 6 tenths of a second ahead of the SR21 driven by former WTCC driver Peter Terting. Follow seven Ferraris 430 (with GPC’s Johnny Mowlem in fourth position) while the Autorlando Porsche 997 is 11th with Joël Camathias, sharing 6th row with French GT expert Jérôme Policand in the Sofrev ASP Ferrari 360.

In GTS the Vipers dominate (with Riccardo Azzoli and Racing Box in pole) with the newly-arrived Villois Aston Martin of Diego Romanini fifth, while in GTB it is a new-comer, the Sofrev ASP Porsche 997 GT3 Cup of Frenchman Morgan Moullin Traffort that takes the pole (and an excellent 13th position overall) ahead of the Giudici Ferrari 360 of former F.1 legend Alessandro Nannini.

HANDICAPS PRO-AM RACE#1 (GTA) Scuderia Playteam (Montermini-Maceratesi) Ferrari 430 GT : 40”#3 (GTA) Scuderia Playteam (Busnelli-Massironi) Ferrari 430 GT : 15”#11 (GTA) Autorlando (Lietz-Camathias) Porsche 997 RSR : 20”#31 (GTS) Racing Box (Azzoli-Mocci) Dodge Viper GT3 : 30”#32 (GTS) Racing Box (Corradi-Pellizzato) Dodge Viper GT3 : 10”#33 (GTS) Scuderia Latorre (Romagnoli-Larini) : 40”#42 (GTB) Roger Racing (Van Zoest – Arias) Ferrari 430 Challenge : 10”#43 (GTB) Gianni Giudici (Giudici-Nannini) Ferrari 430 Challenge : 35”#44 (GTB) Fabrizio Gini (Arlotti-Gini) Ferrari 430 Challenge : 35”

PRO-AM RACEAt the rolling start, poleman Aicart has no trouble in controlling the situation and taking the lead, followed by the SR 21 of Terting, who seems capable to threaten the Mosler for a few laps. The two manage to build a growing gap over a group where fight is intense since the beginning: Daniel Serra (the son of former F.1 driver Chico Serra) in the V-Line Ferrari is impressive in the first few laps but cannot resist to the attacks of Johnny Mowlem, in the GPC Ferrari, who gets third on lap 6. He is followed by a group composed by Maceratesi, Gattuso, Bonetti, Pasini, Busnelli, Camathias and Sundberg, who all battle spectacularly, with positions changing constantly. Camathias and Sunberg have a contact on lap 7 that sends the Swiss into a spin. By then, Euser, an early leader in GTB, had already finished his race in the gravel, while Gini (Ferrari GTB) and Balthazard (Sofrev Porsche) were forced to visit the pits with damages in their cars.

As laps pass, the SR21 of Terting is forced to concede ground and positions, while Villalba (Motor Competición Mosler) goes off-track on lap 14 and Romagnoli (La Torre Viper) and Palma (Advanced Engineering Ferrari) collide on lap 16. The leading Mosler stops on lap 17 for the mandatory driver change. When everybody will be done with the pit stop and the handicaps, the situation is clear: Mosler’s Guerrero has a comfortable lead (20” in lap 20) ahead of Roda (GPC Ferrari), Frigerio (AE Ferrari) who will have to stop for a drive-through, Longo (V-Line Ferrari), Busnelli (Playtem Ferrari), Peter (GPC Ferrari), Romero (RSV Ferrari), Lietz (Autorlando Porsche), Zapata (SR21), Maceratesi (Playteam Ferrari) and Bobbi (GPC Ferrari).

The last third of the race, with tyres starting to suffer, sees a number of spins and contacts (notably, between Romero and Frigerio), an intense Austrian duel for third between Peter and Lietz, won by the Porsche on lap 26 and again some good racing and fighting.

In GTS, the Mik Corse Lamborghini Gallardo of Cioci led the first dozen of laps, before letting go the La Torre Viper of Romagnoli-Larini, which later spun twice. Victory was claimed by the second La torre Viper of Armetta-Marchetti, ahead of Azzoli-Mocci (Racing Box Viper) and the newly-arrived Aston Martin of Romanini-Lancieri (Villois Racing). In GTB, the Marcos of Cor Euser took a storming start but could not avoid going out of the track on lap 4, clearing the way for the quick Porsche 997 Cup of Ricci-Traffort (Sofrev ASP) who won ahead the Roger Ferrari 430 of Valero-Heylen and the Ferrari 360 of Giudici-Nannini, with the Marcos of Van Putten-Van Zuylen finishing fourth.

OVERALL STANDINGS: 1. Aicart-Guerrero, 40; 2. Montermini-Maceratesi, Roda-Mowlem, 38; 4. Lietz-Camathias, 30; 5. Busnelli-Massironi, 29; 6. Peter-Bonetti, 24; 7. Romagnoli-Larini, 21; 8. Livio-Pasini, Arlotti-Gini, Giudici-Nannini, 18, etc