Second round of the 2010 season to see a high-quality 29-car entryPorsche expected to seek revenge on German soilPhoenix Audi Eager to shine at home in GTS
After a successful and exciting opening of the season, Round 2 of the 2010 season willbring the International GT Open to Germany, one of the homelands of GT racing, andto one of the cathedrals of motorsports, the Nürburgring GP-track. The series hasvisited Germany only once so far (Oschersleben in 2007) and, needless to say, there isgreat anxiety and excitement at the prospect of racing in the ‘Ring in front of GTconnoisseurs such as German fans.
Following the double victory of the AF Corse Ferrari of Alvaro Barba and Pierre Kafferin Valencia, there is no doubt that the Porsches will want to take their revenge onhome soil. But But Autorlando’s Lietz-Roda and Kaufmann-Moro and IMSA’s Narac-Piletwill still have to fight with the top F430s. Among those, the AF Corse leading car isclearly among the favorites (and Pirre Kaffer will look forward to shine at home), andso are the Edil Cris car of Giammaria-Toccacelo, the Kessel machine of Peter-Broniszewski and the two CRS cars of Niarchos-Mullen and Goodwin-Hummel.
In the competitive GTS category, the Audi R8 of Phoenix Racing, with Marcel Tiemanand Jim Matthews, will clearly be willing to impose itself in a circuit which is morethan “home” to the team, which has its basis in the Nürburgring area itself. And veryclearly, the opposition, made of the Ferraris of Kessel (with Livio-Bontempelli andCouceiro-Frezza in the leading cars) and Luxury (with Ortelli-Dayraut as the mainpair), the Autorlando Porsche GT3 of Gruber-Deverikos, the RPM Ford of Mortimer-Bamford and the Villois Aston Martins, will do everything to make Phoenix’s lifedifficult...
Few minutes after the end of the races in Valencia, another peculiar race started,with drivers and team members trying to go back to their basis despite the “no-fly”situation created by the ash cloud of the Icelandic volcano, but using sometime themost creative solutions, everybody could find a solution.The Nürburgring event has attracted an entry of 29 cars, basically the very highqualitycore group of permanent GT Open contenders.
Among notes of interest in the SuperGT category, the new Aston Martin Vantage GT2of Villois Racing will do its second outing after a promising debut in Valencia, whileMatt Griffin will take his place alongside Jack Gerber in one of the AF Ferraris (theIrishman had to miss the Valencia round to witness the birth of his first child). In GTS,the second Villois Aston DBRS9 will start its season, with Gianandrea Crespi as the soledriver, following the health problem suffered by his co-driver and father Enrico.
TV Coverage & LiveAs customary, the Nürburgring GT Open can be followed by fans around Europe from their homethanks to live broadcasts in Italy (Nuvolary), Spain (Canal + Deportes), Portugal (Sport TV) andPoland (nSport) and the extensive delayed coverage ensured in 50 countries by Motors TV, and byFox Sports and ESPN in Central and South America.
Nürburgring Timetable
Friday 30 April 201009:30-10:30 Free Practice 113.05-14.05 Free Practice 216:55-17:10 Qualifying 1 GTS17:10-17:15 Qualifying 1 SGT + GTS17:15-17:30 Qualifying 1 SGT
Saturday 1st May 201009:35-09:50 Qualifying 2 GTS09:50-09:55 Qualifying 2 SGT + GTS09:55-10:10 Qualifying 2 SGT14:00-15:10 Race 1 (SGT+GTS) 70’ Rolling Start
Sunday 2nd May 201013:10-14:00 Race 2 (SGT+GTS) 50’ Rolling Start
