Imola to host season-opener of the 6th edition of the main European seriesfor GT2 & GT3, unchanged in essence and strengthened in TV coverageNew Ferrari F458, main novelty in renewed fieldFormer champions Camathias, Montermini and Barba in key most recent deals
The International GT Open is starting again its engines next week-end, for what will be the sixth edition of the series that following growing success, has established itself as the reference platform for GT2-GT3 pro-am racing in Europe. The kick-off of the 2011 season, which promises to be rich in novelties and extremely exciting, will take place in the Autodromo Dino e Enzo Ferrari in Imola, almost a tribute to a country, Italy, which is one of the undisputed cradles of GT racing.
“This will be a year of further consolidation for the GT Open, which is the only continental series that gives room to both GT2 and GT3 cars”, says Jesús Pareja of GT Sport, “We remain faithful to our philosophy of stable rules and reasonable costs, which is extremely appreciated by teams and drivers. We keep offering great circuits, and are happy to add this year the renewed Red Bull Ring in Zeltweg, and of course,the atmosphere will be as friendly as ever. We have also upgraded the TV coverage in some key countries like Italy, Spain and Poland, while Motors TV is ensuring live coverage of all races throughout Europe, and we are closing some interesting deals in South America. But most importantly, we’ll have great cars, great teams and great drivers in both categories, with a lot of novelties, and this is what will make the showon the track and the suspense in the battles for the championships”.
The season-opener in Imola (which includes a full and exciting racing programme, with a string of Italian championships, that fans will be able to enjoy free-access, like the Italiano Prototipi, the F.2000 Light, and of mono-brand trophies by Maserati, Porsche and SEAT) will already give the tone for the rest of the season. Over 26 cars are expected already in this first meeting of the season. While some deals are still being negotiated in these final hours, and other key teams will come into the picture after round 1), most of the main contenders are known.
The SuperGT category will se the awaited debut of the new Ferrari F458, while F430s are expected to be still very competitive. Among teams having switched to new Maranello machine, there are EdilCris (with one car for Raffaele Giammaria and newcomer Miguel Ramos), Kessel Racing (for Michal Broniszewski-Philipp Peter), Vittoria Competizioni (who is back to the GT Open with reigning GTS champion MarcoFrezza and Argentine Cochito López), JMB Racing (for French star Soheil Ayari and Ncolas Misslin) and Villorba Corse, which makes its debut in the series with the reigning Italian GT champions Emanuele Moncini and Andrea Montermini (a GT champion in 2008).
France’s Luxury Racing is upgrading its effort to SuperGT with two F458 for line-ups to be announced shortly (and which will include a former F1 racer). AF Corse, who took the title in 2010, will also be preparing one F458, the AT Racingentered car of Aleksander Talkanitsa father and son, but will also rely on two F430s for Luca Rangoni-Alessandro Garofano and Michele Rugolo-Claudio Sdanewitsch. Theopposition to the Prancing Horse should be led by the Porsches 911 RSR of Sapin’s Drivex and Italy’s Autorlando and by the Aston Martin Vantage GT of Villois Racing, while at the wheel of the Sunred SRX, young Catalan Pol Rossell joins Jordi Gené.
The GTS category will see a strong battle between the Porsche and the Ferraris, with a number of other makers (Ford, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Audi, Lamborghini and later on, also McLaren and BMW). The charge of Stuttgart’s GT3 R will be led by AutorlandoSport (the Italian squad has put together two very serious pairs, with Gianluca Roda- Fabio Babini and reigning GT Open champion Álvaro Barba-Andrea Ceccato) and Austria’s Deboeuf Racing, which enters a car for Thomas Gruber-Marco Seefried. The GT3 version of the new Ferrari F458 can also count on interesting line-ups, with Lorenzo Bontempelli-Stefano Gattuso (Kessel Racing), young former single-seaterdrivers Stefano Bizzarri-Andrea Rizzoli (AF Corse) and former double (2007-09) GT Open champion Joel Camathias-Bruno Hernandez (JMB Racing).
Other interesting Ferrari machinery include the F430s of Kessel Racing (for Crespi-Earle and Caccia- Mantovani) and others, while Villois Racing will defend the colours of Aston Martin as ususal (its top car will be driven by Max Wiser-Gabriele Lancieri), RPM brings itsbeautiful Ford GT for Alex Mortimer-Peter Bamford and one Mercedes SLS should join from Portugal.
