New and promising young drivers are joining Auto GP as the championship series is set to go back on-track on December the 6th and 7th at Circuit de Catalunya. After the confirmations received by Vittorio Ghirelli, Yoshitaka Kuroda and Kimiya Sato, three more racers are now set to line-up aboard the Auto GP Zytek-powered Lola cars in Barcelona.
Luca Defendi reached an agreement with Ombra Racing also thanks to Mercury, the company that provided the support for the deal. The 19-year-old is coming from the Italian F.Renault 2.0 Challenge, and also lined-up in Formula Abarth and Formula Azzurra where he ended up the 2009 season in third. He will now be joining Ombra, a team based in his own city, Bergamo, in an effort to promote the local motorsports environment.
After having announced Vittorio Ghirelli, Super Nova paired him with fellow Italian Antonio Spavone. For him it will be a return to the series after the 2012 runs with Ombra and Euronova.
Virtuosi UK will field a first-time runner: Andrea Roda. The Como-based 22-year-old racer gained a valuable Formula 3 experience in the last three years, driving in the Italian Championship and in the Euro Series. He will enter both days with the same car that Pal Varhaug drove to second place in 2012 behind Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. Enzo Coloni: The number of drivers getting in-touch with Auto GP for the first time keeps rising. Andrea Roda and Luca Defendi are coming from the Italian developemental motorsports panorama and, as usual, Coloni and Auto GP are related to the best opportunities offered to young drivers in their quest for Formula 1. Defendi will be lining-up for the Ombra team, which won the 2011 championship with Keving Ceccon. They are set to welcome him with all their experience. Roda opted for the next logical step to make after Formula 3, and joined a championship featuring similar cars in terms of philosophy, although much more powerful. I'm also proud for the return of Antonio Spavone. After having entered the 2012 season, he will be rejoining for testing in order to prepare for 2013. He will definitely going to be among the title contenders.
