The iconic Belgian track attracts year’s record 29-car entryRigon to partner with standings leader Montermini on the Villorba FerrariLongin and returning GPR Aston of Ide-Soulet ready to thrill local fansToril (Seyffarth Mercedes) to fight to retain GTS leadSports&You and Attempto are back, Rhino’s enters second Lambo

Summer holidays are over! The International GT Open is back after the summer recess with one of its most traditional and anxiously-awaited rounds, Spa-Francorchamps. The iconic track in the Belgian Ardennes is, of course, one of the favorites for drivers, teams and fans alike, as proven by the 29 confirmed entries, the highest number so far this year.

With only two rounds left after Spa’s (the sixth in the calendar), the title battles are starting to heat up. In the overall standings, former F.1 driver Andrea Montermini enjoys a 57-point lead over his main rivals, the Corvette of Dutch squad V8 Racing driven by Miguel Ramos and Nicky Pastorelli, with Anglo-Irish pair Duncan Cameron-Matt Griffin (AF Corse) in third and also in contention for the title. In Spa, Montermini will share the wheel of the Scuderia Villorba Ferrari F458 with a new team-mate, Davide Rigon. The 27-year old from Vicenza, a former F3000 Euroseries and Superleague Formula champion, who knows well the F458 as he is already a Ferrari works driver in GT since 2011 (on top of being one of the Prancing Horses’s F.1 testers) will sub for Luca Filippi, taken by his F.1 commentator duties and also his Indycar career.

The GTS category, lively and closely-fought as ever, with many brands represented (Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Lamborghini, etc) currently sees Miguel Toril (Seyffarth Mercedes) leading over the BhaiTech McLaren of Pantano-Suzuki, and the Ferrarisof Lyons-Beretta (AF Corse) and Bontempelli-De Marco (Kessel Racing). Belgian fans will have local heroes to cheer this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. On top of Bert Longin, who has been campaigning successfully one of the V8 Corvette alongside Diederik Sijthoff, the GPR Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which shone at the opening round at the Ricard, is back for its home round, with the same top-level driver line-up composed of Enzo Ide and Maxime Soulet. Pino Sperlinga confirmed: “We are going to race at Spa and possibly in all remaining rounds, in view of a full 2014 GT Open campaign.”

The Belgian outfit is only one among many interesting news ahead of the sixth round of the season. Spa will also see the return of the two Sports&You Mercedes SLS AMG, with an all- Portuguese entry composed of Jose Pedro Fontes-Joao Silva and Antonio Coimbra-Luis Silva.Also back is Attempto Racing from Germany, with a Porsche 911 R GT3 for Tim Müller-Dirk Parhofer, while Team Rhino’s is doubling its presence with a second Lamborghini for Eduard Leganov and a driver to be designated.

Other changes for Spa include the return of the fourth Corvette of V8 Racing (Abresch- Nathan) and of the Kessel Ferrari F458 GT3 of Daniel Zampieri-Alan Calari, which brings the confirmed entries for the Belgian round to 29. At Autorlando Sport, Italians Maurizio Frattiand Giuseppe Ghezzi will sub for Bleekemolen-Di Guida on car #58. The meeting on the legendary track will also see in action the European F3 Open, the Radical European Masters, the Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC) and the European TrofeoAbarth.

Fans not present at the track will be able to follow all the action thanks to the GT Open’s excellent live TV coverage, which includes: Motors TV (pan-European), RaiSport2 (Italy), Sport1+ (Germany), Teledeporte and Canal+ Deportes (Spain), Sport TV (Portugal), withoutforgetting the live webstreaming on gtopen.net.

GT Open Spa Timetable / Horario GT Open Spa (All times local, CET / Hora local, CET)

Friday, 6 September 2013 / Viernes 6 Septiembre 201309:55-10:55 Free Practice 1 / Libres 114:10-15:10 Free Practice 2 / Libres 2Saturday 7 September 2013 / Sábado 7 Septiembre 2013

09:00-09:15 Qualifying / Clasficación1 GTS09:15-09:20 Qualifying / Clasficación1 SGT + GTS09:20-09:35 Qualifying / Clasficación1 SGT11:05-11:20 Qualifying / Clasficación 2 GTS11:20-11:25 Qualifying / Clasficación 2 SGT + GTS11:25-11:40 Qualifying / Clasficación 2 SGT16:00-17:10 Race 1 / Carrera 1 (70’ - Rolling Start / Salida lanzada)

Sunday 8 September 2013 / Domingo 8 Septiembre 201312:10-13:0 Race 2 / Carrera 2 (50’ – Rolling start / Salida lanzada)

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER RACE 10 OF 16

Overall: 1. Montermini, 182; 2. Filippi, 168; 3. Pastorelli-Ramos, 125; 4. Cameron-Griffin, 103;5. Sijthoff, 92; etc.

Drivers SuperGT: 1. Montermini, 89; 2. Filippi, 78; 3. Pastorelli-Ramos, 56; 4. Cameron-Griffin,50; 5. Sijthoff, 46; etc

GTS: 1. Toril, 39; 2. Pantano-Suzuki, 38; 3. Beretta-Lyons, 30; 4. Van der Zande, 28; 5. DeMarco-Bontempelli, 28; etc

Teams SuperGT: 1. V8 Racing, 114; 2. Villorba Corse, 84; 3. AT Racing, 40; 4. AF Corse, 38;5. Drivex, 19; etcTeams GTS: 1. Bhaitech Racing, 63; 2. Kessel Racing, 51; 3. Autorlando Sport, 40; 4. Seyffarth

Motorsport, 39; 5. AF Corse, 30; etc

Constructors Super GT: 1. Ferrari, 155; 2. Chevrolet, 105; 3. Porsche, 19

Constructors GTS: 1. Ferrari, 114; 2. McLaren, 63; 3. Porsche, 40; 4. Mercedes, 39; 5. AstonMartin, 20

Gentlemen’s Trophy: 1. Talkanitsa Sr, 74; 2. Laursen, 57; 3. Maleev, 51; 4. Cordoni,Sdanewitsch, 24; etc