Heading to Spa with many new entries!
The third round of the International GT Open 2012 is taking teams
and drivers to one of their most-appreciated venues: the legendary
Spa-Francorchamps. After a first round dominated by the Manthey Racing’s
Porsche 911 RSR and a second round that saw the Ferraris 458 bouncing back with
a double win (thanks to the AF Corse and Villorba teams), it will be
interesting to see what happens on the hilly and fast Walloon circuit…
The championship situation is completely open, with Marco
Holzer-Nick Tandy (Manthey Porsche) leading the overall standings, by 2 points
only (54 vs 52) over Patrick Pilet-Raymond Narac, at the wheel of the 911 of
French team IMSA Performance, who was an unlucky runner-up in the GTE Am class
at last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Third is the new and surprising Aston
Martin Vantage SuperGT of Matteo Malucelli-Álvaro Barba run by Villois Racing
(46 points). The Italian team, by the way, also collected laurels at Le Mans,
as it won the Aston Martin Festival preceding the 24 Hours, with Luca Filippi-Brian
Lavio (the latter, incidentally, was better known until now as the responsible
for GT Open’s new media activities…), who beat another GT Open duo, Deboeuf
Raceteam’s Gruber-Seefried.
The situation is quite similar in the GTS category, where Stefano
Bizzarri (AF Corse Ferrari) leads with 24 points leads ahead the Autorlando
Sport Porsche 911 R of Marco Mapelli-Archie Hamilton (21) and the Seyffarth
Mercedes SLS of Jan Seyffarth-Kenneth Heyer (20), who took a double win at the
Nürbugring.
As always, the Spa event is attracting a high number of entries,
with 31 cars expected and some interesting novelties on the blocks.
In the SuperGT category, Chevrolet will be the fifth manufacturer
represented: the iconic ‘Vettes are back with two C6R of the well-known Dutch
team V8 Racing directed by Patrick Sellesnagh. Miguel Ramos and Raffaele
Giammaria have switched their Ferrari 458 to drive one of the Corvettes, the
other being entrusted to 2011 vice-champion Emanuele Moncini and Netherlands’
Diederik Sijthoff.
In GTS, Spa should mark the much-awaited debut of Swiss
Team-elaborated Maserati Granturismo MC3, which is still testing this week in
the hands of Gabriele Gardel and Alessandro Pier Guidi. There are more
significant additions, as AF Corse, fresh from their exciting GTE Pro win at Le
Mans, will enter two more Ferraris 458 GT3 for current FIA GT3 leaders Gaetano
Ardagna-Giuseppe Cirò and Yannick Mallegol-Howard Blank. Last but not least,
Russian Bears Motorsport, also well-known in the GT3 scene, is making its debut
in the GT Open with two Baporo-prepared Ferraris 458 GT3 for Boris
Rotenberg-Maurizio Mediani and Miguel Toril-Kirill Ladygin. To be noted,
finally, that the Reiter Lamborghini seen at the Algarve is back with Dutchmen
Peter Kox-Nico Pronk.
International GT Open.
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