01/08/2012 – The season record of entered drivers – 22 lineups – will welcome the Italian GT Championship exit to the Austrian ground where the fourth round of the season is scheduled for this coming weekend. This is going to be the only round to be held out of the national borders that will be enriched by the presence of new drivers and cars that give further prestige to the tricolored series.

The duel Porsche-Ferrari is to be renewed in class GT2 with the classfiication leaders, Victor and Giovanni Coggiola (Porsche RSR-CVG S.A.) that will find again their main rivals of Black Team, Rocca-Romanini (Ferrari 458 Italia), at the comeback after the absence in the two races of Misano Adriatico.

GT3 will witness the comeback of Peter Kox that will share the drive of the Lamborghini Gallardo with his fellow countryman Nico Pronk. The lineup driving for Reiter Engineeering will be sided by a second car with drivers still to be defined that will have to fight against BMW, Audi, Porsche and Ferrari, particularly with the classification leaders Biagi-Colombo (BMW Z4). The fight for the Italian title is now red hot after the last round of Misano as the two ROAL Motorsport drivers are chased by the Audi Sport Italy color-bearers Andrea Sonvico, six points shy and Di Benedetto-Frassineti (Audi R8 LMS), eleven points adrift.

Among the new entries, on top of the two Gallardo belonging to Reiter Engineering, debut in the GT for Ombra Racing team that will give its Ferrari 458 Italia to Cordoni-Camathias, while Del Castello-Benedetti will bring back on track the Corvette Z06 of RC Motorsport, increasing the number of GT3 cars on track to twelve.

New arrivals also in GT Cup, where the Ferrari 458 Italia will debut with the colors of MU Motorsport of the Ukraine Kruglyk-Tsyplakov, while the second car will be driven by Gianluca De Lorenzi and a driver still to be decided. ZRS Motorsport will take on track two Porsche 997, one given to Di Fant-Venica while the second lineup is still to be decided.

The fight is still open for the 1st Division title and the Austrian exit might be the last chance of getting close to the classification leaders Cicognani-Granzotto (Porsche 997-Antonelli Motorsport), that have a 50 points lead, for the reigning champions Sanna-Stancheris (Lamborghini Gallardo-Imperiale Racing). In the second Division, Vincenzo Donativi, who will share the cockpit of the Porsche 997 of Antonelli Motorsport with Alberto Bellini, is firmly leading the general classification and is among the main candidates for the top step of the podium of both races.

Nine Ginetta G 50 racing in the British single-brand series will be on track in this round aside of the GT cars which will increase to 31 the number of entered lineups but they will not be part of the classification of the two races.

The programme of the Austrian exit schedules two qualifying sessions on Saturday (at 8.30 and 11.50 GMT+2), followed by race one at 17.10. Race two will begin on Sunday at 11.50 (both races at the best of 48 minutes + 1 lap). The two races will be live on Sportitalia and webstreaming at vvvw.acisportitalia.it.

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