Things are getting ready at the circuit of Monza ahead of the opener of edition 14 of the Italian GT Championship scheduled for this coming weekend with a total of 33 crews representing 9 makes on track.

A lot of novelties will characterize season 2016, among which the introduction of the new classes Super GT3 and Super GT Cup. In the main class some of the most famous makes of the likes of Ferrari, Audi, Lamborghini, BMW, Aston Martin and Nissan alongside Porsche, Maserati and Ginetta, that will complete the list of prestigious entrants.

Six Italian titles will be awarded at the end of the seven scheduled rounds for a total of fourteen races, on top of those, five National Trophies and five National Cups. Among the favourites for the final victory of class Super GT3, that welcomed the newly homologated cars, the reigning Champion Stefano Gattuso and co-equiper Alex Frassineti will be behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracan.

The lineups of Ombra Racing will have to face the other drivers of the make based in Sant'Agata Bolognese: Bortolotti-Mul and Pezzucchi-Venturini (Imperiale Racing), as well as Agostini-Di Folco (Antonelli Motorsport). Mapelli-Albuquerque (Audi Sport Italia) will compete on the new Audi R8 LMS, while Comandini-Cerqui (BMW Team Italia) will be at the wheel of the BMW M6 GT3, Venturi-Gai (Black Bull Racing) and Geri-Mancinelli (Easy Race) will drive the Ferrari 488 instead. Sini-Mugelli (Solaris Motorsport) will take the prestigious Aston Martin Vantage to the debut in the Italian series. This unique event for the Italian championship will also be rounded up by the comeback of another important motorsport make: Nissan. Bontempelli-Linossi (Drive Technology Italia) will in fact operate the GT-R Nismo.

The challenge for the Italian title of GT3 has been launched by GT Cup reigning champions Luca and Nicola Pastorelli (Porsche GT3R-Krypton Motorsport), that moved to this category and will be challenged by the sister car driven by Venerosi-Baccani (Ebimotors), by the two Ferrari 458 Italia of Leo-Cheever (Scuderia Baldini 27) and Marco Galassi (Team Malucelli), and by the Lamborghini Gallardo of Monfardini-Valori (Cars Engineering).

Lamborghini Huracans monopolize the new Super GT Cup with nine entered challengers. Antonelli Motorsport is the leading team with four lineups: Galbiati-Sartori, Mantovani-Casè,  Kasai-Desideri, Magli-Spiridonov. Vincenzo Sospiri Racing follows suit with two GT cars driven by Baruch-Liang and Croce-Costa, while the reigning champion team Raton Racing, handed its two cars to Tanca-Comi and D'Amico-Zaugg. The starting grid will be completed by the Huracan fielded by GDL Racing for Necchi-De Lorenzi.

Eight cars will compete in GT Cup, where the Porsche 997 and the Ferrari 458 Italia will be the most numerous challengers. The Stuttgart's car will be driven by Maino-Benucci, by Lino and Carlo Curti (Ebimotors), as well as by "Magister"-Carboni (Drive Technology Italia), while the Maranello's Reds will be driven by Deodati-Romani, Zanardini-Sauto (Duell Race) and Del Prete-Caso (Scuderia Victoria). Benvenuti-Demarchi (Lamborghini Gallardo-Imperiale Racing) and Gianni Giudici (Maserati Trofeo-Scuderia Giudici) will complete the entry list of the single branded configuration cars. The only currently entered challenger in GT4 is the Ginetta G50 of Claudio Giudici (Scuderia Giudici), but the smallest class of the Italian series will see the arrival of a good number of Porsche Cayman starting from the race of Imola to compete in a specifically devised Cup.

The programme of the first motorsport weekend of the season schedules two qualifying sessions, split for the various classes, on Saturday (from local 9,45 to 11,35 GMT+2), while race-1 S.GT3 and GT3 will start in the afternoon at 16,45 followed by  S.GT Cup and GT Cup race at 17,55. Race-2 will be on Sunday for all categories. S.GT Cup's race will be at 11, that of S.GT3 and GT3 at 12,10. All races will be run on the length of 48minutes + 1 lap and will be covered live on Raisport1 (S.GT3 and GT3) and AutomotoTV (S.GT Cup and GT Cup).

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