The third round of the Italian GT Sprint Championship, the race scheduled for this coming weekend at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari of Imola set a new participation record. After the long summer break, 44 cars are ready to produce spectacle in the turning point of the Italian series. A total of 26 cars entered GT Cup for a total of 80 drivers competing in the three classes.

GT3: In GT3 two lineups, Glock-Klingmann (BMW M4 GT3-BMW Italia-Ceccato Racing Team) and Guidetti-Moncini (Honda NSX GT3-Nova Race) are level on points (47) and lead the overall classification from Kikko Galbiati (Mercedes AMG GT3), who stands at 41 points. The Antonelli Motorsport’s driver will share the car with Matteo Cressoni in Imola, who is the same driver with whom he ended third in Monza. The second car of the team from Bologna will be driven by Pesce-Rappange, that are second in GT3 PRO-AM.

The classification is fairly short in the highest class and the fourth and fifth positions are currently held by the two Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Scuderia Baldini with Gai-Panciatici and Di Amato-Urcera respectively 9 and 10 points short of the lead. They are followed by the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Alberto Di Folco (Imperiale Racing), who will share the car with the British driver Stuart Middleton. The latter had an unlucky incident in the opening round of Monza. The Mirandola-based team’s lineup is completed by Lithuania’s Paul August.

The Honda lot will include also two NSX GT3 of Nova Race, one driven by Magnoni-Lippi and one by Greco-Guerra, while the Ferrari lot will be completed by the 488 GT3 Evo of Agostini-Vebster (Easy Race) and the two cars of AF Corse which will be driven by Huilin Han-Negro and Alessandro Cozzi, the latter is standing second in GT3 AM behind the leaders Butti-Patrinicola. Audi Sport Italia’s drivers will be in the Audi R8 LMS trying to keep the momentum and extend the good results that so far include two wins and two-second places, as in GT3 PRO-AM, where the classification leaders Cecotto-Di Giusto (Lamborghini Huracan GT3-LP Racing) built a solid margin on the closest rivals.

GT CUP/GT4: A new participation record has been set especially in GT Cup which features 26 cars entered: 11 Porsche, 10 Ferrari and 5 Lamborghini. The PRO-AM classification is still quite compact with Coluccio-Mazzola (Ferrari 488 Challenge-Easy Race) leading the pack by just two points on Scalvini-Barri (Lamborghini Huracan ST-Team Italy) and six on Gattuso-Mainetti (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup-Krypton Motorsport), but the driver from Bergamo will not defend his position due to a physical problem and will be replaced by Giovanni Berton.

The colours of the team from Brescia will also be defended by the confirmed Locanto-Costacurta and Tazio Pieri, that are leading GT Cup AM. Gianluigi Piccioli (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Gen II-Ebimotors) is ten points short of the top and in Imola he will find his usual coequipier Riccardo Pera. The team led by Enrico Borghi will also field a car for Amaduzzi-Nelson and one for the new entries Gaiofatto-Giardelli, while the two 991 of EF Racing will be driven by Alessandri-Baruchelli and Bronzini-Tabacchi. One car each will be fielded by team AB Motorsport for the second of GT3 AM Di Leo-Poppy, Autorlando for Ghezzi-Pichler and Tsunami RT for Vicky Piria and Gianmarco Levorato.

The Ferrari 488 lot will be quite numerous too. Next to that the classification leaders, three Challenge cars will be lined up by Best Lap for Marzialetti-Tibaldo, Pitorri-Simonelli and the new pairing featuring Vito Postiglione, who is one of the most experienced GT drivers worldwide, and the 17 years old Eliseo Donno, who is a young Italian driver from Salento coming from several successful seasons in karting. Two Ferrari Challenge will be fielded by SR&R for the third of GT Cup AM A.Berton-Buttarelli (488) and Rocchi-Salerno (458).

The third round of the Sprint series will also welcome three new teams, all with the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo. The team Pellin Racing will line up two cars for the Americans Matthew Kurzejewsky and Jeremy Clarke, while Baron Racing’s car will be driven by Baron-Kirchmayr and RS Racing’s by Sartingen-Nussbaumer.

The Lamborghini Huracan STfielded by Team Italy for Scalvini-Barri and for the Spanish driver Castillo Ruiz, those of Bonaldi Motorsport for the Colombian Andres Mendez and FFF Racing Team’s which doubled its participation siding the car of Luciano and Donovan Privitelio, one additional Huracan for the Portuguese Rodrigo Testa De Sousa, will try and challenge the Porsche and Ferrari cars.

In GT4 the three cars that contested the rounds of Monza and Misano will be present. Nova Race’s Marchetti-Schjerpen and Bencivenni-Ferri (Mercedes AMG GT4) are leading the classification equal at 67 points, while Cerati-Fondi (Porsche Cayman-Autorlando) are 13 points off the lead.

THE PROGRAM and TV COVERAGE: The weekend in Imola will kick off on Friday with two free practice sessions (50 minutes long) at 12.20 and 16.40, while the two qualifying sessions will be on Saturday from 11 to 12.30. These will be divided into GT3 and GT Cup/GT4. Race-1 (50 minutes + 1 lap) will be at 18.20. Race two (same length) will get underway on Sunday at 15 and, as in the case of race-1, it will be covered live by Acisport Tv (SKY 228) and recorded on Raisport with a schedule still to be defined. The two races will be available in live streaming from www.acisport.it/CIGT, Facebook www.facebook.com/CIGranTurismo and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-QsHUuslO4iZekAeBoskgg/featured

THE COMPLETE PROGRAM

OVERALL SPRINT CLASSIFICATION

GT3 PRO-AM SPRINT CLASSIFICATION

GT3 AM SPRINT CLASSIFICATION

GT CUP PRO-AM SPRINT CLASSIFICATION

GT CUP AM SPRINT CLASSIFICATION

GT4 PRO-AM SPRINT CLASSIFICATION

 

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