The 22nd edition of the Italian Gran Turismo Championship about to kick off this weekend at the Misano World Circuit will set yet another record. In its over twenty-year history, the Italian GT had never registered the incredible number of 53 cars entered, but now, after intense winter work by the entire ACI SPORT Sporting Federation, the inaugural weekend of the Sprint series can boast of this excellent result. Therefore, the season will open with great numbers, allowing for the splitting of the two classes, making it possible to hold four races of 50 minutes + 1 lap, two for GT3 and two for GT Cup.

GT3: A total of 23 cars are ready to hit the track in the top class, where the return of Porsche and Aston Martin stands out, but Ferrari will be the protagonist with six crews behind the wheel of the recent 296 GT3 and the victorious 488 GT3 Evo 2020. After debuting in the last race of the previous season, Easy Race has prepared its 296 GT3 for a high-profile crew composed of the multi-champion Thomas Biagi paired with the 19-year-old Enzo Trulli, son of former F1 driver Jarno. Emil Frey Racing will reserve the latest Ferrari gem for the Swiss driver Jasin Ferati paired with the Finn Luka Nurmi, already a protagonist of last season; the third 296 GT3 will bear the Rosso Corsa colors and will be entrusted to Stefano Marazzi and Simone Buttarelli.

Luigi Coluccio and Vito Postiglione (Best Lap), two Italian champions capable of fighting for the overall title, will start the season in the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, finding valid antagonists in the crews composed of Daniele Di Amato-Timur Boguslavskiy (AF Corse) and Leonardo Colavita-Giorgio Maggi (Double TT Racing) in the race for the Italian laurel.

The patrol of Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 is also thick, with three VSR crews composed of Riccardo Cazzaniga-Alberto di Folco, Baptiste Moulin-Alessandro Fabi, and Mattia Michelotto-Gilles Stadsbader and two crews with the Imperiale Racing colours formed by Giuseppe Fascicolo-Robin Rogalsky and Jack Bartholomew-Philippe Denes.

The team to beat will be the reigning champion of the Sprint series, BMW Italia-Ceccato Racing Team, which, alongside the 2023 Italian champion, the German Jens Klingmann, has promoted 22-year-old compatriot Max Hesse behind the wheel of the BMW M4 GT3, while the second car will be entrusted to Federico Malvestiti and the Brazilian Ebrahim Carvahlo.

Tresor Audi Sport Italia doubles its presence compared to the last two editions, fielding two R8 LMS for Pietro Delli Guanti paired with Rocco Mazzola, two-time Italian GT Cup PRO-AM Sprint and Endurance champion in 2022, and Andrea Cola with Leonardo Moncini, two other former champions in Italian GT. Nova Race will have three Honda NSX GT3s, with crews composed of the reigning GT Cup AM Sprint champion, Vincenzo Scarpetta, paired with Mattia Simoncini, as well as Felice Jelmini-Filippo Berto and Luca Magnoni, winner of the GT4 AM Sprint 2021 title paired with Massimo Ciglia, the reigning GT3 AM Sprint champion.

Antonelli Motorsport's Mercedes AMG GT3s will also be doubled, with one car entrusted to the Mexican Raul Guzman paired with Gustavo Sandrucci and the all-American crew composed of Anthony Mcintosh and Glenn McGee.

The Porsche and Aston Martin brands will return to the Italian series after some years of absence. For the Stuttgart-based manufacturer, two 992 GT3 Rs will be entered in the championship, one with Ebimotors colours entrusted to Paolo Venerosi and Alessandro Baccani, and the other from Swiss team Fach Auto Tech for the American driver Dustin Blattner and German driver Dennis Marschall. The English brand, on the other hand, will be represented by Team Lazarus, which has set up a Vantage AMR GT3 for Mattia Di Giusto, GT4 PRO-AM 2021 champion, and Finnish driver William Alatalo.

GT Cup:
For the 2024 edition, the series reserved for single-brand cars has been divided into two groups: the first includes Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo and Lamborghini Huracan ST Evo2, while the second includes Porsche GT3 Cup 991 and 992.

In the 1st Division, four teams stand out, each with four crews: Best Lap (Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo) and DL Racing (Lamborghini Huracan ST Evo2). The Roman team will field their red cars for Lorenzo-Pegoraro and the reigning GT Cup PRO-AM Endurance champion Simone Patrinicola, Mattia Bucci-Filippo Croccolino, Gianluca Carboni-Filippo Bencivenni, and Giovanni Naldi-Gianluigi Simonelli. The Milanese team, on the other hand, has prepared the Sant'Agata Bolognese cars for the crews of Andrea Fontana-Stefano Gattuso, Alessandro Mainetti-Federico Scionti, Egyptian Ibrahim Badawi who will race alone, and Vedat Dalokay-Nicola Tagliapietra.

From Germany, Mertel Motorsport will not be missing for the 22nd edition of the Italian GT, presenting two Ferrari Challenge Evo for the crews of Tommaso Lovati-Mauro Trentin and Michele La Marca-Marco Verzelli, while from Slovenia, Lema Racing will provide Elias Niskanen and Andrej Lah with a Lamborghini Huracan ST Evo2.

The other Lamborghinis will be fielded by CRM Motorsport for Matteo Desideri who will race alone and for Ettore Carminati-Bernardo Pellegrini, by team VSR for Ignazio Zanon and Frenchman Stephane Tribaudini, by Giacomo Race for Giacomo and Matteo Pollini, in their second season in the Italian series, by MM Motorsport for Rosario Messina-Mattia Raffetti, and by RS Historics for German Christopher Milner and Briton Sam Hancock. HC Racing Division, on the other hand, will field both Lamborghinis in the GT Cup AM for Gaetano Oliva-Ferdinando D'Auria and Alberto Clementi Pisani-Piergiacomo Randazzo.

Completing the Ferrari lineup are the 488 Challenge Evo from Pinetti Motorsport for Giovanni Stefanin-Simone Vullo and for Victor Briselli who will race alongside the only girl in the championship, 18-year-old Veronese Emma Segattini. Double TT Racing will field their 488 for Belgian Gilles Renmans, Easy Race for Emiliano Pierantoni-Diego Di Fabio, while AF Corse has prepared their car for Edoardo Borrelli paired with former Italian champion Lorenzo Casè.

In the 2nd Division, SP Racing dominates in terms of the number of cars fielded, with three Porsches for Eugenio Pisani-Stefano Zerbi (992), Fabio Fabiani-Stefano Zanini and Massimo Abbati-Alberto Grisi, both crews driving the 991. Making their debut in the Italian series, Raptor Engineering will field a 992 for a familiar face in the Italian GT scene and team owner of the Modena-based squad, Andrea Palma, paired with Massimo Navatta, while Centro Porsche Ticino and ZRS Motorsport will enter the championship with the 992, driven respectively by Matej Knez-Alex Fontana and Daniele Polverini-Nicolò Liana.

Program and TV coverage: The opening weekend of the 2024 season will kick off on Friday with the first free practice session for both classes, while the second session will be from 3:00 to 3:45 pm for the GT3 and from 3:55 to 4:40 pm for the GT Cup. On Saturday, the two official practice sessions separated for the two classes are scheduled from 8:40 to 10:10 am, while race-1 for GT3 will start at 4:35 pm and will be followed by the GT Cup class race at 6:45 pm. Finally, the last two races will take place on Sunday, with the GT3 class race at 1:40 pm and the GT Cup class race at 4:00 pm. All four races, lasting 50 minutes + 1 lap, will be broadcast live on Acisport TV (SKY 228), on the website www.acisport.it/CIGT, and the championship's social media channels. RAI SPORT will also broadcast race-1 recorded on Sunday at 9:50 am, while race-2 will be broadcast live from 2:00 pm and fully recorded at 10:50 pm. Admission to the circuit will be free of charge for all three days.

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