The GT Cup Europe has certainly had a very entertaining start to the season, with four different race winners in the first, action-packed races at Portimão and Spa. All the premises are there to have an equally exciting third round at the Hockenheimring. All the ingredients will be reunited at the fast track in Baden-Wurttemberg to have again an exciting show and close fights: a large grid (25 cars) and a very close situation in all the standings.
TWO ‘ITALIAN’ PORSCHES ON TOP OF THE OVERALL STANDINGS
Ten points only separate the first two pairs in the provisional standings, and both outfits are Italian teams using Porsche machinery. Luca Franca and Ian Rodríguez, at the wheel of the 992 Cup of FAEMS Team, a squad debuting this year in the series (and currently leading in the Teams’ standings), managed to extend a bit their points advantage thanks to a second spot in Spa, but the young pair of ZRS Motorsport, Ludovico Longoni and Pietro Armanni, are ready to make up the difference. Both pairs have one win to their credit at the moment. Third in the overall standings are Laura van den Hengel and Paul Meijer in the Burgers Motorsport by HWM Porsche leading in Pro-Am.
Belgium’s Q1 Trackracing took its first win of the season at home in Spa, with Lars Zaenen and Gonçalo Fernandes now third in the standings, 15 points from the top, and ready to give more glory to the tetra-champion squad. The circle of race winners has widened with the success of Simone Patrinicola and Luca Demarchi in Spa, which marked not only the first success of the year of Mertel Motorsport and of a Ferrari but also the maiden win in the series of a 296 Challenge. The German squad has also other aces in the top Silver class, with its two 488 Challenge entrusted to young guns Matteo Luvisi-Davide Larini and Antoine Berberich-Martini.
The Porsche representation, on its side, is completed by Volcano Motorsport whose solo driver Evgenii Leonov is always a candidate for victory.
LAURA VAN DEN HENGEL, QUEEN OF THE PRO-AM CLASS
Games are completely open in the Pro-Am class, although one pair has particularly shone so far. Laura van den Hengel and Paul Meijer have conquered three wins and lead the class standings at the wheel of their Porsche of Burgers Motorsport by HWM, a team new to the series. No doubt that the Dutch outfit will want to continue their successful strike.
Only six points behind though are Davide Scannicchio and Fabio Babini, the pair of Tsunami RT, with one race win, and 12 points from the top is another of the leading pairs, Nicolas Saelens-Stienes Login (Q1 Trackracing).
LMR Motorsport’s pair from Brazil, Diego Nunes-Peter Ferter, lie in an excellent fourth position and have visited the podium twice, while SP Racing will this time field in the class only the car of regulars Luca Attianese-Riccardo Romagnoli.
Ferrari is present in the class through Mertel Motorsport with two Ferrari 488s: one in the hands of Tommaso Lovati-Mauro Trentin, and the other, which debuted in Spa, to Spaniards Fernando Navarrete-Manuel Cañizares.
THE REIGNING CHAMPIONS AT THE TOP IN THE AM CLASS
The Am class is again the best-attended (11 cars) and closely fought. At the moment, the reigning champions, Leandro Martins and Dieter Svepes, of LMR Motorsport, have managed to regain control in the standings, thanks to an excellent weekend in Spa (1 win, 1 second) and have an 8-point advantage on Brazil’s H.de Mello, fielded by GDL Racing.
Third in the standings, 15 points from the top, are Nico Vandierendonck-Nathan Brauns (Q1 Trackracing), thanks to a home win in Spa, while the quartet of race winners so far which leads the rankings is completed by another South American, Argentine Fran Viel Bugliotti, 16 points from the top, in another Porsche fielded by GDL Racing.
The third 992 Cup of the Sanmarinese squad is entrusted to Giacomo Giubergia, while Italy’s Ebimotors is fielding its two Porsches Gianluca Giorgi-Luigi Peroni and Cosimo Papi, this time associated with Sebastian Fortuna.
The novelty at Hockenheim will be that ZRS Motorsport is entering a second car, for an Italian of Bronze drivers, Paolo Prestipino and Angelo Tomarchio. Also new in the class is the SP Racing car of Stefano Zerbi, normally entered in Pro-Am, but with Eugenio Pisani not able to attend this round and being replaced by Bronze driver ‘Mark Speakerwas’, a familiar face in the series, the #55 is entered in Am in this occasion.
Completing the Am class entry are two regular solo contenders: Luciano Privitelio in the Lamborghini Huracan SuperTrofeo by Scuderia Villorba Corse, and Leon Rijnbeek in the Ferrari 488 Challenge representing Mertel Motorsport in the class.