Barcelona: Exciting title battles and many new entries!
The moment of truth has come ! The closing round of the 2014 season of the International GT Open scheduled for next weekend at the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya has to deliver the 2014 Champions in both the overall and the classes (SuperGT and GTS) standings, and the battle promises to be quite hot! This is certainly not a new situation for the series, as it is customary that the titles get decided in the last round, but there is no doubt that the battle is extremely close this year.
In the overall standings, three teams will be in contention and are separated by a mere 4-point gap. The V8 Racing Corvette of Nicky Pastorelli-Miguel Ramos are leading, with 179 points (and 5 wins), only 1 point ahead of the SMP Racing-Russian Bears Ferrari of Roman Mavlanov-Daniel Zampieri, who have won 3 races. The Villorba Corse Ferrari of Andrea Montermini-Niccolò Schirò, is third, only four points behind the leader and Montermini (the current reigning champion) is hoping to bring home what would be his third crown in the series. Maxime Soulet (also with a V8 Corvette) is also mathematically still in the race, but with a 27-point gap, his task seems much harder.
The SuperGT category, it’s Mavlanov-Zampieri, with 88 points, having a small advantage on the other two pairs, Pastorelli-Ramos and Montermini-Schirò, tied up with 86 points.
In GTS, the final duel will be among ferraristi: Giorgio Roda (AF Corse) has a 9-point margin over José Manuel Pérez-Aicart: 72 vs 63 points being the score, with still 20 points to be awarded. The young Italian will be associated this time with Marco Cioci, a former double GTS Champion in 2006 and 2008, while the Spaniard will be paired with his team mate for most of the season, Vyacheslav Maleev. The Russian will on his side be in the race for the Gentlemen’s Trophy against Claudio Sdanewitsch (AF Corse), who has a 14-point lead at the moment.
The final result will not impact on the Teams’ competition, as V8 Racing in SuperGT and AF Corse in GTS have already secured their titles.
While most of the attention will focus on the title battles, the Barcelona round will not fail to its tradition to attract many interesting special entries coming from all over Europe to finish the season in Catalonia’s mild autumn.
Kessel Racing is making a much-awaited return to a series where it has conquered its greatest successes (three GTS Teams titles) in recent years. The Swiss outfit enters a Ferrari F458 GT3 for Stephen Earle-Johnny Laursen, two men that know the GT Open well. Also back is the Mercedes SLS of Sports&You for António Coimbra-Luis Silva. From Portugal as well, Veloso Motorsport is bringing its Lamborghini Gallardo, with Patrick Cunha and Tiago Mesquita as drivers. Another Lambo, an FLII, is entered by Kox Racing for Peter Kox and Maximilian Völker.
Two regular contenders of the Barcelona round will not miss their traditional yearly outing in the GT Open. This is the case of France’s Sofrev ASP, with two Ferraris for Maurice Ricci-Jérôme Policand and Jean-Luc Beaubelique-Gabriel Balthazard, while another F458 GT3 joins from the UK, thanks to Balfe, for Shaun Balfe and Phil Keen.
Portugal’s Team Novadriver is doubling its presence, as a second Audi R8 LMS ultra will be aligned alongside the one of Campaniço-Patel, for a pair of young guns, composed of Fabian Hamprecht and Fernando Monje.
Last but certainly not least, stalwart French GT and sportscar team TDS Racing is making its debut in the GT Open, with a BMW Z4, entrusted to Franck Perera and Eric Dermont.
The Barcelona round foresees extra rewards for Gentlemen contenders, as a special Gentlemen Teams Trophy has been created to recompensate the best pair of gentlemen drivers with FIA Bronze status.
Two one-hour private test sessions are foreseen on Thursday afternoon. Once again, the Euroformula Open, the SEAT Leon Eurocup and the Radical European Masters will share the exciting race program with the GT Open.
