A new format will characterize the 17th edition of the Italian GT Championship that is about to start from the Monza Eni Circuit this coming weekend. The circuit located near Milan will stage the first of the four three-hours long races of the Endurance Series, while the Sprint Series that will feature two 50-minutes plus one lap races will get kick off from Vallelunga next May 3rd-5th.
The two series will have separate calendars and classifications as the championship is intended to provide two different offers to meet the needs of drivers and teams that already showed a lot of interest. A total of 19 crews will make it on to the track in Monza for over 50 drivers, a lot of which very strong behind the wheel of important cars in the three entitled categories GT3, GT Light and GT4.
GT3 – Is the highest class of the series, the most prestigious and the one with an entry list full of big names. Among all, the Canadian Jacques Villeneuve will be at the start on the Ferrari 488 run by Scuderia Baldini with two very famous drivers too: former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella and Italian GT3 2016 Champion Stefano Gai.
The Ferrari lot will feature three more 488. Easy Race will field one for Marco Cioci who will come back to the championship sharing driving duties with Daniel Mancinelli and Lorenzo Veglia, AF Corse one for Matteo Cressoni-Simon Mann-Niklas Nielsen and RS Racing-CDP for Daniele Di Amato and Alessandro Vezzoni.
The Lamborghini Huracan lot will be led by Imperiale Racing that is fielding two cars for Vito Postiglione-Jeroen Mul-Alex Frassineti and Pietro Perolini-Ben Gersekowsk. The other two GT cars from Sant’Agata Bolognese will be lined up by LP Racing for Daniele Cazzaniga-Riccardo Cazzaniga-Luca Pirri and by VS Racing for Kang Link-Felipe Ortiz-Tuomas Tujula.
The novelty of this season is the presence of two Mercedes AMG GT3 run by Antonelli Motorsport for Alessio Rovera-Alexander Moissev-Riccardo Agostini and Francesca Linossi-Stefano Colombo-Andrea Palma. Starting from the second round to be held in Misano, the Mercedes challengers could be extended to three with some prestigious International drivers behind the wheel.
The GT3 entry list is completed by the BMW M6 of Ceccato Motors Racing Team that will be driven by a very high-level lineup made by Stefano Comandini-Erik Johansson-Jesse Krohn.
GT LIGHT – This new class will include this year the GT3 of a previous generation and the recent models of the various single make series. Two Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo run by Antonelli Motorsport for Luca Demarchi-Mattia Michelotto-Gian Piero Cristoni and by Hiron Linx for Federico Paolino/Jaromir Jirik/Lorenzo Bontempelli will challenge the Porsche 911 4.0 of Duell Motorsport with Francesco La Mazza-Giuseppe Nicolosi-Michele Merendino.
GT 4 – The entry-level class of the Italian Championship will have some new entries this year. Among these, Ceccato Motors will field a brand new BMW M4 for Giuseppe Fascicolo-Francesco Guerra-Andrea Fontana and V-Racing two Maserati GT4 for Alberto Cerqui-Juuso Matti Pajuranta-Jorge Rodrigues and for Fabio Francia-Leonardo Becalli-Adriano Bernazzani.
Nova Race will line up a Ginetta G 55 for Luca Magnoni-Aleksander Schjerpen and Autorlando two Porsche Cayman 718 for Dario Cerati-Nicola Bravetti-Maurizio Fondi and Giuseppe Ghezzi who will share driving duties with another driver still to be defined. The debut of two Sin R1 run by Antonelli Motorsport will take place at the Sprint Series in Vallelunga instead.
