’09 Season Starts at Silverstone

Now in its fourth season, the FIA GT3 European Championship is still going from strength-to-strength, providing drivers and teams with a cost effective way of competing in some of the world’s leading GT cars, while providing spectators and TV viewers with action packed racing over twelve races on six of the world’s leading race circuits.  The first two races of the twelve race season take place at Silverstone on 2nd and 3rd May and will feature 40 of the world’s most evocative sportscars on the full 5km Grand Prix circuit, one of the most challenging tracks in Europe.

Despite the world economic climate affecting all areas of motorsport across the globe the FIA has received forty full season entries representing eleven manufacturers; proof, if proof were needed, that the FIA GT3 European Championship is providing exactly what the teams, drivers and sponsors want from an international motor racing. 

The 40 car full season line up features eleven of the world’s most famous GT brands and includes two new cars to the championship.  Phoenix Racing and Team Rosberg will compete in the new Audi R8 LMS, while the Alpina and MP Racing teams will challenge for the 2009 title in the new BMW Alpina B6 GT3.  Kessel Racing, JMB Racing and CRS Racing will be competing with the new-for-2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia, while Matech GT Racing will be defending their 2008 FIA GT3 team title with the Ford GT, along with Fischer Racing.

Hexis Racing AMR and Brixia Racing will be challenging with the Aston Martin DBRS9.  Callaway Competition returns with the Corvette Z06R GT3 that took Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier to the 2008 FIA GT3 driver’s title, with Marc Sourd Racing also racing under the Corvette banner this season.

The Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S will be run by three teams this season, Prospeed Competition, Mühlner Motorsport and Trackspeed, while Zakspeed will be the only team running the Viper Competition Coupe.  Apex Motorsport will be racing the new Jaguar XKR-S, Reiter Engineering with the Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 and AutoGT Racing with the Morgan Aero Super Sport.

Two changes to the FIA GT3 European Championship regulations have also been introduced this season.  Success ballast will be given to teams for the first time, which will be added to the top three finishers and removed for drivers finishing fourth and below.  Another first for the championship is the ability for the teams to choose which tyre manufacturer they compete with this season.  After declaring their tyre choice at the start of the season, each team has the ability to change their tyre manufacturer once before the season ends in November.  Three teams have elected to start the year on Pirelli rubber - MP Racing, Brixia Racing and Reiter Engineering - and will compete against the other seventeen teams who will race with Michelin.

Last year Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch dominated the opening two races of the year at Silverstone in the Matech GT Racing Ford GT, with Mutsch also taking pole position for race 2 and setting the fastest race lap of the weekend.  It will be interesting to see if Thomas Mutsch can repeat the feat in 2009 with new teammate Walter Salles.  However with the rigorous FIA Balance of Performance preseason testing there should be little to choose in performance between all of the cars on the grid. Two 60-minute races will be held over the weekend, one on each day of the event. 

The second Matech GT Racing Ford GT will be driven by reigning GT4 European Cup Champion Eric de Doncker and Frenchman Dino Lunardi. 

While 2008 FIA GT3 Driver Co-Champion James Ruffier has moved up to the FIA GT Championship this season, driving the SRT-run Corvette C6R GT1, his 2008 teammate and Co-Champion Arnaud Peyroles will once again racing for Callaway Competition, sharing the Corvette Z06R GT3 with the 2007 FIA GT3 Vice Champion Jürgen von Gartzen.  The other Callaway Corvette will be driven by the highly experienced German pilot Wolfgang Kaufmann and Italian Luca Moro.

At Hexis Racing it is a case of sticking with the drivers who raced with the team in 2008.  Thomas Accary, the winner of the first race at Nogaro in 2008, and Julien Rodrigues will share the #3 Aston Martin DBRS9, while Manuel Rodrigues and Frédéric Makowiecki will drive the #4 car.

Alpina have announced the driver line up for one of their two BMW Alpina B6 GT3 entries, with ‘Gold’ level driver Claudia Hürtgen driving the #24 B6 with Hungarian driver Csaba Walter. 

Phoenix Racing’s two Audi R8 entry will be driven by Spa 24-Hours winner Jean-Denis Deletraz and fellow Swiss driver Lloyd La Marca in one car and 2008 Sportslight Champion Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies in the other.  The other Audi team, Team Rosberg, have Nicolas Armindo from France and Portuguese driver Cesar Campanico in the #32 Audi R8 LMS, with the Czech pairing of Martin Matzke and Jiri Navratil in the other R8.

German team Zakspeed Racing has an all German line up with ‘Gold’ driver Sascha Bert and Wido Roessler in the #36 Viper Competition Coupe and Marc Bronzel and Markus Gedlich in the #37 Viper. 

Swiss race team Kessel Racing also has confirmed their line up in the team’s pair of Ferrari 430 Scuderias.  The number 7 Ferrari will be crewed by Brazilian drivers Claudio Ricci and Fabio Casagrande, while the Italian pairing of Stefano Gattuso and Andrea Palma will drive the #8 Ferrari.  The second Ferrari team of JMB Racing will feature an all French lineup, with Pascal Ballay and Jonathan Sicart in the #14 Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Yannick Mallegol and Jean-Marc Bachelier in the team’s other Ferrari.

The third Ferrari team is reigning British GT Champions CRS Racing.  The highly experienced Chris Goodwin will be joined in the #55 car by team boss and former British GT Champion Chris Niarchos, with Britain’s Phil Quaife and American Robert Hissom in the second CRS Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia.

The sole Lamborghini team Reiter Engineering has a strong line up with French F3 Champion and former French F3 Champion Jonathan Cochet and Germany’s Alexander Frei in the #30 Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, with former FIA GT Champion, multiple DTM champion and three time Le Mans winner Klaus Ludwig and fellow German Albert von Thurn und Taxis in the #31Gallardo.

AutoGT Racing are back with the new Morgan Aero Super Sport.  The French team have lined up three French and one Belgian driver to drive the two Morgans, with Johan-Boris Scheier and Dimitri Enjalbert in the #100 car, with Gael Lesoudier and Maxime Martin in the #101 Morgan.

New to FIA GT3 German team Fischer Racing are using the Ford GT, with Denmark’s Christoffer Nygaard and Germany’s Florian Gruber competing in the number 28 car.  The driver lineup in the second Ford is all German with Harald Becker and ADAC GT Masters front runner Christian Hohenadel be confirmed.

Marc Sourd and Johan Charpilienne have been confirmed to drive the #16 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette, while the sister car is an all Italian lineup with race winners Luca Pirri and Diego Alessi.

Prospeed Competition (Porsche) have also confirmed their lineup for the opening two races of the year with Austrian Niki Lanik joining Belgian driver Bart Couwberghs in the #11 Porsche while David Loix and Geoffroy Horion will compete in the #12 Porsche.

The new Apex Motorsport Jaguar XKR-S will be seen in competition for the first time this weekend but the team are playing their cards very close to their chest and have only announce one driver Chris Dymond ahead of the meeting.  Another British team Trackspeed will have team boss David Ashburn and gold level driver Tim Sugden in the first of the team Porsches but have yet to declare the pairing for the second car.

Italian team Brixia Racing have a strong Anglo-Italian lineup. The two Aston Martin DBRS9s will use Pirelli tyres with Leonardo Maddalena and race winner Marcello Zani in #9 Aston Martin.  In a last minute change, reigning British GT driver champions Jon Barnes and James Gornall will drive the #10 Aston Martin. 

MP Racing will also be racing with Pirelli this season on the team’s pair of BMW Alpina B6 GT3s. The French team have a strong line up with 2007 FIA GT3 Champion Gilles Vannelet driving the #35 BMW with race winner Pierre-Brice Mena.  Michael Petit with team up with Argentine José Manuel Balbiani in the other MP Racing BMW Alpina.

 

Round 1 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship will get underway on Saturday 2 May at 14:30 (BST) with the second 60-minute race taking place at 11:30 (BST) on Sunday 3 May.

2009-04-24
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