The 2022 International GT Open goes down the wire this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as it has in every year but one in the 17-year history of the series.
The final battle for the overall title involves three cars and the fights are open too for both the Pro-Am and Am honours.
A 26-car grid will contest the season finale:
The overall title’s three-way battle is very close (the contenders are covered by only 10 points).
Leading the standings are Benja Hites- Leonardo Pulcini, the Chilean-Italian pair of Oregon Team in their Lamborghini, with 113 points, followed by Britons Nick Moss-Joe Osborne, in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren, with 109 points, and the other Oregon Lambo of Glenn Van Berlo-Kevin Gilardoni, with 103 points.
When looking at the net points standings at the moment (two results need to be dropped), the three pairs are still covered by 10 points, with slightly different gaps: 110, 101 and 100 points, respectively.
There is a slight advantage thus for Hites-Pulcini, who claimed the highest number of wins, four including the Endurance race at Spa, while the Optimum Motorsport pair claimed three, and their teammates at Oregon, two.
Lamborghini and McLaren have been the two most successful brands in the last 7 editions of the series, clinching 4 and 2 overall titles.
In the Pro category, Sébastien Baud-Steve Jens, at the wheel of their GetSpeed Performance Mercedes, will be looking to continue a great run of form which currently sees them in fourth place in the standings. The German squad have added a second AMG for this race with Fabian Schiller and Al Faisal Al Zubair, the latter returning to the series where he shone last year.
Dinamic Motorsport debuted in the series with a win at Monza and their green Porsche returns, with Riccardo Cazzaniga and Klaus Bachler. Nova Race is entering its Honda NSX seen at Monza in Pro, for Francesco Guerra and local racer Jorge Cabezas.
Optimum Motorsport is also bringing a second car, the additional McLaren 720S entrusted to Morocco’s Michael Benyahia, a former Euroformula Open contender and Finlay Hutchison.
PRO-AM:
The fight is completely open in the very competitive Pro-Am class, which has seen the highest number of entries throughout the season.
Five contenders mathematically still in the race for the title will be present at Barcelona.
David Fumanelli-Murat Cuhadaroglu (Kessel Racing Ferrari) took the lead of the standings at the last round of Monza, despite not having yet won a race. They have 54 points, one more than the Olimp Racing Audi pair of Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz, who have won two races but scored a double ‘zero points’ in the last two rounds.
Third, with 49 points, is the Swiss pair of the SPS automotive performance Mercedes, Dexter Müller-Yannick Mettler, who took a maiden win at Monza, and with 43, Reema Juffali-Adam Christodoulou, are fourth. The Saudi-British pair of Theeba Motorsport, who led the class in the first half of the season, is back after having to miss the Monza round following the very heavy damage sustained by its Mercedes at Red Bull Ring.
Last in the fight, Alain Valente, the Swiss driver of Team GT’s Mercedes shared again here with Florian Scholze, has still a very slim theoretical chance, as his gap (20 points) would oblige him to win both races while hoping for a blank weekend from the top two contenders, an almost impossible mission.
Two AF Corse Ferrari will be entered in Pro-Am in this race, with Laurent De Meeus- Johnny Mowlem and Willem van der Vorm-Michele Rugolo, while back for a second outing in the GT Open is Greystone GT, the new British team that debuted in Austria, with its McLaren again in the hands of Andrew Gilbert and Fran Rueda. Last but certainly not least, the Aust Motorsport Audi R8 is back for another outing in the series, with Dino Steiner-Max Hofer determined to provide another great performance.
A welcome debutant in the series will be Herberth Motorsport, the German squad, with a Porsche 911 GT3R in the hands of Robert Renauer and Ralf Bohn.
AM:
The Am class is the one closest to see the title battle decided, as Alex Hrachowina-Martin Konrad only need five points to reach mathematical certainty.
The Austrian pair of Mann Filter Team Landgraf, after coming second twice in the past, are now close to clinching a well-deserved first title. Their only rivals left are Adam Osieka-Kiki Sak Nana, with the GetSpeed Mercedes, 15 net points behind and with 3 wins versus 6.
Other championship regulars include the Kessel Racing Ferrari of Steve Earle-Erwin Zanotti, the Barone Rampante Lambo of Giuseppe Cipriani, the Olimp Racing Ferrari of Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski and the Street Art Racing Aston Martin of Pascal Bachmann.
For their home race, Catalan outfit Baporo Motorsport is back with its Mercedes entrusted to Dani Díaz-Varela, along whom will debut Álex Villanueva. In addition, a new pair will debut in the second Porsche 911 R fielded by Dinamic Motorsport with Austria’s Philipp Sager and Canada’s Bashar Mardini, already seen in the GT Cup Open Europe this year.
