After a seven-week holiday break, the International GT Open is set to take the track again.
The sixth round of the season ahead of a final pair of race weekends at Barcelona and Monza will take place at the Red Bull Ring with 34 GT3 cars entered.
Overall – Eastalent Leads The Charge
To add spice to the event, it is local heroes that arrive as leaders of the Overall standings:
The Eastalent Racing Team Audi of Simon Richer and Christopher Haase will sport a new livery for the occasion and have taken three wins so far.
Still, their advantage on their most direct rival is only 3 points: Alessio Deledda in the Oregon Team Lamborghini, pairing again with Jordan Pepper. Five points behind the leader are the SPS Mercedes of Mikaeel Pitamber and Dominik Baumann, results o far focused on great consistency, but without a race win.
In a similar situation are Diego Menchaca and Marcos Siebert, the South American pair in the Motopark Mercedes, only 8 points from the top, while another AMG car, the GetSpeed one of Anthony Bartone-Fabian Schiller is 12 points off but has already one win to its credit.
The best-placed Ferrari 296 , the Spirit of Race of Nicola Marinangeli-Vincent Abril, is sixth, 16 points behind, after having opened its win account at Paul Ricard in July.
The 11 car-strong Pro class also includes other potential race winners including the Oregon Huracans of Marzio Morett-Artëm Petrov and Leonardo Pulcini-Rolf Ineichen, with the Swiss driver back to action after his big accident at Spa.
Also eager to reach their first win are Lukas Dunner-Lorenzo Fluxá in the Motopark Mercedes and Gustaf Bergström-Nico Menzel in the Car Collection Porsche.
There will be an interesting new addition in the top class in Austria: a McLaren 720S joins for the remainder of the season as the third entry of Greystone GT. It is entrusted to two young GT stars from the UK, James Kell and Dean Macdonald.
Pro-Am, Wide Open
With 18 cars entered, the Pro-Am class is the largest in the field and, in race win terms, the most competitive with six different race winners so far.
In the lead of the standings is reigning champion Marco Pulcini in the Spirit of Race Ferrari, his co-driver Eddie Cheever had to miss the last round, but is on duty again in Austria.
Still in contention are Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz, in the Olimp Racing Audi, with the Poles 22 points behind, while in third is the AF Corse Ferrari of Marcelo Hahn-Allam Khodair, the Brazilian pair still fresh from a sensational maiden success at Paul Ricard.
Six car brands are represented in the class, with many other potential winners. The Mercedes camp includes the GetSpeed duo of Valentin Pierburg-Aaron Walker, with Swiss pair Dexter Müller-Yannick Mettler defending the colours of CBRX by SPS.
As usual, Scuderia Villorba Corsa fields Michaël Blanchemain-Vlad Lomko, and Motopark the very consistent pair composed of Morten Strösted-Thomas Ikin. Last but not least, Polish outfit Good Speed, who joined mid-season, is present with Piotr Wira-Daan Arrow.
The Ferrari numbers includes the AF Corse cars of Alessandro-Cozzi-Giorgio Sernagiotto and Laurent de Meeus-Jamie Stanley, while another regular 296 is entered under the Spirit of Race banner for Gino Forgione-Michele Rugolo.
German outfit racing one will seek a second success with Ernst Kirchmayr, paired with new teammate, Giacomo Altoè. The young Italian will make a return to the series where he clinched the overall title in 2019.
The McLaren colours will be defended by Greystone GT, with their regular two entries, Andrey Borodin-Ollie Webb and Stewart and Lewis Proctor, while Audi is represented by Czech outfit ISR Racing with Filip Salaquarda-Libor Milota.
There will be three Porsches on track at Spielberg, as the two Car Collection cars of ‘Hash’- Alex Fontana and Bahar Mardini-Tijmen van der Helm are joined by a new entry from Tsunami RT. The San Marinese squad, a strong presence in the GT Cup Europe, is entering a 992 for the Italian pair composed of Johannes Zelger and GT star Fabio Babini (pictured above).
AM: The Baron Is Rampant
In the class for Bronze drivers, Giuseppe Cipriani, in the Lambo of Il Barone Rampante, has now a 27-point advantage – The title isn’t done yet, but thanks to his consistency and two wins, including the ‘double’ one at Spa there’s a mountain to climb for the rest..
Second at the moment are Kiki San Nana-Adam Osieka, in the GetSpeed Mercedes with three wins, while in third is the Olimp Racing Ferrari of Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski.
Reigning champions Heiko Neumann-Timo Rumpfkeil, who suffered a setback in Hungary and couldn’t race in France following heavy damage sustained in their Motopark Mercedes during a private test session are pushing to get back into the fight.
A new contender will debut in Austria and conclude the season: US racer Ziad Ghandar, who joins with an AF Corse Ferrari 296.
At the Red Bull Ring, the races are live-streamed on www.gtopen.net and the GT Open channel on YouTube, accessible from all over the world and from all devices, with commentary in English by George Morgan and Chris Stevens.
Provisional Standings After Race 9 of 17
Overall:
1.Reicher-Haase, 72 points;
2. Deledda, 69;
3. Pitamber-Baumann, 67;
4.Menchaca-Siebert, 64;
5. Pepper, 61;
6. Bartone-Schiller, 60 ; etc
Pro-Am:
1. M.Pulcini, 72 points;
2. Cheever, 59;
3. M.Jedlinski-Basz, 50;
4. Hahn-Khodair, 42;
5. Walker-Pierburg, 40;
6. Stromsted-Irkin, 38; etc
Am:
1. Cipriani, 82 points;
2. San Nana-Osieka, 56;
3. S.Jedlinski-Korzeniowski, 52;
4. Neumann-Rumpfkeil, 52; etc.
Teams:
1. GetSpeed, 66 points;
2. Oregon Team, 59;
3. Spirit of Race, 47;
4. Motopark; 46;
5. Eastalent Racing, 42;
6. SPS, 33.
