Garage 59 Enter Full Season McLaren
Back in 2020, Miguel Ramos was crowned overall International GT Open Champion, alongside Henrique Chaves. Now, in 2025, he is back to do it again, this time with Garage 59, alongside Mark Sansom, in the new AM class.
Garage 59 has entered a sole McLaren 720S GT3 EVO into the full International GT Open season for 2025, which gets underway at Portimao on 27 April.
Miguel Ramos, who has been there, done that and got the title, is looking forward to getting stuck into a new championship campaign, this time in the new AM class.
“I’m very happy to return to GT Open after an overall win in 2020,” he said. “I’m looking forward to fighting for the win in the AM category with my teammate Mark and Garage 59. Mark and I know each other from last year’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance championship where we competed in the same category and also as teammates in the same car in the 2024 Gulf 12 Hours. Mark is fast and very consistent and I’m sure we will be one of the candidates to win the category. I can’t wait to get started!”
Mark Sansom regularly races with Garage 59 where he has been busy honing his skills in GT World Challenge Europe. For 2025, he makes the switch to GT Open and is raring to go.
“I’m delighted to remain with Garage 59 for a second full season in the McLaren 720S GT3 EVO. This is my first attempt at the GT Open championship and I’m excited to experience the Michelin tyres and fast balance of performance on a series of outstanding circuits. To get to take on the championship with a teammate as experienced – and fast! – as Miguel is something I am really looking forward to. Let’s see what we can do!”
Each standard GT Open race weekend is made up of two races: a 70-minute race on Saturday and a 60-minute race on Sunday so competitors get two bites at the cherry. The Spa and Monza events hold a single 2hr40 endurance race on the Sunday.
Eastalent and Reicher-Haase ready to go for a third GT Open title
Reigning GT Open Champions Eastalent Racing, Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase chose an unconventional venue to launch their title defence, the team’s Audi R8 LMS Evo II on display in Viena’s River Side Shopping mall!
Reigning drivers champions Reicher and Haase will therefore try to defend their title at the wheel of the same car that they took the title with in 2024 as well as finishing as drivers runners up and Teams champions in 2023.
Team boss Peter Reicher admits the objective is to go for a ‘triple crown’ and commented: “I am very happy that we managed to secure Christopher Haase for our team after his time as an Audi Sport driver. I am confident that Eastalent Racing will continue to develop in great strides with him.
“Winning a ‘triple crown’ in the International GT Open is the goal for 2025. I have full confidence we can go for it with my team, drivers and engineers. Personally, I have made it my mission to ensure the car is in perfect condition and we have the best people to make things happen, the rest is my responsibility. We want to win another championship, make history in the GT Open, and at the same time, position ourselves for a potential manufacturer switch in 2026.”
Motopark Confirms Three-car AMG Entry
Team Motopark will will again field three Mercedes AMG GT3 Evos in the 2025 International GT Open.
Two cars will be entered in the Pro class. In car #11, Hungary’s Levente Révész (20), who was already a Motopark driver and a race winner in the Euroformula Open in the last two seasons, will make his debut. He will be joined (in five rounds) by a GT star such as Maximilian Götz, known for his many successes with Mercedes in GT3, including a Blancpain GT Series Sprint title in 2014, a win in the Spa 24 Hours (2013) and the 2021 DTM title, but a rookie in GT Open.
Car #13 will be entrusted to Romania’s Robert Vişoiu, who starts a second racing career after a hiatus of some years and a prominent first career in single-seaters that brought him up to GP2 and F2. He willnrace with Germany’s Niklas Krütten, another former Euroformula Open racer who turned to GT3 cars, a Gold Cup vice champion in the GT World Europe Sprint in 2023.
Car #65 will race in Pro-Am in the hands of two drivers well-known in the team and in the series: 2023 Am class champion Heiko Neumann (59) from Germany and 2020 Euroformula Championship runner-up Lukas Dunner from Austria.
Timo Rumpfkeil, who this year will concentrate exclusively on his managerial role, commented: “We are happy to announce exciting line-ups for the 2025 International GT Open, which underline the further growth of our GT3 department. We continuously strive to develop and enhance our team, and I am confident that we are ahead of a successful 2025 season”.
Double Lamborghini Effort From Oregon
Oregon Team takes on the challenge in the International GT Open for a fourth consecutive year. The has twice taken (2022-24) the Teams’ title and once the Overall crown (with Hites-Pulcini, in 2022).
For the 2025 season, it will field two Lamborghini Huracan EVO 2 in the characteristic multi-coloured livery of the team.
Car #19 will be entrusted to Poland’s Robin Rogalski (24), who has extensive GT experience and joins from Italian GT, and Romania’s Filip Ugran (21), who has shone in LMP2 after racing in F.3, Euroformula (in 2022) and F.4.
Car #63 will be in the hands of Frenchman Antoine Doquin (20), who has raced in GT3 and LMP3, where he took the Asian Le Mans Series title in 2022, and Israeli Artëm Petrov (25), who has a past in single-seaters in Europe and America and will be contesting the GT Open with Oregon for a second consecutive campaign.
Jerry Canevisio, joint Team Principal of Oregon together with Giorgio Testa, commented: “We are happy to be fighting again in the International GT Open, a championship that has become a second family to us and where we have enjoyed great success. We aim to keep this trend, which is becoming more challenging every year as the field expands and the level increases, but we will give our everything, with the valuable support of Lamborghini Squadra Corse. Even more than in the past, this year we are betting on young talented drivers and are excited at the prospect of working and fighting for top honours with them.”
SPS Bring AMG Pair
SPS automotive performance will be competing in the International GT Open again in the 2025 season with two Mercedes-AMG GT3s in the PRO AM class.
Dexter Müller and Yannick Mettler will be at the wheel of the #54 car, while Valentin Pierburg and Dominik Baumann will share driving duties in the #20 sister car.
It will be the third year in a row that SPS automotive performance have fielded two cars in the series.
Starting number 20 will be competing in the new season in the colours of Swiss coffee machine manufacturer Cuisine Barista.
Valentin Pierburg, class winner of the 2022 Spa 24 Hours and PROAM champion of the 2018 International GT Open, returns to the cockpit of the #20 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sharing it with Dominik Baumann. The Austrian is one of the most experienced drivers in the cockpit of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 including a class victory in the bronze category at the Spa 24 Hours last season.
Pierburg and Baumann have already enjoyed joint success together in the GT World Challenge Europe. In the 2021 season, the duo won the vice-champion title in the Pro-Am category of this high-class racing series and played a major role in the team from Willsbach winning the team championship in the 2022 Endurance Cup.
The Swiss duo Dexter Müller and Yannick Mettler will also be fighting for positions in the PROAM class in the new season in the sister car #54 under the name CBRX Team by SPS.
The bronze medallists of the FIA Motorsport Games 2024, Müller has already competed in the GT Winter Series this year in order to prepare for the challenges ahead. His team-mate Mettler has already competed in the Asian Le Mans Series in 2025.
Stephan Sohn, team principal SPS automotive performance: “We are looking forward to the new season with great anticipation. We expect the races to be just as exciting as last season, especially in the PROAM class. This category has become very popular in recent years. We will face this competition again this year and are highly motivated to achieve good results.”
Valentin Pierburg, SPS automotive performance #20: “I’m delighted to be competing in the SPS again this year – right where my racing career began. Together with my team mate Dominik Baumann, I’m highly motivated to fight for the championship in the Pro-Am class. We have a strong team and will give our best to be among the leaders.”
Yannick Mettler, CBRX by SPS #54: „ It‘s great to continue the journey with Dexter. We share quite a bit of history together by now, having gone through all the highs and lows of this fascinating sport in recent years. We’ll be joining the GT Open Series again, which has been our home since 2022. I hope that we can keep the uptrend from the end of last year and have some decent races! “
‘Hash’ and Fontana again on the starting blocks with Car Collection
After a successful first season in the International GT Open last year, ‘Hash’ and Alex Fontana are ready to embark on a second season this year, again at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 R of German squad Car Collection Motorsport.
The American gentleman driver and the expert Swiss-Greek GT racer took a first Pro-Am podium in Barcelona. More progress has been made during the winter and the pair is ready to aim at more podium finishes in Pro-Am.
The Car Collection pair will take part in the Winter Test next week in Barcelona.
