DSC’s Daily Notebook (18/07/2023)
33 cars travelling to Portimao for British GT’s trip abroad
This weekend’s three-hour British GT race in Portimao, the annual trip abroad for the national championship, has attracted an impressive 33 entries, just two fewer than the previous round at Snetterton.
This trip to Portugal is the first time since 2013 that the British GT has visited a circuit a circuit outside the UK other than Spa.
For the weekend, there are two cars missing from the Snetterton entry in the GT3 Pro/Am class: Greystone GT’s #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 (the team will race in GT Open at Paul Ricard) and the Orange Racing JMH McLaren 720S GT3. The Silver-entered Team ABBA Mercedes is also not down to travel.
There is however, the addition of a non-points-scoring 7TSIX Mercedes for Tim Creswick (who currently competes in Le Mans Cup with High Class Racing) and Jamie Caroline.
Meanwhile, at Enduro, there’s also a change of car, the team has swapped its long-serving McLaren for an Aston Martin. Matt Topham, who won both of his GT4 Pro-Am titles in a Vantage, continues alongside Marcus Clutton.
In GT4, two teams are swapping cars this weekend. Enduro switches from McLaren to Mercedes-AMG, but the impressive number of Arturas has been maintained by Team Parker which previously ran a Porsche.
And there’s also a change in Raceway’s #55 Ginetta, which now features Ignacio Zanon alongside Tom Holland.
34 cars for the GT Open weekend at Ricard
The GT Open field is also healthy for this weekend’s race action at Le Castellet, with 34 cars set to head to southern France, where the weather, like the title battles, is expected to be red hot!
Seven cars are entered in Pro, 15 are set to battle in Pro/Am and 12 cars will compete in Am.
As for notable entry list changes, AF Corse is bringing two new 296 GT3s to the entry, with two driver pairings upgrading from 488 GT3s. The first is for the Pro duo of Nicola Marinangeli and Riccardo Agostini, the second is being run for the Am pairing of Alessandro Cozzi and Giorgio Sernagiotto.
Mercedes and Lamborghini win at the ‘Ring in GT Masters
The slim 15-car ADAC GT Masters field was in action last weekend at the Nürburgring in support of the Truck GP at the fabled German circuit. The two races saw plenty of action and wins for Landgraf Motorsport and Grasser Racing Team.
In Race 1, teenage racers Salman Owega and Elias Seppänen produced an impressive overtaking manoeuvre at the start en route to claiming their second victory within the space of a week. At the wheel of their Landgraf Mercedes-AMG GT3, they took win number two of the season with a 16-second margin.
Second place, making it a Mercedes 1-2, went the way of the Haupt Racing Team pair of Alain Valente and Ralf Aron. Maximilian Paul and Simon Connor Primm completed the podium in their Paul Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo.
On Sunday, GRT struck back, with pole-sitter Marco Mapelli and Benjamin Hites dominating, scoring the first victory for the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 in ADAC GT Masters competition. Second place went to BMW customer Project 1’s Sandro Holzem and DTM driver Marco Wittmann.
Team Joos by Racemotion’s Porsche of Finn Gehrsitz and Sven Müller completed the podium in third place. The duo in the Porsche 911 GT3 R lead the championship at the halfway point.
AKKODIS ASP adds second Mercedes to GT2 grid in Portugal
The Fanatec GT2 European Series is set to race at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve for the first time this weekend, on the same bill as the British GT Championship.
The entry for the weekend benefits from the addition of a second AKKODIS ASP Mercedes-AMG GT2, which will race in the Am field with Jean Luc Beaubelique and Christophe Bourret.
ADAC GT Masters images courtesy of ADAC
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