Barcelona, 20 – 21 October, 2018

The final two races in the International GT Open series were held at the Circuit de Catalunya over the weekend of the 20 – 21 October, with both the Team and Drivers’ Championships still to be decided. In the Team Championship it was a battle between 2018 newcomer to the series, the American team Luzich Racing with their Ferrari 488 GT3s, and the Italian team Imperiale Racing with their Lamborghini Huracan GT3s. The Drivers’ title was mainly between Luzich Racing’s Danish driver Mikkel Mac, as his team mate Alessandro Pier Guidi had missed one of the rounds, and the duo of Andrés Saravia and Fran Rueda in their BMW M6 GT3 entered by the RACE/BMW Team Teo Martin, with the team also still being in with an outside chance of the team title, should either of the two main contenders fail to score.

In the first race Imperiale Racing took the initiative in the team title race with a 2nd place finish for their # 63 Lamborghini of Venturini / Mul, whilst Luzich Racing’s Ferraris finished 6th and 7th in the order # 51 of Pier Guidi / Mac and # 52 of Cioci / Griffin, whilst the best placed RACE / BMW Team Teo Martin, was the # 47 example of drivers’ title contenders Saravia / Rueda. The race win went to the # 12 Ombra Racing entered Lamborghini Huracan of Rizzoli / Fioravanti. A 3rd overall and PROAM class win for the # 20 Automotive Performance entered Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Pierburg / Onslow-Cole put them into contention for the PROAM title.

Race 2 saw Imperiale Racing wrap up the team prize, when their # 25 Lamborghini Huracan of Agostini / Breukers took the outright win, with the # 51 Luzich Racing Ferrari of Pier Guidi / Mac finishing 2nd, a fraction over 5secs in arrears after the 60 minutes race. Once again it was a PROAM class Mercedes completing the overall podium, this time being the # 36 Drivex School entered example of Hahn / Auer. With the # 47 RACE / Team BMW Teo Martin BMW of Saravia / Rueda only managing a 4th place finish, the Drivers’ title went to Mikel Mac, with his team mate Alessandro Pier Guidi finishing 3rd despite having missed the round at Paul Ricard earlier in the year.

In the PROAM division, a 3rd in class finish in race 2 for Pierburg/Onslow-Cole, which tied them on points with Ramos / Crestani in the # 27 Daiko Lazarus entered Lamborghini, gave them the title due to a better overall results average.

The meeting also featured races for the Euroformula Open, TCR Europe, Eurocup Formula.Renault and Alpine ELF Europa Cup series, with most of them also being title deciders for the individual series. In the Euroformula Open series, the Brazilian driver Felipe Drugovich had secured the title at the Monza round, but continued his dominant form with a pair of wins in Barcelona, making it 14 wins out of 16 races during the season. As an aside, 4th place in each race went to David Schumacher, son of Ralf and nephew of Michael, in his first single seater season, having just won the Rookie title in the German ADAC F4 Championship. Another Schumacher name to watch, as Michael’s son Mick won the 2018 Formula 3 European title. In the other single seater series in the programme, Eurocup Formula Renault, the win in the first race went to Christian Lundgaard, which netted him the Rookie title of the year and kept him in contention for the overall title. He needed to win the second race to claim the title, but he was just unable to catch Logan Sargeant, thus the Drivers’ title went to Max Fewtrell, who finished 4th in both races, claiming enough points to win the coveted series crown.

In the TCR Europe races there was a 32 car entry, encompassing an Audi RS3 LMS, Cupras, Honda Civic Type R FK7s, Hyundai i30Ns, Peugeot 308s and VW Golf GTIs. In the first race of the weekend Attila Tassi took a commanding lights to chequered flag win in his Honda Civic, leading to a four-way showdown for the TCR Europe drivers’ title in race 2, between Tassi, Mikel Azcona, Dusan Borkovic and Jean-Karl Vernay. As it transpired the battle became a two horse race after Tassi and Borkovic were eliminated in a first lap incident in race 2, with the race win going to Mike Halder in another Hell Energy Racing with KCMG entered Honda Civic, giving the team the Teams’ Championship title. Meanwhile Azcona drove a steady race to 8th overall in his PCR Sport entered Cupra, one place behind the only remaining title contender Vernay, which was enough to give the 22 year old Spaniard, in his first season of international racing, the Drivers’ title. In the Alpine Elf Europa Cup, victory in both races went to Nicolas Milan, but he lost out on the series title to Pierre Sancinéna, whose 4th and 3rd places respectively were enough for him to take the championship from Milan by one point.

Predominantly warm bright weather, apart from some overnight rain on Saturday, leading to a still wet track on Sunday morning, drew a good attendance to the meeting, reported as 21,000 spectators on the Sunday.

IGTO Race 1 Overall Podium
1st – # 12, Ombra Racing, Andrea Rizzoli/Damiano Fioravanti, Lamborghini Huracan GT3
2nd – # 63, Imperiale Racing, Giovanni Venturini/Jeroen Mul, Lamborghini Huracan GT3
3rd – # 20, SPS Automotive Performance. Valentin Pierburg/Tom Onslow-Cole, Mercedes AMG GT3

IGTO Race 1 PROAM Class Podium
1st – # 20, SPS Automotive Performance. Valentin Pierburg/Tom Onslow-Cole, Mercedes AMG GT3
2nd – # 333, Rinaldi Racing, Rinat Salikhov/David Perel, Ferrari 488 GT3
3rd – # 27, Daiko Lazarus Racing, Fabrizio Crestani/Miguel Ramos, Lamborghini Huracan GT3

IGTO Race 2 Overall Podium
1st – # 25, Imperiale Racing, Riccardo Agostini/Rik Breukers, Lamborghini Huracan GT3
2nd – # 51, Luzich Racing, Alessandro Pier Guidi/Mikkel Mac, Ferrari 488 GT3
3rd – # 36, Drivex School, Christian Hahn/Lucas Auer,Mercedes AMG GT3

IGTO Race 2 PROAM Class Podium
1st – # 36, Drivex School, Christian Hahn/Lucas Auer,Mercedes AMG GT3
2nd – # 96, Optimum Motorsport, Bradley Ellis/Oliver Wilkinson, Bronze Audi R8 LMS
3rd – # 20, SPS Automotive Performance. Valentin Pierburg/Tom Onslow-Cole, Mercedes AMG GT3



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